The Book of 1 Ariel by Aaron Quincy

The Book of 1 Ariel is one young woman’s journey in the afterlife. Ariel learns that she is to train to be an angel and it is an experience that is suprisingly near-human. It is filled with doubt, frustration, hope, fear, faith, and determination. Despite the title, The Book of 1 Ariel does not read like any book of the Bible. In fact, it is very modern and one of its true strengths is how much the reader connects with Ariel as if it were truly your his or her own experience.

The Book of 1 Ariel keeps you wondering what happens next and is a delightful read for anyone who ever wondered what it would be like to be an angel. Furthermore, it is a beautifully written heartwarming story for anyone simply curious about the possibility of life after death.

I could easily lose myself in hours of research at this point. For example, how does the store gets its stock? Are the comics delivered via the postal service? UPS? Boxes or manila envelopes? Is there a universal comic book delivery day each month, or do Marvel comics come out on a different day than DC Comics? What is the profit margin on these items? Should Harvey add some kind of online store to her business? And will any of this information be necessary to my story?

The truth is I don’t know, and I won’t know until the story is written. Right now my imagination fills in the gaps, and that’s as it should be. Because once I start the research, I know I’ll get sidetracked. That would hurt my story in two ways:

1) Distraction. You know how it goes. You Google “comic book store deliveries” and the next thing you know you’re reading articles about impending post office closings instead of writing your book.
2) I might be tempted to put unrelated and unnecessary information into my story just because I have it. That makes for a boring read, and nobody wants that.

So don’t fall into the first draft research trap. Write, write, write! Fix later. And hang in there, Wrimos! We’re on the home stretch!

———————–

She cracked open another box. This one was filled with X-Men comics. She started counting them, got to six, then looked up at me. “Well, if you don’t want to talk about yourself, tell me about your family.”

“My family?”

“Yes, Kara. Your family. Do you…have any brothers or sisters?”

“I have a sister. Mandy.”

She nodded and continued counting. “Okay. What’s she like?”

I shrugged. What was Mandy like? “She’s the baby of the family, so naturally she’s spoiled.”

“Naturally.”

“She’s uh…twenty-two. At least, I think she’s twenty-two.” I thought for a second. I had just turned thirty. Subtract three years… “I guess she’s twenty-seven. She lives in New York.”

“City or state?”

“Both.” She acknowledged the attempt at humor with a half-smile, but said nothing. “She does something arty. Dancing or acting, or some bullshit like that. And she’s sort of pretty.”

She tossed aside the empty X-Men box. It landed at my feet. “How is someone ‘sort of pretty’?”

“What I mean is that she would be pretty, if she–”

“If she hadn’t been hit by a car? If she’d been born with a nose?” She chuckled. “If her spiteful ex-boyfriend hadn’t thrown acid on her face?”

“What? No. Just…she’d be pretty if she’d do something with her hair.”

“So what you mean is that she’s pretty and she has messy hair.”

I nudged the box gently with the toe of my sneaker. It flipped over onto its side. There was nothing printed on it to identify that it had once held X-Men comics. Just a plain, cardboard box with a plain, white address label. Center Street Comics. It was a stupid name for a comic book store, a boring name. What about Kapow Comics?

Boff! Splat! Kapow!

I kicked the box, hard. Harvey and I both watched it sail through the air, then knock over a display of Batman mugs. Three of them broke. She turned back to me and grinned.

“That’ll be $26.97. Plus tax.”

Yesterday was Thanksgiving in America. We spent the holiday at my mother’s house, visiting and having fun and eating ourselves into a turkey coma.

I’m very fortunate, I realize. I’m not well-off financially by any means. My family lives paycheck-to-paycheck most months, and we even fall behind on the bills sometimes, but we have a home and plenty of food and clothes and two kitties. It occurs to me quite often that we’re only a serious illness or layoff away from not having those things, and that there are plenty of people this holiday season who will be going without not only a Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas presents, but actual necessities of life. I give what I can to local food drives and other charities, but it’s easy to feel powerless, and even useless, in the face of such overwhelming want.

