It’s Halloween, and we have snow. That is not what i’m here to talk about, but I’m excited about it, nonetheless. We were supposed to get a mix of rain/snow overnight, which morphed into 2-4 inches of snow (up to six inches for outer MN). I woke up to nothing, but then the heavy fat flakes started falling. I’d say there’s nearly an inch on the ground. Who knows how long it’ll last? I don’t really care; I’m just happy to have snow at all. It’s been weird, though, the weather, I mean. In the last week or so, it’s been 80 by day and 40 by night. I am not a fan of the wild weather swings and neither is my body.
But snow? I am a fan of that! I love snow. We had a huge blizzard on Halloween back in 1991. I was at college, on campus, and everything was shutdown. Our profs in Minneapolis could not make it down. We got over 2 feet of snow, and it was glorious. We’re not going to get anything close to that today/tonight, but any hint of snow pleases me.
I do feel for the kids trick or treating tonight. It does add to the vibes, but it’s probably not much fun to walk around in the snow. However, I don’t feel sorry enough to turn on the lights and hand out candy. Granted, it’s partly because I don’t have candy, but it’s mostly because I don’t like doing that.
I’m sitting in my house with the lights off and waiting for the night to end. It’s already dark at six-thirty, so the festivities are probably pretty much over. I did hear a bunch of kids about ten minutes ago so there’s that.
In yesterday’s post, I meandered all over, per usual. I talked about what I wanted to write for NaNoWriMo, kind of. It’s coming down to crunch time and I’m setting my goals as basic this year. 50,000 words. No creativity in that area because I have not written fiction for quite some time. I can do 2,000 words a day–or at least, I could before. Let’s see if I can do it again. My perfect writing time is around midnight, so that lines up as well. Meaning I can start at midnight and hopefully be done about three weeks in.
Now. Have I decided if I’m going to write the mystery (one book of the trilogy) or the memoir? Yes, I have, and the answer is yes. Yes to which? Both.
Side note: I’m pretty sure I have some kind of neurodiversity. Autism and maybe ADHD to boot. One of the things that is indicative of that is the way my brain hops from this to that to the other thing. In addition, I make connections that others don’t see, and I can’t talk about one thing without dragging in five other things as well.
This means that I’m going to write both. Is that ambitious? Yes. Will I get it done? Probably not. Here’s the thing, though. It’s a good way to have goals. In addition, it’s a good way to keep my mind occupied and not stuck. I usually write just one tihng at a time, but because I’m stuck for a variety of reasons–why not try something different?
Let’s tackle them one by one, memoir first.
It’s not going to be a plain old memoir. Why? Because I don’t have enough interesting in my life to write a memoir that is actually worth reading. This is not me being self-deprecating; it’s just the simple truth. Most people don’t have enough in their lives to make a memoir worth writing/reading.
Obviously, the medical crisis will be the basis of the whole thing. Am I going to start with it? Probably. Get it going with a bang, yo. But the recitation of what happened will take maybe a thousand words if I push it. I can’t just call it a day after that. I have an idea for it that I’m not sure is going to work. I think that I have to just give myself permission to write complete and utter shit. Part of my issue is that I’m constantly editing in my mind as I write. It doesn’t help that I type over a hundred words a minute so I can backspace quickly and continue on without even thinking about it.
I have a definitely idea about how I want to shape this memoir, at least whilst I’m writing about being in the hospital, so I just have to commit to it. And if it turns out to be shit, well, that’s the way writing goes.
The other decision is which book of the trilogy to start with. The first book is going to be set in the hospital as well. I am of two minds as to whether I should write that book at the same time as writing the memoir. On the one hand, it could make it easier to write much of the same background at the same time. On the other hand, I might get bored writing it twice at the same time, even if Islightly mix it up. I’m not sure! The second book is the one I’m most interested to write. The problem is, though, it’s predicated on some of the things that will happen in book one. I’m not sure I want to have to rewrite huge chunks of book two after writing book one.
Book three? That will be the book I tried to write two years ago for NaNWriMo. I don’t think I’ll do the romcom/mystery approach I did that time (those were the two genres I was trying to blend together. I hate the former genre and love the latter. Mixing them together did not work), but I do want to keep aspects of the former genre in the story.
Am I just being stubborn? Maybe. I think I should be able to do it so I’ll keep trying over and over again. Is that part of my neurodivergent mind? Probably. I can definitely become hyperfocused on something and not understand that maybe it’s time to move on.
I think the best thing to do in this case is to start with book one. I have a very ambitious idea for the first book, and we’ll see if I can do anything close to it.