Pantsing It!

It certainly has been a long time.  I've been very busy with real life endeavors (moving and finishing up my MBA being the main contenders) and have had little motivation for blogging.  I have completed a few craftings, but I will have to post about them when I get the urge or motivation up to do so.  Hopefully that will change a bit this coming month. 

I stumbled upon a new noveling experience in March as part of the NaNoWriMo.  However, this was something a bit different.  Instead of the concrete goal of 50,000 words in a month, this one the author could choose a goal and was encouraged to commit to other things to be completed in a month.  It was the Camp NaNoWriMo.  I signed up for April, but never really got off the ground. 

Time passed and I finished out my grad schooling without really thinking about it.  Then, I got another email.  I remember that the Camp went two months: April and July.  So yesterday I decided that I wanted to get this novel that has been festering in my brain for four years out. 

Submitting my cabin settings, I pulled out a notebook and pen and started to write.  I've been reading through what I've previously written, but can already feel the different direction this is going to take.  It seems that the inital writing never got off the ground because I didn't like the way it started.  Of course it would have been nice to realize this.  Brain what were you thinking?

I can only summize that I wasn't ready to write this story.  It is one that is taking me in all kinds of new directions.  When I first started writing it (in 2009) I didn't really have much in mind except a concept around what would the world and humanity be life post a supervolcanos erruption.  This also begged the question of what set it off.  A dragon was the logical answer.  That being said, I didn't really have any characters in mind, just the setting and some vague notions about life and civilization.  With this Camp NaNo rewrite, I can feel my character forming more fully.  I'd had some idea about her, and a few others that were to appear, but nothing concrete. 

There is also something even more experimental for me.  I'm pantsing it.  Normally I write with some details outlined.  I've learned in the past (from previous NaNos) that my character rarely stick to the road I map out.  They really enjoy the detours.  That being said, I have no idea what is going to happen.  I never really had a plot in mind for this world, since the main question was about the world itself that led to the idea.  It should be interesting.  I'm flying by the seat of my pants or pantsing it as they say. 

The last thing that is very different from my norm is that I'm writing it by hand.  In the past it has been mainly on the computer with bits and pieces hand written as things come.  Thus they are normally written very out of order.  This one I am writing chronologically and in a notebook (or two...).  I haven't written a story to completion by hand since 1999.  I love the process and feel of a pen in hand and the paper beneath the tip.  There is something tangible and satisfying about handwriting something.  I decided to explore it after having gone to Neil Gaiman's book signing for The Ocean at the End of the Lane a couple of weeks ago.  He talked about his writing process and made me think about how much I miss the pen and paper aspect of writing.

As you can see I have a neat clockwork notebook (actually I bought two) that had been lying around my apartment.   It was a little too perfect since the story has a post-apocalypse steampunky feel.  That would also be why I have some steampunk reference material on hand.  Though, those are only two of many reference books I have on hand for when I get stuck and need an extra oomph.

I am very much looking forward to this month of writing.  I hope that I can reach my goal of 25,000 words and the challenge of handwriting the novel.  (Hopefully my hand and fingers will survive the exercise.)  Here we go!  Camp NaNoWriMo July 2013!