You’re probably wondering what this has to do with National Novel Writing Month. It’s the Writing part. I know how much I love a good book when I’m having a rough time, whether it’s a thought-provoking literary work, a gut-wrenching drama, or escapist fun. I love being able to inhabit worlds other than my own, to live for a few hundred pages inside someone else’s life. Every page of a good book is like a gift. And when I’m writing, I’m fully aware of the potential my words have to convey that gift to someone else, to give something good to someone who may be struggling. Even when that writing is done during the supposed pressure-free, output-heavy month of November, that idea never leaves me. I know it’s not very NaNoWriMo-like, but I can’t help it.

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving, and that the holiday season is a happy one as well.

It’s funny how the subconscious mind works.

Some of you may know that, prior to NaNoWriMo 2011′s start twenty days ago, I’d been working on my second novel, The Wendy House, for a very long time. As in years. There have been several starts and stops, shifts in narration and points of view, and do-overs galore. In short, the damn thing has been giving me trouble. Writing it has been like trudging waist-deep through thick, March mud. In sharp contrast, writing my new NaNo Novel has been like…I dunno. Swimming through a clear, mountain stream? Or something like that? (Don’t judge me. I’m saving all my good metaphors for the book.) Let’s just say I’m not struggling with it. To be honest, it’s been going so well that I considered scrapping The Wendy House in favor of this new book. It’s true. And then a weird thing happened. Rick, my protagonist from The Wendy House, showed up at an A.A. meeting in my NaNo Novel.

My first instinct was to kick him out. I’ve been dealing – unsuccessfully – with this dope for years now. He doesn’t want to behave in his own novel, so why should I let him infest this one?

“You don’t belong here,” I said, with an imperious wag of my finger. “Shoo!”

But upon further reflection, I realized his presence made sense. My new novel is set in Westville, Maine, the fictional town where Rick resides. Rick, too, is an alcoholic, with a history of falling off the wagon. Why wouldn’t it be plausible for him to show up at Kara’s meeting? And what harm would it do to chase this little plot bunny for a page or two?

NaNo Novel is set in the present day, nearly five years after the events of Rick’s novel. Although I know how his book ends, I’d never thought that far ahead into his future. But here I was compelled to do just that, and it helped to clear away some of the mud I’ve been trying to write through (or something like that) for the past few years. And now, for the first time in a very long time, the idea of working on The Wendy House seems exciting to me. I’m looking forward to finally finishing it once NaNoWriMo is done.

I don’t know if Rick is going to appear in this new book again. I’m thinking he won’t. His presence may not survive the first draft. But I’m glad he showed up because [something about a clear, mountain stream]. And such.

You may remember that I started NaNoWriMo “armed with nothing more than two vaguely sketched main characters, a setting, and a boatload of coffee.” It turns out one of my characters was a little less sketched than I thought.

I started out with a Kara, a woman recently out of rehab, and Willard Harvey (Kara calls him Harvey), a guy who owns a comic book store. I wasn’t exactly sure what their relationship was going to be, only that it was going to stay platonic. At around the 15,000 word mark, I realized that the relationship between these two characters would would work better if Willard was a woman. Firstly because I decided he would be Kara’s AA sponsor, and opposite sex sponsorships are generally frowned upon. Secondly, I think the character dynamic is better this way. So Willard Harvey is now a woman named Winifred Harvey. She still owns a comic book store. And Kara still calls her Harvey.

In spite of that fairly monumental change – or perhaps because of it – the writing is flowing along well. I’ve got a cast of secondary characters fleshed out and the story sometimes feels like it’s writing itself. The downside to finding myself so immersed in the story is that I’ve been neglecting certain important aspects of my real-life. For example, it’s 1:30 on Monday afternoon and I’m still wearing my pajamas. I have the worst case of bed head mankind has ever seen, the sink is overflowing with dishes, and the only food I’ve consumed is a candy bar and four cups of coffee. My only consolation is that my protagonist’s life is a bigger mess than my kitchen. At least she’s showered today. But when the words are flowing, you gotta go with it.

