Writing Progress...

I was walking out to the back parking lot of my building last night, just after getting off from work. It was a bit nasty outside, as it had been raining all day. But it was not as cold as it had been. I was walking out with a couple of coworkers, one of which was telling me about the insane problems going on in her workgroup. (Good Lawd, I thought I had problems. My work life is squeaky clean compared to hers. I knew there were issues when this wonderful mother figure jumped up last week in the cubicle area and opened her Book of Cuss and read a few verses. My goodness. Scared me something awful!)

Anyway, I was walking to my car, which was halfway across the lot with my other coworker. I was going to give her a ride to her car.

A security guard came running our way.

Now, he had to hike all the way from the front of the building. They have cameras around there, and I suppose he saw me come out of the building. I think he knew he had to run, because I'm the type not to be dilly dallying around.

I was looking at him like "What the heck did I do????"

"Poet Laureate! Laureate Poet!!!" he yelled.

I walked toward him, still trying to figure out what his problem was.

He was waaaaaay excited about something I gave him to read.

Now, I didn't have a work badge for about 4 months (don't ask. It had expired, and my job is ass backwards about that type of stuff), so I had to sign out at night with the security guards. The same ones were always down in the lobby, so we'd gotten a bit friendly. They found out through our quick convos that I had a passion for writing and they requested that I let them read some of my stuff. I like men who read, as they can give me a different perspective on some things, like if my male characters sound feminine, etc.

So I gave them some things to read, just a few short stories and vignettes.

And they've been feenin' every since.

LOL

One guy, the one who chased me down in the parking lot, well... I gave him my current writing project, the one I was working on for NaNo. I wanted to know how he felt about the male character. There was a certain creepiness factor I was trying to hit.

"Poet Laureate!" he beamed, showing all thirty two teeth.

I wanted to tell him that was impossible, didn't make a lick of sense, but I left it alone.

"I loved it! You got skills, girl! I want more! I wanna know what happens!"

I thought dude was gonna jump up and down and start screaming, lol.

"I don't like that dude in that first chapter. He's a creep, a pervert. Made me feel uneasy."

I nodded and smiled. "Good. That's the effect I wanted."

We had a mini-discussion about it.

And THAT'S what I like about writing: getting a reaction out of people. Folk have ran up on me all joyful... and folk have cussed me completely out.

My readers run the full gamut. It's funny to get cussed out (I even got grabbed once, lol).

I have to tell folk... uh, it's just a story, those people aren't real.

"I don't give a ****, LadyLee. You wrong for that!! Blah, blah, BLAH!!!"

Getting that type of heated reaction out of people: I like that. That's what I like about writing.

Even if I never sell a word of it.

I told the security guard I had 5 more chapters for him. I thought that dude was gonna do backflips.

LOL!!

Do ya'll remember when I use to give a report on my writing progress once a week?

Man, I do.

I miss those days.

I don't care to do that too much these days, as ya'll aren't reading what I'm working on, but since I dabbled around with the NaNoWriMo (National Novel writing month) jazz, I thought I should give a report on how and what I did.

First of all, I jumped in to support one of my favorite Chickens, my baby blog sista, Serenity 3-0. I'd toyed with participating for the past few years, but I always thought it was a bunch of bogusness. People should understand, you could write a novel in a month, but your first draft is always trash. You have to edit it. When a book gets to stores, that ain't the first draft you're reading. It could be the 5th, the 10th, or the 20th. (yeah, I met someone who had wrote a 20th draft. I gave them the hard side-eye).

No one has time for that. Not working folk. The idea is to write without abandon or second thought.

So, that gal Serenity, she always doing something. Sometimes she asks for my cooperation, other times I just get nosy, mumbling "Let me go check on this girl, so she won't get lost."

lol

But I know Serenity wrote about 4000 words. And she let me read them. Now, you Serenity lurkers who like to peak in the windows of the House of LadyLee...Man... Serenity keeping it down in the valley over on blog. Because what she gave me to read, some nonfictional memoir type stuff? That chick took it to the mountaintop, tapping into something I didn't know she had in her. I mean, her blog is a thing of brillance, but what I read was beyond that. Way beyond.

I didn't know how to motivate her to go further. So I'm leaving that up to her loyal clientele to egg her on. The Oldgirl can write her ass off. Really. Much respect, S.
I'ma need you to keep that going, Ma.

Well, let's talk about moi.

My goal wasn't to write a novel. I work everyday, and frankly, I have too many other activities going on. It'll piss me off if that was all I had to do, and I had to force myself to do just that. Sure, it ain't nothing for me to bust out a couple thousand words a day, but still... it'll just piss me off.

My goal was to work on a short story (novella really), that's been on my heart this year, a little story titled Watch. It is a story I like, one that I can't fool around with in class. (The white people wouldn't like it). So I have to work with it all by my lonesome.

It delves into a spiritual principle that has always amazed me, one that I myself have never been able to get around in my own life:

What's done in the dark, always comes to light.

Always.

Skeletons seemingly sit quietly in closets, but they're coming out that closet one day...alive, kicking, screaming, and breakdancing!

I'm constantly meditating on such, within the realms of my own life isshas. And it is a theme weaved tightly into this particular story.

There are several interesting biblical scripture supporting that. It is one of those life truths, you see. As Parliament once sang, so low, you can't get under it, so high you cant get around it... you get the picture.

One of the main characters has some secret habits, some pretty bad ones, that he doesn't think much of. But it all begins to seep into his everyday life. It becomes a powerful stronghold. And that there is a problem in itself. I do believe dude even creeps me out a bit.

I got the idea from the antics of my neighbor who lives across the street. Whenever me or my sister are outside, he makes it a point to come out on his porch and... stare. It creeps us out. We come up with all kinds of ideas behind why he does this.

We are highly offended by this. And we are waiting him to step out of his front yard. We have a large brick sitting on the front porch.

We're waiting to bust that sucka straight upside his head.

(Don't think I won't do it).

I've muddled around with the ideas, and have come up with something that I really enjoy working on.

I had about six chapters written, I believe. I wasn't particularly happy with them, and was a bit befuddled about where to take things. My goal was to spend time with it, good consistent time, and fix some of the problems in it, and move it forward. It's a little more complex than I first anticipated, and I wanted to see what I could do with it.

And I liked the results. During NaNo, I rewrote the beginning. And I think I had about 8,000 words (6 chapters).

Today I have about 13 chapters, some 19,000 words. I am VERY happy about that.

One thing that helped much is my bootleg writing vision board, where I would keep notecards containing small synopses of each chapter.

The white cards are completed chapters. The yellow cards are chapter ideas. The lone orange card is the climax. I think there are a couple of climatic moments in the story, but this one was the one I've written, and am most interested in.

It becomes like a Soul Train Scramble Board of sorts. When I pass it, I move things around, or even take things off. So it has been extremely helpful. It keeps me thinking.

But one thing I've created, which was the point for me anyway, was something very important.

A habit.

I wanted to jump back into the habit of writing.

Nothing's about talent. It is ALL about habit for me.

And I am glad for it.

I feel odd if I don't get a few hundred words written out long hand or typed up.

And that's what I wanted. That was a major goal.

And I still love that reaction I get out of folk. Sherri, aka Ms.Blackliterature.com read the first chapter and sent a disturbing email back to me. "I don't like that guy. He's creepy." I could tell she was a bit lost, confused and freaked out.

Well, Sherri... that's a GREAT thing. I loved-ed it!

LOL.

So, I think I will start posting up my progress, and even a few excerpts like I use to do. That was always a lot of fun.

So that's my NaNo thoughts and progress. Fun, fun, fun...