Larocque and Roll

NaNo 2006 Day 1: There’s no room for a naughty milkmaid on a spaceship! November 1, 2006

And so, let the insanity begin for another year.

The weeks leading up to this haven’t been all that productive. I wasn’t really sure where I was going with the story until this past weekend, when I finally broke down and read last year’s story, so at the very least I’d remember my character’s names. It turns out it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, which is the fear that had been holding me back. I’d forgotten about the running joke with the spanner. I’d forgotten about the crazy fortune-telling gypsie woman. I’d forgotten about the dares I accepted - one must have been to name a fruity drink after the blog Little Green Foosballs, because one of my characters is drinking a Little Green Foosball in a drag bar. (And I’d forgotten about the scene in the drag bar.)

The other reason it hasn’t been productive is that I haven’t felt much like writing. It’s not a lack of topics* - it’s a serious lack of… how do you call it? Energy. Ambition. Something like that. By the time November 1st rolled around last year, I had three single-spaced pages of notes and outline. This year, all I have is what I managed to scribble down between trick-or-treaters last night**.

Last night was also the kick-off party for the North Bay NaNo group (…represent!), which was a blast. There are over 20 of us, easily, including a mother-son team. Thursday afternoon there’s a write-in, and I’d really like to go, even though it’s on the campus of the university (and even though it’s not a big city, I’m not sure where it is.) When I got home, I could barely keep my eyes open, but managed to hang on until midnight, when I pounded out my first 400 words before giving into slumber. This morning, I got up and managed to write a little more while listening to my carefully selected playlist, until I hit Snow Patrol’s “Run”, which seemed to capture the feeling of the scene I was writing. I put it on continuous play, and 19 consecutive listens later*** I almost have the first scene, but even more importantly, I have some idea of where the story wants to go. It’s not about what I want to write, it’s about where the characters and the story and the ideas want to take me.

If you’ll excuse me, I need 200 more words to reach my daily quota.

* A brief overview: Hiro is adorable, I’m kitting a sock, I carved a pumpkin, I had a great weekend last weekend, people say the craziest things, and I like Leonard Cohen songs as done by other artists.

** My hands-down favourite trick-or-treater was the tiny dragon, who growled at me when his father asked him, “What do you say to the nice lady?”

*** I’m able to listen to a song or a CD repeatedly without getting terribly sick of it. It’s just a personality quirk.