Prepping for NaNoWriMo: One Thing Leads to Another…

WARNING: THIS IS GOING TO BE A LONG, LONG POST. I’M TALKING FROM GERM OF THE IDEA TO THE FIRST HINT OF CHARACTERS. ALSO THIS IS MY PROCESS. YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY.

Most times the little goodies the Girls in the Basement send you isn’t exactly marked on the calendar. So around the same time I decided to only write contemporary romance, I got an idea for a Women’s Fiction. It was one of those prettily wrapped nuggets of an idea. I could see the catalyst and the plot. This story would be funny, but dark.

That’s just it though, the story wasn’t a story, but a seed of an idea, a glimmer of plot. You can write a story with this much, but I put it away to see what would happen. Kind of like taking the seed and burying it in rich soil where it’ll get just enough nourishment. If it survived those harsh conditions–Me, not writing the idea and nugget down. Leaving it all up to my memory–then I’d come back to it.

Every month I’d see something, hear something and it’d make me think of that Women’s Fiction idea–watering it and giving it a little bit of sunlight–You know the Women’s Fiction idea that gets me excited every time I let myself think about it.

What I didn’t realize when I planted that seed was that stupid seed was really a vine. One that needed something to hold onto, but I was letting it go wild. And trust me it was getting everywhere. Writing the first draft of Lynne’s story, here goes a pesky tentacle of the vine from that Women’s Fiction. Editing Everything You Need, oh, there’s another one.

So, last week I gave in and created a wall where this stupid vine could grow. The inevitable next step was to get bits of dialogue. This is where my process of writing a book truly begins. I don’t know who my characters are until they talk to other characters. Now they can talk to me for months prior to this point and still I can ignore them on some level. They are only figments of my imagination. But when they start to grab other people and start talking…well, I love to eavesdrop.

So who did this nameless character talk to? The Grim Reaper. Yeah, from the initial seed I knew this story would have a hint of paranormal to it. But The Grim Reaper. Oy. And because of this, and the fact I like to make a secret joke when it comes to character names, I dubbed this character Desi as in Desdemona the character fated for Death in Othello. Oh, and there’s a hero who at this point hasn’t been named, but I can see him from my heroine’s POV. I don’t even think she really talks to him, but lust after him. But I’m leaning towards neighbor instead of co-worker…

And this is when those pesky vines start to climb up that wall, because I now have character. Or at least a sense of one. Most people get character first, then plot. This route, to me of course, is equivalent to putting out an audition for a play. You get a cast of people together who you get a good sense of and they somehow fit together. Then you go write the script for said play. *twitch, twitch* Instead I already have the script and I know I’m looking for someone who is squandering their life away on a misguided belief of eventually.

I’ll eventually go on that trip to Paris I’ve always dreamed of. I’ll eventually fall in love when the time is right. I will appreciate this person in my life eventually because they will always be there.

So from finding my plot first I knew I could weed out all the characters who are adventurous, but might need to settle down. Characters who don’t let their vacation hours stack up like stock chips to be cashed in at “some point”, but who still aren’t complete. The characters who have loved and loved deeply no matter the outcome. I know they are wrong for this role. Plus it’s NANO. I don’t have time to meander around for thousands of words exploring what would be the worst thing to happen to this character. I have the plot and catalyst I KNOW dying is the worst thing to happen to this character. And I know that truly living that no holds bar type of life is even more scary than death.

Did I mention this story has The Grim Reaper?

Anyway, I know have a general idea of what’s going to happen within the story. Even though CHARACTER comes last in this post, doesn’t mean I’m anywhere finished with finding out more about them. I’ll talk about the next step tomorrow. There might even be a list. Stay tuned.

Questions about any part of the process so far? How do you prepare for NaNo?