About Ten Years Ago ...
Ten Years Gone—Part 1
A friend of mine asked me if I’d ever heard of National Novel Writing month. This was, mind, ten years ago. Actually, I still have the email, so I can tell you precisely when it was. It was October 26th, 2013, and it went like this:
I know you enjoy writing from time to time - have you ever participated in Nanowrimo? I’m gearing up to do it this year for the first time. I’m sure it’ll be a huge learning experience but I’m looking forward to the challenge.
nanowrimo.org if you don't know what it is.
To which I replied:
That’s awesome that you’re doing this!
It’s an average of about 1,600 words a day, which is doable for me. I’ll confess I’m intimidated. I haven’t had an idea in a while, and I’ve always been more of a short writer than a novelist. But I’m intrigued and I’m gonna think it over. In any case, I’m glad you’re going for it.
Thanks for thinking of me and for sharing :-)
T
That’s how it started, everything you see (and don’t see) sprawling out from these newsletters and in the books and formerly on Ello.
As I said to my friend, I was intimidated.
So I told my wife about it. I don’t have an email of what was said, but it went pretty close to this. We’ll call her Lila for consistency, even though that’s not really her name.
“Well do you want to do it?” That’s Lila.
“I mean, kind of?” That’s me.
Then I was more honest: “Yes, I do.”
“So why don’t you?”
“I’ve never written a novel. I’m a short story writer. And I haven’t written one of those in a while.”
I had started a few novels, but let’s leave that aside.
“Well if you were to try,” Lila asked, “how would you do it?”
“Shit, I dunno. I guess I would break it into three parts to make the size feel more manageable—kina like a three act structure sort of thing. And I would make the first part like a fishing net, where I’m just trying to catch all the ideas I can. Then the second part would home in on one of those plots, like something I found in the first part. And then the third part would more or less wrap it all up.”
When I finished explaining, I looked up and saw her smiling.
“Sounds like you know how to write it,” she said.
I smiled, too, and said, “Yeah. I guess I do.”
Now, let’s be clear: That is not how it turned out. Yes, the novel is divided into three parts, but that’s where the plan ended. In fact, in many ways, I wrote three separate novels (or novellas, if you wanna be a length cop) that each inform one another. Or they’re meant to, anyway. Some people got it, and some didn’t. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
I had a plan how to write it, ten years ago. That’s how it all began.
