One Sentence

Last week, I won NaNoWriMo...and then promptly closed my story and didn't open it again until today. I printed out the first 10 pages in an effort to kick start the editing process. I sat down to read it and get going, but after reading the first paragraph, I sighed and got up from my desk.

I think it stinks.

It sucks.

No doubt about it.

There is one sentence I highlighted that I really like. I think that is the one sentence that may stay. One sentence, 15 words, out of 86 single-spaced pages, 50,115 words. And I wrote that sentence, I think, day 1 or day 2 of NaNoWriMo.

The beauty of NaNoWriMo is that you write to write. You write, don't worry about how the story is being written, and write some more. The little voice in the back of your head is silenced. Which is nice because that voice is a real jerk.

Now, the voice is back, which is also nice because I can be a really crappy writer and the voice puts me in my place. And the voice hates what I just wrote. Mainly because there may be no conflict and the original story I set out to write somehow disappeared (those people who suggest having an outline before NaNoWriMo may know what they are talking about). The voice likes the idea of keeping the characters, but wants me to sit back and really think about my "voice".

For some reason, when I write short stories/novels/fiction, I become a really blah writer. The poetry, the musicality, the creativity that exists in my other writing gets lost. I lose words and suddenly I use the same phrases over and over and over again (though, to be honest, I probably do that in my plays and poetry too sometimes...). That is a problem. The language present in my plays and poetry is nonexistent. It is like my brain switches over, goes onto another track. I want to stay on the play/poetry track while I write a short story/novel. My brain doesn't get that.

So all I've done is opened a new document, copied and pasted that one sentence I like (which I like because it has the poetic element I want), and sat staring at the screen. I don't know if this story is meant to continue, be rewritten, or stay as-is.

To be continued...