Roadblock

I am a name fanatic and have been since I was a kid. I had actually named my sisters before they were born and when I found out I didn't have a say in the matter, I had a temper tantrum. I was five years old.
Today my name fanaticism led to problems. I have the names for the two main characters and managed to come up with the name for a supporting character but that was it. I planned on continuing my character profiles today but the next person on the list didn't have a name yet. This wasn't a problem at first, I figured out the age, occupation (which I had decided on a long time ago), and family members. The next step however was the character history and personality traits and, although I was fairly sure of the kind of person this character was, not having a name made it impossible to have a solid picture in my head. For a while I thought I had wasted my time and I was going to have to return home and search through my baby names book (which I bought when I was sixteen). I really didn't want to waste the effort though. It was pretty big that I not only left the house to write but went somewhere that was open later so I would be able to write more so I took out a piece of paper and just started brainstorming names. After a while, however, I hadn't come any closer to finding a name. I had the brother's name and so I needed a name that was similar enough that you would believe the two were related. Luckily, I have a sister who also writes from time to time and so I called her for help. I must have talked to her over an hour with her giving me lots of names. A few were really good, just not for this character. I had decided by the end of the call that it would have to be a Hebrew name. The brother's name I had decided would be Goliath. I didn't want to use the name David because the two seemed to contrast each other more than complement and the characters were fairly similar. I then tried my mom to ask her if she could look up some Hebrew names for me since I didn't have a computer or smartphone with me. She was in book club and my other sister couldn't help me because she was in her improv class. Finally, in a last ditch effort, I called my uncle. He's a deacon for the Catholic church and so I figured he'd know some Hebrew names. He was willing to help and gave me some more good names and one contender. By this point I think I had spent an hour and a half of my writing time on just coming up with a name and so, without completely selecting a name, I hung up. I finally decided to use Isaac, at least for the time being. After that, writing the profile was a breeze. Who would have thought a name would be so important?

Character Profiles

I finally came across an assignment that I could use to help me write my story. The Day 3 assignment is to write character profiles for some of the characters in the memories described on Day 2 and Day 1. Since I had no intention of writing a memoir or using the people from my own life, I decided to use the assignment to write character profiles about the characters in the book I'm trying to write. It took me a couple hours to finish the main character's and I'm in the middle of the "male lead"'s profile. I figure I'll finish it tonight when my aunt returns from her writing class and I'll go to Starbucks.

Anyway, the character profiles have been really helpful! They really make me think about what motivates the characters and how a character would know this particular information and so on. For instance, I needed the lead character to know a vital piece of information to the story, but I couldn't think of a reason as to why the character would know it. One of the questions I had to answer was about the character's most traumatic event. Who could forget the details of one's most traumatic event? I was really able to better describe the type of person she was and have a viable reason as to how my character would know this random piece of information.

Setback

The assignment for Day 1 was to go back through my memories and write them in as much detail as possible. I did this for a little while but not nearly as long as the time I allotted. I got bored! I already have an outline created for my story! It feels like I'm back-pedaling. Reading Day 2 didn't help either-- she said she hoped I came up with an idea from those memories. I had an idea before I even started the book and then I created the outline beforehand. I mean, I had no idea what to do-- do I just continue through the book as if I don't have an outline already or skip ahead? My aunt gave me the idea to check amazon.com and see what others had said. It turns out the book I chose isn't well liked. Many complained about the exercises being filler. So I started looking for a replacement and I'm completely lost. The best option I've found is Writing Fiction For Dummies. I've looked through and some of the other days like Day 3 or Day 10 I might be able to adjust so they can actually help me develop my idea.

I just wanted something to give me a day by day schedule to finishing a novel. I have the idea, I want to write it, I just get overwhelmed when I think of all of the things that need to get done.

I think the best plan now is to just use the book as much as I can and give it all I got, one day at a time.

Meant to Start

Today was supposed to be the day I started the 90 day challenge but I'm still not finished with my outline. I checked out the book and it just says "Day One" and so on, thus I think starting on Monday won't be as bad as I thought. I'm on scene eleven and I have one more scene to go before I can start. I figure I'll finish the last scene tomorrow while watching the dogs during the day and then begin the challenge at night while I babysit the neighbor's daughter for a couple hours. She'll be asleep so I won't need to focus-- just be there in case she cries. The girl's the quietest baby I've ever seen (and I worked in an infant room) so I'm sure it will be tear-free.

The Beginning

I had hoped to begin this journal April first but I didn't manage my time very well, a problem that's become a pattern recently. I didn't realize I needed to read parts of the beginning before starting the 90 day challenge.
Let me provide some background. I've wanted to write a novel for a long time but have had issues. I'll start from the beginning and try to write it all the way through and lose interest or I'll jump around because I don't want to forget anything and then never finish anything. So I decided if I was ever going to achieve my dream of being a published novelist I would need help. I purchased 90 Days to Your Novel: A Day-by-Day Plan for Outlining & Writing Your Book by Sarah Domet. I picked this book over the hundreds that are out there because she had a tough voice. She makes it clear that the ball is in the reader's court and that work and discipline is required. I decided any type of feel good voice wouldn't motivate me or at least not for very long.
So far the book has been great. I just didn't realize I needed to have the outline of my novel finished before beginning the challenge. Thus, I didn't get to start this blog until after I had read more and figured out how to outline a novel. Today I started writing the outline and I consider that the beginning to writing my novel.
The book has you outline your novel by scene which made sense after reading the the first part of the book. You always hear the word "scene" but having it described and what not really helped me. I finished three scenes today but, again, I kept coming up with ideas and I didn't want to forget them so I started writing them down on the sides. I'm not sure if that's okay, a sign that I can't focus, or what have you. I didn't get much done anyway thanks to my aunt's dogs barking at every person who passed by on this gorgeous day. My plan is to finish the outline tomorrow so I can begin the challenge on Sunday. The book goes by week and most consider Sunday to be the first day of the week so starting then would make it easier for me to remember. Not that it should be too hard to remember since I'll be writing everyday.
A good first day but I need my second day to be better.