Hazel says, "Are you writing, Mama?"

Current word count: 15054

In Monday’s column, I told you that I was 500 words behind schedule, but confident that I could make up the deficit gradually during the week. What happened is that I had a sudden burst of inspiration and got in a little over 2400 words. Even more importantly, the plot finally gelled. Whoo hoo!

Then came Tuesday, which was a busy day for me. It was voting day (yeay democracy!), I had some important errands to run in Bangor (during which I got lost), there were school conferences for all three of my teenagers, and it was NCIS night…yet I still managed to reach my daily word count goal, with even more plot-gelling goodness.

And then came Wednesday. I couldn’t seem to write a thing. There were just too many…distractions.

Distraction #1: Hazel, my very adorable cat. She has a tendency to hide out around the computer when I sit down to write. And when she does, how can I not pick her up and cuddle her and pet her and talk with her for awhile? It’s just not possible. Is it, my fuzzy kitty cat? No it isn’t, Hazel Kitty. No it isn’t.

Distraction #2: The late astrophysicist Carl Sagan. You heard me right. Wednesday was Carl Sagan Day. I didn’t know about that until one of my Facebook friends posted something about it (oh, that’s right…I was on Facebook. I guess that should be Distraction #2 and Carl Sagan should be #3), but once she did it reminded me of how much I love his 1980 13-part PBS series, Cosmos. And I remembered that the entire series is free to watch on Hulu. So I watched parts one and two. The good news is that it gave me an idea for my novel, a pretty good idea. I was so excited about the new idea that I emailed a friend about it, describing it in great detail. And then I…

Distraction #4 …did some housework.For an hour and a half. Instead of actually writing the ‘pretty good idea’ into my novel.

And that’s when I had to take a deep breath, put down the mop, and start writing. It was difficult. The 1400 words didn’t flow easily and it wasn’t my finest work, but I passed the 15000 mark. Plus I still think the basic idea is a good one and can be hammered into something great in the days to come.

I honestly don’t know why it was so hard for me to get motivated on Wednesday. Maybe it was burnout or exhaustion, or maybe I just wanted a day to do Whatever. And maybe I deserve a day like that. I’m pretty sure I do. But it’ll have to wait until December 1.

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I’m no stranger to this problem, by the way. Last year my fellow Paper Rat, Kristen Tsetsi, and I devoted an entire episode of Inside The Writers’ Studio to writer distraction/procrastination. You can watch it below. But then get back to work!

You heard me right.

I’ve been sick for about two weeks, and a trip to the doctor’s informed me that I have bronchitis. In spite of this, I had to work this weekend. I still managed to write, but I didn’t get my 1667 words per day in. The truth is I need my sleep in order to get healthy again, and I intend to get it. What I’m not going to do is worry about my word count, because I have a plan to get caught up that won’t tax my health or my sanity. Instead of freaking out about the 500 words, I’m going to break it down. I can easily add an extra hundred words per day to the next five days and be caught up by the end of the week. Doesn’t 1767 words for five days sound better than 2167 in one day? I thought so, too.

If you fall behind during NaNoWriMo, for whatever reason, I suggest you follow this plan. 1) It’s a lot less stressful to make up lost words gradually, and 2) you’re more apt to keep plugging away if you’re not feeling overwhelmed. If you feel like you’ll never catch up then you never will, because chances are that you’ll give up.

And if you, too, get sick during November, remember to take good care of yourself. It’s okay to get behind. Rest up! Heal! But also keep a notebook and pen handy for sudden bouts of inspiration. Don’t underestimate the affects of medication on the creative mind. I wrote some of my best stuff for my first novel while tripping on Cherry Nyquil. Maybe you will, too.

There are two basic ways to approach writing a novel: 1) Start with an outline or 2) fly by the seat of your pants. I’m a flyer, baby. A flyer! Without a net.

