So You Say You’re Writing a Book, Huh?

I’m going to be honest with y’all right write up front. I started writing a book for #NaNoWriMo and I have really no idea what I’m doing. I mean, the words are making it onto the screen (albeit not NEARLY as many as I am supposed to write a day) and I have the full, general concept in my mind, and even outlined on paper, but WOW.

I told some girlfriends while we were out the other night that I started this and they were pretty wowed too. I did not confess that I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with it all. Instead, I went with their enthusiasm and gave them the overall summary of what the book is about and they said they would of course read it. But how many people can I get to read my book just because they are my friends and know me? A few, I guess.

It’s so interesting too, to just sit down and let the characters form themselves. So yes, I am writing a fiction book. Purely from some ideas I had in my head that I decided to combine into one story. Some days when I sit down here, at my trusty laptop, I don’t really even know what is going to flow from my brain to my fingers. It’s kind of strange to think about it, but I guess that’s the way it works for most writers.

In all honesty, I think many people will like the story and even enjoy my writing. I may not be the best writer on the planet, but I am good one. And to me, part of this writing thing is believing in yourself. No, not everyone is going to care for it or want to read it. It is going to cater to a certain audience (someone like myself) and someone else might think it’s complete crap. However, I believe it is worth me writing it, if for no other reason, than to prove to myself that I can.

So, maybe in the end, I do sort of know what I am doing. I mean, everyone has different ways of going about things. My outline is a on a piece of notebook paper and written in pencil. There are a bunch of names of characters, and arrows pointing to different names and their connections, and a story evolving every time I sit down and think about all of them. And I can see them in my head, like how you picture the characters in a book you are reading, and then vow not to see the movie, so then your idea of it may be ruined by the actors they use.

Man, I am jumping the gun. All the sudden my barely-written book is a movie.

Good to have aspirations, I guess.

I’ll keep y’all posted on how it’s going…