Day 15: 10,032 words

The novel has finally crossed that point from an indefinable experiment to a focused and coherent story; one with a main plotline, sub plotlines and details that have to be woven into the narrative.

For example, as I was writing the other night I found myself describing a scene in which the main character has to perform a complicated piece of magic. This led me to thinking about how he manages to do this magic, which led me to drawing diagrams, writing descriptions and definitions for different branches of magical arts that are present in the world I'm creating. I ended up with dictionary-like definitions of magic that I had never even thought of until five minutes previous.

And that's what I love about writing. The more I write, the more I discover that writing a novel isn't merely telling a story; it's fleshing out a world that might otherwise be unbelievable - the story itself depends on your ability to tell it honestly: to believe wholeheartedly in the existence of this world so that anyone reading it might, for a moment, suspend disbelief.

Day 8: 6,002 words

I'm about 2,000 words behind pace right now, but at the moment the only thing I'm thinking about is how well the story is going. This idea of being able to hop around has given my writing such a feeling of freedom that I didn't know I could possess before. If one section isn't working then i hop on another and try it out, if that section isn't working then I hop on another one (or if none are working I play some Super Mario Brothers on my phone). The story is going in a totally different direction than I thought it would; I feel at times like I am along for the ride, and it's one I'm enjoying immensely.

Day 5: 3,299 words

3,299 seemed like a nice round number of words to stop at. I actually arrived at a point in the story that I am really excited about so I figured it would be a good place to pick it up from next time. So far, I'm behind the pace, but I'm hoping that a few solid days of writing will help me pick it back up.

Day 2: 2,304 words

If the first day was a foray into the beginning of my work, then day two was a full-fledged exploration. I'll never cease to be amazed by the way the mind works; it's one of the reasons why I love to write.

As I started writing today, I had no idea how to continue the story that I was writing, but I simply forced myself to sit at the computer and begin typing away, and before I knew it, new ideas and actions were flowing onto the page from some nether region of my mind that had somehow been keeping these ideas away from me.

After about an hour today, the writing began to feel more natural as I began to question word choice and direction less and instead let the story flow. Excited about tomorrow.

FYI: the headline is a running count of the total amount of words in the book so far - not what I've written for the day. I'm not that amazing ;)

Day 1: 1,004 WORDS

Day 1 ends with a mild success. I broached the thousand word mark. My writing is usually linear - starting at the beginning and continuing until I reach the end, but today i found myself hopping around in the story, writing where it felt right (or is it write?). So it is that at the end of the first day I find myself with parts of the first five chapters. So far, so good.

National Novel Writing Month

Halloween is here, which means two things:

1) I'll soon be eating so much candy that I'll swear an oath to never let sugar touch my palate again, and

2) Tomorrow begins National Novel Writing Month

Right now I want to concentrate on writing a novel in the month of November (although i can't get the image of a candy bar drizzled sublimely in chocolate out of my mind...) Anyway, drooling mouth aside, Nanowrimo is a great way to not only write a novel, but to feel part of a larger community that is trying to accomplish the same goal

It's a time for me to put aside my perfectionist nature that basically cripples my ability to write for more than three sentences without questioning everything that came before (even now I'm thinking through this post).

The goal is to pen at least 50,000 words before the month is up. For you math wizzes out there that's about 1650 words or day, which is fairly ambitious by any measure.

That being said, Dickens used to write 2,000 words a day BY HAND! And Stephen King writes a novel every time he goes to the restroom. It's not impossible, just very, very difficult. Anyway, I'm putting my attempt out there. I'll try to update the blog with tidbits, chapter samples, and, of course, the word count. Anyone else up for joining?

Finals

There's a feeling in the air; a certain penultimate air of completion. Today I begin my finals. Though today is the only day where I actually have classes to attend, I feel like my real final will be on Thursday when I have to give my last observed lesson. And right now, I'm kind of drawing a blank.

When I think about how to teach something (in this case a short story) a million different things go through my mind: How do I keep the students engaged? How do I please my Cooperating Teacher? How do I please the observer? What do I actually want the students to learn? How will they learn it?

I never thought that it was easy work being a teacher, but now I think I found that some aspects of it are harder than I ever imagined.

In the back of my mind there is this thought that if this was actually my own classroom, would I be feeling this way? I don't think so. As it is right now I just don't think that I trust my instincts when it comes to teaching. Yet I feel myself growing as a teacher at the same time.

On a totally different note, had an amazing experience at church yesterday. The service at Cornerstone was half sermon, half worship service. The lesson was on prayer, which is something that is often neglected or just simply not understood. I realize that in my own life I don't pray enough, and if I'm totally honest with myself, I think that at times it's because I don't think that it accomplishes anything. That's totally false, but it doesn't stop those thoughts from arising when I've consistently prayed for something and it doesn't happen.

I don't know the answer to that; how to respond to unanswered prayer. But I do know this. That God's plan is significantly better than anything I could plan for myself. And so, I will pray in faith knowing that it might or might not come to pass, but that the Lord knows what is best. When I think about that I keep coming back to this passage in Daniel:

16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. 17"If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.18"But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up."

What I love about this passage is that these guys have such incredible faith in the ability of God to save, but at the same time they know that it is according to His will whether he does or not, but no matter what happens they know it will be the right choice because God does it (fyi God does save them from a toasty ending to their story)

That's how I think we should approach our prayer life; withe the faith that God can do above and beyond what we ask, but with the knowledge that he might do something totally different.