I sat at my computer at midnight on November 1 armed with nothing more than two vaguely sketched main characters, a setting, and a boatload of coffee. Here it is a little after midnight on November 3 and I have a pretty decent first sentence and I know exactly how this book is going to end. I even have a general idea of what the creamy filling in the middle is gonna taste like. How did I get there?

I took away the pressure.

I think the biggest obstacle in starting a novel is the pressure to find that perfect first sentence, the pressure to write immediate brilliance. This is what makes NaNoWriMo a great project; it takes that pressure away. The first words I typed on November 1 were far from brilliant. I began by writing my recovering addict/alcoholic protagonist, Kara, out of bed and into the streets of fictional Westville, Maine. I paid particular attention to her clothes and surroundings, both inside her apartment and in the town itself. It’s kind of a boring read, in fact it’s really nothing more than a writing exercise. But in the process I discovered that she’s a slob, an atheist, and that her drivers’ license was suspended because of a drunk driving arrest. Those aren’t just character traits, they’re potential fodder for conflict and plot. After three pages I even had a first line:

It’s easy to be a drunk when you live in the city.

Chances are good that I’m not going to use most of what I wrote in those first three pages in my book, certainly not as an opening chapter (although I kinda like that opening line and may keep it). The information itself will be useful, though, so it all goes toward my word count. I’ve since started on the meat of the book and am very excited about how it’s progressing. But thirty days is a long time, and I know that the excitement of starting a new book will fade soon enough, and that many of those days will find me at a loss as to how to proceed. That’s when I’ll start another writing exercise. And I’ll count all of those words, too.

If you’re doing NaNoWriMo, whether you’re an outliner or a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pantser, you’re going to find yourself blocked some time this month. It’s going to happen. And when it does, going back to the basics with a writing exercise is a great way to take off the pressure and thus keep yourself and your story moving forward. Not just for the word count — although that’s fine, too — but because you never know what you’ll discover. And that’s what makes writing so much fun.

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Current bio: R. J. Keller lives in central Maine with her husband, their three children, and the family’s cats. She is the author of the novel Waiting For Spring, released by AmazonEncore in May 2011. She co-hosts Book Chatter with Stacey Cochran, an internet talk show that features interviews with authors and publishing professionals. An avid independent movie enthusiast, she was Managing Editor of The Movie Fanatic website and currently writes, shoots, and edits episodes of the writer-centric YouTube show, Inside The Writers’ Studio, with author Kristen Tsetsi. She enjoys rooting for the Boston Red Sox and watching other people cook.

This is not going to be one of those blog posts declaring the virtue or menace of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). You can find those all over the internet. Go ahead, Google it. They’re everywhere. And they’re boring. At this point, if you know what NaNoWriMo is, you either like it or you don’t*

Me, I love it. This will be my sixth year in a row of participation. I ended my first year with a very rough draft of what eventually became my first novel, Waiting For Spring. Subsequent years have produced two very different first drafts of what will soon be that novel’s follow up, The Wendy House; one navel-gazing yawn fest that will never see the light of day; and a semi-interesting alternate reality piece that goes nowhere, but that I may one day turn into a play. In other words, I have had mixed results with the content, but a hell of a lot of fun.

This year I plan to work on a dramedy that features a woman who’s fresh out of rehab and a guy who owns a comic book store. I don’t know all the details yet, but I do know that they’re not going to fall in love. My goal is to have something that I can mold into a novel. I’m feeling pretty confident about its chances.

Shannon kindly asked me to contribute a bi-weekly commentary about my progress. Every Monday and Thursday in November, I’ll share my joy and pain, my triumphs and failures, things both boring (like word count) and exciting (like…well, I don’t know what yet. But it will be exciting.). Some posts will be written, others in the form of video blogs, and all of it will be fun. Hope you stay tuned!

*For those of you who don’t know what it is, NaNoWriMo is a worldwide event in which participants strive to write 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days, ie the month of November. For more information, please see this page.