While not officially participating in NaNoWriMo, I bravely (or stupidly) announced a plan to complete the first draft of Wide Awake by the end of the month. I thought, if my fellow writers are going to be hustling and struggling, I should use it as motivation to do the same! Everyone needs a good kick in the pants now and again, right?

Well, we’re officially one week into the month and I can report only one positive thing… I outlined every chapter of the damn book. I had already written a smattering of scenes I felt particularly excited about, but the timeline and in-between bits were mostly a mystery to me.

For those who read Lucid Dreaming, it may not seem like there’s much more story to tell, but I didn’t actually reveal the truth behind all of Quinn’s secrets yet. Readers still don’t know the cataclysmic event that lead to Quinn’s current, unorthodox living and working situation… and it’s a doozie! (How the hell do you spell doozie? And WTF is a doozie?)

Every time I sit down to write I think I’m ready to make magic fly from my fingertips. Then I start playing with my hair or petting my cat or getting up to pee thirty times or checking my Twitter or eating discount Halloween candy…. Yeah. The magic doesn’t seem to be happening.

It’s not for a lack of ideas and it’s certainly not because I don’t feel passionate about the story or characters. I don’t know what it is—but I know I’m not alone. All over Twitter the cries of agony and despair from suffering writers can be seen. WRITING IS FUCKING HARD, PEOPLE. Don’t let anyone ever tell you it’s not. If someone tells you it’s not, they’re not doing it right.

So for the last two nights, knowing I had to at least to do something, I started writing really, really shitty stuff just to get words on “paper”. You know, stuff like…

“She stepped outside and it was cold. She hopped in the car and drove to the supermarket. She hoped she wouldn’t see anyone she knew, because she wasn’t dressed well. She went straight to the bread aisle and plucked a loaf from the shelf.”

YOU GET THE IDEA. Cut and dry shit, sans flair and description.

I’m not proud of it, but I think it might be better to put down a framework than nothing nothing at all. I do enjoy “re-inventing” what I’ve already written, so sometime in the future when I’m not feeling so blah, I’ll come back to the “See Spot Run” writing (as I’ve dubbed it) and jazz it up. Hopefully that “sometime” is IN NOVEMBER.

I end this little entry with a huge GOOD LUCK to all the NaNoWriMo folks out there, and to all writers in general busting their ass to make it in this industry. XO!