Day 1: In the beginning

...there was the word. And I had to force it out of me and onto the page.

Slow going this morning, but I had to get my quota in because I have plans tonight. my inner editor was telling me to write "better," I worried that I don't know my characters or my story line yet, and I was stressed to fill the quota before work. I'm resisting every urge in my body to tell you how terrible these first paragraphs are.

I went to bed as early as I could last night so I could get up at 6 this morning. I did very little this year to prepare, and I didn't even pull my "No Plot, No Problem" kit off the shelf until this morning. I settled in with my coffee around 6:15, read the Day 1 card, which says to start anywhere, and looked over my very sparse notes. I wrote the first sentence. I reread the first sentence. I shook my head, whispered, "to hell with it," and started stumbling around my characters' trailer. It wasn't pretty. I don't know my characters yet, and I don't know the plot. My main character is Native American, earthy/pagan, young, married to a steel worker, spiritual. I haven't quite figured out how to do that yet, but I think as I keep writing, her voice will start to come through. Also, I started in the first person this morning, but think i might switch to third. I want to show a lot of different characters' perspectives, and I think third will work better.

Day 1 word count: 1735
Total word count: 1735