No Turning Back

So I didn't write a post on Saturday. You might have noticed. I only noticed at 12:30am on Monday.

Now, normally, I'd write a post, backdate it, and pretend it was there the whole time. But not today. Today I thought I'd just move on and start writing Wednesday's post.

And here we are.

I intended to spend 30 hours revising my story in April. I did not. I thought it would be easy. It was not. Sure, that's just one hour a day, but I'm lazy and not particularly motivated. I want the book to be done, and be good, but it's so god damn hard getting there. Since, you know, I'm lacking 60% of my plot. And everything I do write is crap.

On the bright side, at the very, very end of Camp NaNo, I may have finally figured out the most important, most burning question in my revision notes: Where the fuck are they going?

I realized, it's not the final destination that matters. I mean, yes, they should have a plan, maybe they're going to… St. Louis or something. But that's not what's so important. That's not why they keep going.

Wasting My Time

I thought I'd get a whole bunch done over the weekend, but, well, things happened, and really all I did was make a fancy little timeline for The Long Road. Which might seem like progress, but really, it's just the very beginning, the bit I already knew. And it's not really a traditional timeline of events, not like a plot arc or anything. It's more a depiction of literally which timeline the characters are in at any given moment.

Here, look.

Something to Believe In

I have found religion.

Okay, well, not me, but my character. Andrea. I had all these little bits and pieces about her, and they suddenly all made sense when I gave her a Christian upbringing. Like, there was something in her backstory that, well, technically didn't happen, but it almost did, and she'd just as soon forget about the whole thing. I was never quite sure why. Whether it happened or didn't, it wasn't wrong. Unless you've got some traditional values. Also, this kind of explains why she is one of six children. Not to say that Christians have the monopoly on large families, it just seems like it's more common.

This is a new thing for me. I've been writing NaNo novels since 2010, and a good handful of short stories before and after that. And I don't think I've ever had a main character (or a character who was in more than a scene or two) who was religious. It's going to be an interesting thing to write. I'll try not to offend anybody, but I make no promises.

This revelation has made me realize that my three characters fall on a spectrum of Purity vs. Corruption.

Music for the Road

I've been thinking of all kind of interesting ways to divide a story. Chapters, sure, but that's so… ordinary. One thing I wanted to do with The Long Road is to group the chapters into sections named after road feature. Like "dead end" or "hairpin turn." I don't know if that's going to work, but it's a thought.

Another thought I had was to break up it up by the song that's playing at that moment of their road trip. But that would make for very short sections and is probably not a very good idea.

I have been thinking about road trip music, though. Each of the characters is going to have their own musical taste, just like real people. And sure, there's bound to be some overlap, with some bands or genres that everyone likes. But then maybe one person really likes Nine Inch Nails and no one else really gets what the big deal is. So then you have fighting over control of the radio.

Re-Beginning

I realized that in my last post, I said that the word counter filtered out words like "it" even though "it" appears in the last line of my abstract "poem." The site claimed that, not me. So someone is confused. (Hint: it's me.)

But moving on.

I've started rewriting the beginning of The Long Road as part of my revision process. I still don't know what cargo area of an SUV is called, and am still calling it steerage. This will continue, more than likely. Anyway, there was a whole thing about Tony being late and getting coffee that I've kept and altered, because it shows that he's kind of a dick and only out for himself. I think I could come up with myriad ways why people wouldn't like him, and why his family abandoned him (I'm kidding, they left because they’re also selfish assholes). The challenge is going to be convincingly showing why anyone would want to be friends with him. What are his redeeming qualities? What makes him likeable? Why the hell does he speak Russian?

All good questions. Some may one day have answers.

Talk About Looking Back

I decided to see what the most used word was in each story I wrote, for shits and giggles. I ran The Long Road through Word Counter and got a piece of abstract poetry.

Jesse, Tony

Andrea said back

Look, just go

Ask around down

I know, get road town

Don't turn door

Fuck time!

What did sheriff one-something

Over hand think happen?

It didn't

It goes on like that. Pure nonsense.

Beginnings Are Hard

Revisions are going slowly. The problem lies in the fact that I don't know even the basicest of information about anything. Like the fact that basicest is not a word. Most basic.

I don't know where they’re going or why. I don't know where they're coming from. I've changed my word goal to an hour goal so all of this pondering and planning can at least count for something. I need to get my shit together, seriously.

I told my washing machine that they were doomed from the start, but I can no longer remember why.