5.12.08

Miriam's Isle

Miriam's Isle, Miriam's Isle.

It is a poem. It is a short story. It is an unfinished novel.

It is all written by me.

Do you know how some people (Stephenie Meyer, for example) write, like, a whole freakin' novel, then sweat over it and name it? Not me. It's like I need the title in place for the characters to speak up. Except for Clarabelle, of course. It could stay the same, but I probably need a new one. (Just a fun fact-- did you know that Clarabelle was originally supposed to be called, "The Lightning Driver"? My dream was a vampire that dressed up in a long blonde wig and a fake name, Beth, and was a racecar driver. It was a warped combo of Herbie Fully Loaded, Hannah Montana, and Twilight. I wonder what kind of Kool-Aid I had the night before.) Anyways, the name Miriam's Isle fell into place before Miria got her say and developed her fiery persona.
MI is the novel I began writing for NaNoWriMo, which I now believe is for desperate people with no jobs who can sit at home all day, type 23/7 and survive on coffee and chocolate. I couldn't do this because a) I have to go to school, b) I need to sleep, eat, shower, etc., and c) I'm not even allowed to drink coffee. It will stunt my freakish growth. (I am twelve years old and 5"5! And still growing, too!)
Anyhoo, NaNoWriMo went down the drain. So I gave up on the whole intriguing novel-in-a-month. Like, did I think that a stupid novel was gonna just pop out of midair? I was going to have to invest some serious work in that sucker. I was gonna have to make sacrifices.
Which is really not my thing.
So, instead, I did what any child would do: I whined to my mom. She did what any mom would do: gave me advice. (Except for the moms that give out punishments.) I took it gladly.

So, here's the deal...
Miriam's Isle is divided into five sizeable chunks. I sat down, invested an hour of sleep, and planned each chunk. Underneath the paragraph explanation of the section is STATUS and DEADLINE. I gave myself about two-and-a-half to three weeks per chunk. I know that sounds like a lot, but I do want a good-sized, well-written novel. And I am fairly incredible at procrastinating. Chunk #1 was completed three days ahead of sched, with about 7000 words. If I can do that five more times, that's like 35000 words! That is really not bad. I mean, NaNo pages were 50000 for a 175 page book. You know what? I'm only twelve. I wanna finish the dang book. Shut up.

It is with the blossoming petals of renewed hope in my heart that I set forth on Miriam's Isle with eager fingers and a fiery glint of determination in my eye.

Actually, my eyes are drooping. I should hit the sack.

(Anyone wonder where that stupid saying came from? What sack? Why do you hit it?)

See ya, fellow novelists. May all your characters be renounced.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey JC,
I completely agree that NaNo is quite the unthinkable challenge and as a fellow young novelist I see where you're coming from. I had in mind to try NaNo, but in the end found myself forgetting about it in becoming too consumed with my own book.
I really like your idea about seperating the story in different chunks and accomplishing one through a certain period of days, however for me, it's no so simple. In truth, when I get writing, I just can't stop, but sometimes the inspiration is there and other times it's faded. Furthermore, I enjoy peace and quiet while writing and unfortunately our computer sits right beside the TV where my dad spends a great deal of his time with the volume unreasonably loud.
I will try though. I finished Autumn Rider draft one in the summer when my parents spent most of their time elsewhere so perfect serenity came easily, but my second draft is at a standstill and I am not waiting till next summer to get somewhere with it!
Anyway, best of luck with Mirians Isle. I know it'll freakin' rock and I can't wait to hear more about it.

jaecy bells said...

Thanks. And I think I kind of know what you mean, by inspiration coming in chunks. Sometimes, I will sit down and write one thousand words, or else I will sit down and write three paragraphs in an hour. It all depends. I try to write at least once a day. It's not always really flowy, but at least I can do it in peace and quiet. I'm lucky enough to have a sluggish but usable computer in my room, so I can write freely. Lots of times, I get my best ideas while lying in bed trying to fall asleep. I ended up getting one of my many unused notebooks and employing it as a nightly ideas book. I have random paragraphs scribbled all over there. Some of them are paragraphs that look like I chopped them out of some (more mature kind of) novels, when really a random scene wrote itself in my head, not a book I was writing but an unknown character facing unknown challenges. It's really weird to look back on, but maybe I can use them some day.