Writing... or pretending to write

There is no such thing as bad brainstorming.

Right? This is what I've been telling myself for months now. I (along with six or so others) have been brainstorming book/series titles. I've come up with I don't even know how many, but the vibes span from boring to gorgeous-blond-couple-holding-each-other-with-their-hair-blowing-in-the-wind book cover to creepy and irrelevant to sci-fi.

I do believe this is even more difficult than naming Ryan. Lovely.

I'm not sure if this is kosher for the authoring world, but I'm giving you (basically my friends on Facebook at the time I'm writing this post) a list of possible titles for Book One and taking any suggestions and judgments on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the whole light from heaven/angels singing bit). I'd love it if the title was spoken/read and makes me do this:


but I'm realistic. I know I'll probably just stumble a little bit. Okay, okay. I doubt I'll have any sort of physical reaction. But I will know it when I see it!

Beginning the month with just over 50,000 words, my goal for Camp NaNoWriMo was 80k. I am not going to make this goal. I will not deceive myself into thinking I will write over 2,000 words a day for the 8 days left in Camp.

Even though I'm not going to make it, I have been writing consistently. Okay, not really consistently in the sense that I'm getting exactly 1,263 words every day (this was a totally random number to be used in this example, don't read into that), but consistently meaning that I'm writing something every day.

On average (which is an extremely loose term, by the way) I've been writing at least 500. This is taking into account my actual getting-paid-for-it-now-workload, my weekends, the randomly awesome days that 2,500 words pour out, and the randomly awful days when those 2,500 really suck and get deleted.

If I keep this pace up, theoretically I COULD have a manuscript ready for editing by the end of May.

Say whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!

Not in a bad way, but in the "it's all downhill from here" kind of way. Wait, that's negative. Redefined: Going downhill is easier (not running, cuz that crap hurts your shins, but the coasting aspect of it on some sort of vehicle, dur) than going uphill or flat, and I think I might be there.


Of course, this is before reaching the point of editing and being told what parts suck and that I need to scrap 15 pages of work or something like that.

Sooooo, let's just call it like it is: I've gotten to the point in my writing where I'm going for the details, to make readers see what I see, to make it (as my lovely sister pointed out) so these characters aren't just talking heads. They are on a couch, drinking vanilla-caramel lattes sharing a blueberry scone that makes your mouth yearn to be eating that scone, sitting on a worn-out lumpy couch in a corner of a close-air, but not uncomfortably so, coffee shop with concrete floors that were painted so long ago only flecks of brown paint still exist up to the dark wood L-shaped counter littered with glass jars of handmade biscotti and 14-layer caramel cakes. (As any Statesboroian would guess, they are sitting in the Grind. Yum.)

Dammit. Now I want a slice of cake. It's a 14-layered party in your mouth.


I've got most of the conversations hashed out, and the plot is probably 80 percent finished. Okay, maybe closer to 74 percent. But Emily was right: They are floating heads named Amara, Ryan, and Donatus.

Ha! See? I told you I'd reveal names as time went on! They are no longer A and D and Ryan (beautifully named Ryan... wistful sigh), but Amara and Donatus. And they're wonderful people.

My next reveal will (hopefully) be the book/series titles. This has been almost as hellish as naming Ryan.

Buuuut, according to my sister and father, the Naming Angels might not be humming, but are at least clearing their throats. I'm just sitting here, waiting for Amara, Don, or Ryan to say something brilliant and beautiful enough to be the first thing that any reader reads.


Yep, just hanging out here. Waiting on a figment of my imagination to be a genius. This isn't a problem at all, is it?