A Novel Approach (To Me)

I just finished my outline for the 3 Day Novel Contest.  The contest starts in about an hour.  I have a loose outline that basically gives me a structure, plot, characters and a preliminary idea of theme.  However, I haven’t broken it into specific scenes or locked it down so much that there isn’t any room for surprises this weekend.  Here is my plan for the weekend:

• Write 30,000 to 40,000 words over the weekend
• Sleep tonight and get up early tomorrow (I don’t want to exhaust myself right at the beginning)
• Write in 3 hour bursts with a goal of 1500 words per hour
• Do 5 of these 3 hour sessions on Saturday and again on Sunday with 1/2 hour breaks in between to pee and eat and read twitter
• Start at 5am each day…done writing by 10 or 11pm and into bed for a good sleep
• Finish writing by noon on Monday
• Edit until midnight
• Incorporate a piercing into the story (as requested by my friend Karen–preferably the piercing of a certain private bit)
• Incorporate a baby arm holding an apple (as requested by my friend Simon–he deliberately requested something ridiculous…baby arm…not the baby…to make it really hard)

As you can see, my friends are evil. LOL!

I have prepared my supplies and washed some comfy clothes (can’t do this naked or formal).  Here’s the challenge, can you find these things in the picture:

• National Geographic magazine (article on Pacific Northwest is the inspiration for my setting)
• Chapstick just in case I get dehydrated and my lips crack
• Eczema care cream in case the stress is too much and I break out in a rash
• Candle in case the power goes out (wait, if the power goes out so does my computer…that would be bad. I’m removing the candle to prevent bad karma)
• Moleskin notebook (my favorite with of my pre-outline notes about the story)
• 8.5X11 paper with notes (because you just can’t have too many notes)
• Sarasa Gel Pen (my very favorite pen)

I’ve chosen my music and I’m hoping for gloomy weather–hey, this is going to be a Gothic(ish) novel…what could be better than gloomy weather to help me write.  Good luck to all you crazy 3 Day Novelists out there in cyberworld. I’m off to have a hot bath and a good sleep.  I’ll catch up with you in the morning.