It's November 1st. Halloween is over. Darn. It's become one of my very favorite times of the year -- part of it is the gothic-ness of Halloween, part is the thrills and chills of horror movies (many of which are just horror-ble), whatever it is, I love it.
My family, as much as I love 'em, just aren't as into the creepy stuff as I am. I'll admit, as Thanksgiving approaches, I move towards the Christmas season and all that it holds, but right now, right after Halloween, I'm still in the midst of the lure of the dark. . . . LOL
I think the best part about this time of year is how easy it is to give myself the chills. It could be something as simple as the mist that hangs in the valley on my way to work, or the way the moon peeks out from behind the clouds on a dark night. My imagination runs wild.
It helps to inspire the writing too. Thanks to the boost in inspiration in October, I was finally able to finish the first draft of a spooky short-story. I've been trying to write it for the past few years, but never had it straight in my head. Thanks to Oct. (and a few wild dreams) I now have two more stories that I want to write in a similar vein. I think I'll place them in the same small town . . . hmm . . .
Which brings me to NaNoWriMo. No, I'm not participating, per se. I've wanted to take a part in it each year since I've become aware of it, but I just don't have the time to devote to writing every day. I should. I know I should. I picture my mother with her wooden spoon waving it at me saying "get your tush in that chair and write, mister!", but I don't. Instead, I think. I may not physically write, but I'm still stirring the pot of ideas in my noggin. I pull one idea out, play with it for a bit, and then file it away again until I either play with it again or I start to write it down. Either way, it seems to work for me.
I'm a very visual person, normally, so I tend to "see" the scenes long before I actually start writing. It helps me to figure out what tone I want to convey, or if the scene even works. It's kind of like storyboarding without the actual storyboards . . . if you get my drift.
So, here's to those who are doing NaNo this year -- I'm with you in spirit. And I'll get cracking on my short stories.
Oh, and I WILL be writing Tremain and Chrisopher 4 soon. It's all outlined, but I'm thinking about adding to it -- not sure yet. I'll have to see what happens as I write. What WILL happen for sure, though, is I will take my time. I think in the past 1 1/2 years, I've moved too fast and made some mistakes, blunders, oopsies . . . etc . . . in how I've released and marketed the first three books. So I'm going to slow it down and make sure I have all my ducks in a row before pushing that publish button.
In all, this will make for some good reading for you all and make me a happier author for it. LOL
Until next time . . .
Terry