Larocque and Roll

Gearing up for NaNo 2006 October 25, 2006

While emptying a box on the weekend, I came across the notebook I’ve used in past years to record draft blog posts, short story ideas, plot ideas for previous NaNoWriMo attempts, and. . . poetry (*shudder*). It was interesting to see how I had planned for my story to continue once I picked it up again, and how cringe-worthy some of the ideas were. At this point, I’m torn between being curious to re-read what I wrote last year, and wanting to die of embarassment about what I wrote last year. Soon, either way, I’m going to have to reread it to remember (at the very least) what the character’s names are.

The other reason I was glad I found the book was because Giselle had sent me a link to the Snowflake Method of novel writing, and it’s a good resource for getting started. There are ten steps, starting with writing a one-sentence summary of the story, right up to editing the first draft. So I sat down last night and spent a good 45 minutes on the first step. It’s harder than you might think, really. At the end of that time, the page was littered with attempts that went one of three ways:

• “Blah blah blah… death!“
• “Blah blah secret blah blah kill for!“
• “The crew blah blah live long enough to tell?“

Who do I think I am? Bloody John Grisham? Robert Ludlum? I just have to keep at it until I get it down, and then move on to step two, which is writing a paragraph summarizing the story. Only, the thing that hit me last night was that I know there’s going to be some big huge secret, I just don’t know what it is. And since it’s (apparently) worth killing for and (apparently) important enough that people are willing to die for it, it’s gotta be a good one. I think maybe last year, I decided it was a weapon, but I don’t think it is anymore. Some other possibilities that have occured to me:

• the secret of how they get the caramel into a Caramilk bar;
• incriminating photos from last year’s Christmas party;
• the glowing contents of Marcellus Wallace’s briefcase*;
• The Kee to Bala**;
• a Shakespearian manuscript written by an infinite number of monkeys.

However, I’m open to suggestions.

*Gratuitous Pulp Fiction reference.

**The name of a famous bar in the village of Bala. Maybe it only sounds funny to me. But wouldn’t it be a cool name for a secret weapon?