Meg Dowell Writes

Oh COME ON.

It’s bad enough that they let me sign up for NaNo 2009 at the beginning of October (worst decision EVER, by the way). And now it’s two days away, still? After all this waiting and planning, outlining and failing to catch up on my lit reading, it’s still not here? I’m still not allowed to write about Anna and Jenny and Emma, and Melanie and Josh and Steph and Carly and Gina and Hank and Dylan? And that one character who I haven’t given a name to yet, because he’s such a big jerk? I can’t even write about him yet?

Dang.

This is so unfair. What am I supposed to do until midnight on Saturday? Homework? Well, I guess that’s a potential option, though not a very appealing one at the moment. I think all NaNo participants should get the entire month of November off of homework, or work in general. But in saying that I’m killing half the fun of writing a novel in a month, which is figuring out how to balance everything, on top of writing 50,000 words in thirty days. I survived last year…sort of. Barely. But I know what I’m doing now, so I’m good. I hope.

I’ve been on a NaNo high since the beginning of the week, when I finally got going on my outline. It’s actually not really an outline. It’s pretty much me summarizing everything that happens in the story, from beginning to end, so I don’t get stuck in the middle of November, wondering what the heck my narrator is going to do next. I like having no structure. There really isn’t any, because it’s MY novel plotting. I never show anyone my novel plots. They’re so disorganized, it’s scary. And I don’t SpellCheck. At all. You don’t know scary until you read something I’ve written that hasn’t been SpellChecked yet.

I’m already running low on Twizzlers, my NaNo food, and November hasn’t even started yet. Actually, when I say I’m running low, I pretty much mean I don’t have any. And there aren’t many people who give out Twizzlers on Halloween. So I guess I’m going to have to go to the store or something.

I hate the way time works. It’s stupid. It flies by when you’re having the time of your life, making you feel as if you didn’t get to enjoy the fun as much as you probably did. And when you’re sort of just going through the motions, not really doing anything spontaneous, time moves at normal speed, maybe even fast. But when you’re waiting for something you REALLY want, or something, it drags. And drags.

And it takes the clock FOREVER to move.

So I quit. I just quit. Saturday is going to be the longest day of my entire life. And then we gain YET ANOTHER HOUR sometime Sunday morning. Which means, in a nutshell, I either get an extra hour of writing time, or will have an extra hour to do some more waiting.

Despite my issues with every single clock I ever come in contact with, I’m happy to report that my story is really coming together. I finally figured out what happened between Jenny and that one character (who I really should name pretty soon) back during freshman year. And I named my fictional town Verstecken Falls, which you can try to figure out on your own, if you want.

And now my tummy says it’s time to eat. So goodbye for now, and remember: don’t EVER use incorrect grammar. Just don’t do it. Promise?

Love&hugs, Meg♥