Heckler

Although I'm still making good progress on the Vesta story (really need a title for this, but don't think it will happen until the end) I am beginning to hear that inner Heckler. "You should put more in about the story cards early on" and "You need more setup with the great aunt." So far I've been able to tell him to shut up. And that is the point of the whole NaNoWriMo exercise. To shut off the Heckler (or editor or critic) so that you just get the story down.

I do know it's a pretty bare bones story right now--with a few flashes of great (if I do say so myself, and I do) evocative writing. The benefit of having written one novel is that I also know that's how I work. The first pass is to build the skeleton of the story. I may know what the end is, but rarely how to get there. That's what is both fun and frustrating about my process.

Ali just posted about Freshman Comp. students and their inability to just let go and brainstorm. To have fun with writing. I was lucky to finish high school before they went to so many standardized programs. I had some fantastic English teachers. I also had the martinet who was more interested in even margins than what was between those white spaces, but she was in the minority. I took Creative Writing from a man who taught us to journal and to free associate. Our high school College Comp. teacher played music and showed us paintings as prompts. Funny how often I hear the voice of the one bad teacher, though. But I'm learning to shut her up, too.

And on a totally different note, I just looked outside and it's starting to snow. Should be a good day for writing.