End of Week 1

This time last week I was doing my best to focus through the excitement that Nanowrimo had once again started for the year. This week I am staring at the screen at the end of week one having the usual panic attack I always seem to encounter at this time. I always seem to struggle when getting started each year.

I start with an idea I am thrilled to be writing but somehow the realization that I need to write fifty thousand words is always daunting and puts me in a fearful mood. I get so overwhelmed in spite of the fact that every year I have accepted the challenge I have managed to complete it and cross the finish line, in a few cases with time to spare. The book this year is quite different from the ones I have written in the past. That in and of itself could be contributing to the anxiety I feel about this project.

I have mentioned in the past that all of the stories I have done for nano were already quite established before I made the commitment. Never Give Up was started nearly a decade before I finally completed it, Breathe was originally a short story that I extended into a full length novel and Welcome To Syn was a story I had started developing almost a year in advance but came to fruition when the main character basically took over my mind insisting on telling me her story. The outline was without question the most detailed I have ever created.

The moment that I was, for lack of a better word, possessed by Peryphone Syntel the mother from Welcome To Syn, was also the moment that I came up with a plot bunny for a new book. I was inspired to take a closer look at the relationship between writers and the voices in our heads. Our characters take over telling us their stories. Because I love thrillers and suspense novels I wanted to write one myself and this book idea gave me the perfect excuse. Oddly I can honestly say that working on this book concerns me slightly.

Writers open ourselves up to our characters. Whether you believe that they are from other dimensions, figments developed over time and brought to life in our books or beings that truly do possess us the fact that we become a medium can be intoxicating but also scary. We feel what they feel, know what they think and our emotions become entangled with theirs. Channeling the characters from this book will be a challenge to say the least.