50,000 Words Day 5

Today flew. I completed my word count+ and added to my Savings Account of words written. Those for me to use in an emergency. The story is skipping between four generations and I have 76+ characters-most minor, incidental people but they needed names. That is a lot of names to come up with. I am glad that I made a name list before I started. I have already had to add to it. You can go through a lot of names when you need first, middle and last for both sexes. Even animals like the horses that they families owned. That is a lot! I have also drawn out a family tree of sorts to keep track of who is related to who. The story may have started out about my parents history but it has definitely taken a turn with only bare bones of the family peaking through at this point. Right now I have an unsolved murder and robbery, several family members that have no contact, unrequited love, jealousy, anger, fear,the whole range of emotions. It also spans four generations weaving back and forth. And so officially on Day 5 my word count was 1804 words, bringing my total for five days to 9206 words! The goal for Week 1 is 11669 so I am doing very well if I don't say so myself. Let me know what you think of this whole process. Am I crazy? By the way, I love quirky characters and I am starting to develop some very quirky ones in my novel-I will give you a short character description from Generation 3.

She hated Harriet! Hateful heavy, horribly haughty Harriet She should be over it. After all, Harriet's pretty blonde ringlets faded as she grew older. The ringlets turned to frizz and now she had bland blond hair that was a snarled mess. No amount of irons, creams, special recipes could untangle that mess of hair she had. She had refused to cut it, until mother forced her into a chair and tied her down. Mother cut fifteen inches of rats nest hair off of the back of her head. It had gotten to the point where it wouldn't even stay pinned up. Mother trimmed it way up to her shoulders, twisted the sides into three sausages on each side, did the back the same way and then wound three of them around each other. She ended up with three buns-back and both sides! It made her face look wide but at least the hair stayed in place. For all that however, Harriet stay behave like the little blond child with the perfect ringlets. Well hateful Harriet with her haughty manners had somehow snagged herself a beau. My motivation card from No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Batey,for today is called Borrow Mercilessly: One of the best ways to learn to do something is to emulate those whose work you admire. The treat (and task) for today is to drop by the bookstore and pick up a novel by an author whose voice you've always loved. Read the first few pages of your purchase before you start writing, and pick out the methods the writer uses to create the mood you find so appealing. Is it the folksy vocabulary and informal writing style? The electric buzz of clipped, declarative sentences? Of the poetic, lyrical style of flowing sentences and sensual adjectives? Whatever it is, borrow the elements you love and use them throughout today's writing session.