Sunday, October 23, 2016

Momentum at Rest

It really isn't as contradictory as it looks. It's also another title that I'm not quite sure where it came from, but it bits. Or I hope it fits. Or it will fit before I'm done writing.

What I was thinking about when I started to write this is how it's getting closer to NaNoWriMo. I'm excited and feeling - yes, again - doubtful that I can do it. Again. This is going for number nine.

Hey, that's a good number!

My point. I have a place to start this year, and a plot, but still no outline. And I'm good with that. No, I'll take it back. The story I am basing this year's novel on has a Scapple of the pieces - which is a type of mind mapping software made with writers in mind (the same people who created Scrivener). The mind mapping is not an outline but could serve a similar function.

See? There I go thinking about pantser or plotter. Maybe I'll go for a hybrid this year; that looks like where I'm headed.

So it's a week plus a day before NaNo begins. The period of waiting. Getting pens and paper and backup laptop battery and extension cord with multiple plug ins on the end to share with fellow NaNoers. Preparation in whatever form that takes.

The "momentum at rest" is the active and conscious version of "inertia." With inertia my brain goes numb and I am filled with doubt (I've already admitted the doubt, okay), and the project is fogged over, murky, it's gray like Portland November skies. But with momentum at rest, the energy is there, I'm alert, and I know the blue is on the other side of the clouds, but I can't take action at the moment, so I rest.

Momentum at Rest. And counting down toward NaNo.