Letter From The Front - Feb. 1, 2005

Well, Mom, I made it here in one piece. I know it's only the beginning, but when you hear the guys telling those scary stories about helicopters crashing into each other on the way over, you're actually relieved to get to the war zone. How's that for twisted?

Oh, wait. I'm not in Iraq. I'm still in California. Sitting safely, though tiredly, at my computer, penning a blog entry about my first day on the front lines of FebNoWriMo. Well, it's nothing like being in Iraq, I'm sure, so I won't even go there. (Cheers to you out there.)

But for my first day in the word wars, the view is still pretty good so far. Between the wee hours last night and some time today, I got a couple of good solid writing sessions in, for a total of 2,957 words. I wrote a couple of scenes, one completely, the other 95% complete. And then I wrote a little snippet of dialogue that will fit in somewhere in the book, just not sure where yet. Tomorrow, on Feb. 2nd, I'm sure I'll put aside this excited, scatter-shot approach and get down to the business of writing, grinding it out chapter by chapter. It ain't pretty, but it's the way I know to make sure that when you start reading Chapter 1 and and finish reading Chapter 28, you will have read a single, cohesive (if imperfectly told) story.

I especially like the way my book begins: "So, when you jumped out of the bushes, dressed like a clown and blowing a stadium horn, you didn't mean to scare her. You were just trying to show her that you love her..." Ha-ha. I don't think that one's been done before.

With the other pieces I've scraped together, I can already start to see a flow coming together for the book. I'm also pleased to report that I was much more relaxed with my main character today...I actually let him engage in conversation with a couple people. (When I started writing Asteroid Burn for NaNoWriMo 2004, I didn't even let the main character out of his own head for the first day or two.) Anyway, I'm playing it a little more fast and loose, letting my character drive the car a little bit. Feels good. Could be fun.

Well, Mom, it's late and it's almost lights-out. The blinking cursors will start falling again tomorrow, and we'll need our strength to fire back all the nouns, adjectives, and prepositions we can muster. Hope all is well back home. Give my love to everyone.

Oh, and P.S. Please send cookies. Even if it's those awful macaroons. I can trade them for cigarettes. Or better yet, a thesaurus. Rummy may expect us to write a novel with the words we got, not the ones we wish we had, but me and the boys can use all the help we can get out here. (Maybe you could buy some extra words on Ebay and send them to me? All we've got out here are some cheaply made pronouns and buckets full of useless acronyms --- Hey, it's the government, remember?)

Love,
Your boy