Introduction - Year Three

Kicking off Year Three of the blog... Here's the very first posting, updated for 2006.

This is the National Novel Writing Month weblog of Wes the Bricoleur. Or, for short, NaNoWriMo and YT (yours truly). The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000-word novel in the month of November. That's it! 1,667 words a day, every day, quality not even a consideration. Free Range Novelist chronicles my experiences during November, 2006. It will center on day-by-day writing plus some excerpts from my novel-in-progress. Maybe 10% of postings will ramble off into other topics.

The WriMo challenge is "just do it" writ large. The rush to put down 50K in 30 days strips away all pretense and inhibition. YT recommends it to any budding writer or anyone crazy enough to think he or she has some writing talent. Want the endorphins, too? Eat hot peppers while you write!

Why a blog on top of daily pages of novel to write? This is a way to let some "I-ness" out in the midst of so much "they-ness" writing in the characters' voices. If my Inner Editor gets too restless pacing in its month-long cage, it can exercise on a very short leash here.

Here are my rules for November: this blog is a place for honest observation and reflection. Like, or don't like what YT writes? Feel free to comment, all opinions are welcome. But I simply will not be bothered to get into flaming or catfights. YT hates comment spam - don't even bother. I'll write about other WriMos here, and in return expect to be fair game.

The original charter of Free Range Novelist was only a handful of words different from this, so I'll just keep going in the original spirit, but one year sadder and one year much wiser in the ways of the WriMo.

So. Here we go... enjoy November!

Forward to the 2006 novel !

But a handful of pine-seed will cover mountains with the green majesty of forest. I too will set my face to the wind and throw my handful of seed on high.

~ Fiona Macleod (a.k.a. William Sharp)

So, November 1 is now 5½ weeks away, and it's time to think again of all things NaNo. First, the quote. YT watched Almost Famous last night, which qualifies by his rules as related to writing. The writer's mother quotes Goethe to Russell, the rock singer who is the man William (the protagonist) can't pin down for an interview. Hunting for the exact wording of the quote, YT came across a better one, more apt for a writer. Fiona/William was quite a character, too, making your Brico bold to be his own self when setting words to the screen.

This year's muse gave the Bricoleur an epiphany on the road - dangerous at freeway speed! In the spirit of "write what you know," YT intends to put keystrokes to a "visionary," comic tale set in a recognizable, if cockeyed, present. Let's see what comes out this time... You, all of my three readers, are welcome along for the journey.

2005 Recap

Wow, it's been a long time since the last comment. Drunkard's Leap made it to 30,169 words, and not very far through the storyline. How come? YT claims, first of all, to have horrible amounts of work piled on him, leaving too little creative "juice" to squeeze out at the end of the day. Really.

In the ten months since, the work situation hasn't gotten any easier. Stress is a part of the corporate culture now, big time. That's a topic for a whole other post.

But what else? NaNoWriMo has taught YT that a number of things have to come together for the novel to gel. Primarily, the characters have to stand up on their own two feet. Lena and her cohort could walk (avoiding real plot development!) and Jump, but they never spoke for themselves. Ah, well, the idea is still a good one, but it's time to move on. Someday, Lena, someday you'll take your big leap...