Thursday, January 21, 2010

Rainstorms and Novels and Tea, oh my!

Wow, so the greater Phoenix area is a awash (literally!!) in the most ginormous rainstorm ever! It's been raining ALL DAY, roads are flooded, power lights are out—all that good stuff. And then I guess tonight we had a tornado watch, which is about the craziest thing I've ever heard. Tornadoes? In ARIZONA?? Weird. Still raining pretty hard and fairly steadily. I think I might need to invest in a boat if I want to go out tomorrow!

But at any rate. As of this evening, my novel is 5,757 words, and there's just one scene left to go until I'm ready for chapter three. I'm writing at a much slower pace than I usually do during NaNoWriMo, but I'm okay with that—I feel pretty good about what I have managed to get down on paper (well, Scrivener) so far.

What's really interesting is that I'm telling the story partly from the first-person point of view of my blind MC, and I'm having to learn different ways of describing things, focusing on textures and sounds and smells instead of the usual visuals. It's challenging to not even be able to say things like "He smiled," and to give a sense of a room's space without talking about green chairs or light flooding in from windows or whatever. I keep catching myself writing things that are absolutely impossible coming from my MC. I'm really enjoying his voice; he's technical, inquisitive, and feels quite at home with math (unlike me!). I'm excited to get to write more from my other MC's point of view in the next chapter.

Also, I think I drank about a hundred cups of tea today. I had one this morning, a small pot at White August Tea this afternoon (noveling during a rainstorm at an adorable tea shop = HEAVEN), and another cup this evening during lessons. I wonder if I'll get any sleep tonight. :-)

Rainily yours,

Joanna

ETA: Yep, definitely had too much caffeine. Tried to sleep, couldn't, so got up again and noveled until 3 AM. I'm now up to 6,236 words (and kinda tired, but you'll have that)!

4 comments:

sally said...

I just popped over from the blue boards. Your blog is gorgeous. I mean the background. The writing is good, too. :)

I'm just starting a new novel, too. I'm afraid I don't write as fast as you do, though. I wrote one chapter and then realized, "It can't work. It will never work. I won't ever be able to make it work." I do this about every two weeks when I write novels.

How about you?

Joanna Ruth Meyer said...

Thanks for visiting, Sally, glad you like the background! I nabbed it from pyzam.com, I think, 'cause I thought it was super pretty, too. :-)

Hooray for new novels! One of the reasons I'm so in love with the Snowflake method of outlining is it points out to you if your story idea is broken before you actually start writing the novel. Well, usually. In November I wrote 41,000 words of absolute drivel before I finally admitted to myself that it was horrible and I needed to STOP (which I did).

But at any rate. Good luck with your writing! Hope one of the ideas sticks!! :-)

J.A. Palermo said...

How exciting to be working on a new book, and a new character that really challenges your writing. And if writing in the rain works for you, maybe get one of those little fountains and take it with you wherever you go!

Joanna Ruth Meyer said...

J. A., Ooooh that's a good idea! I need me one of those fountain things—nothing but sunshine lately. :-) Thanks for the comment—new books and new challenges are just awesome. Now I need to stop procrastinating and go write!! :-)