Wednesday, November 01, 2006

NaNoWriMo: BEGINS!

Midnight ticked over last night and I was unfortunately still awake. For Australians doing NaNoWriMo, we started off anything from ten to sixteen hours ahead of the largest proportion (I have no figures on this, but I'm probably not wrong) of NaNoWriMo'ers: the Merkins. Whoops, I meant The Americans.

I wrote a couple of quick paragraphs so that my mind wouldn't start buzzing with ideas designed to keep me awake. Going against all NaNoAdvice-O, I will now share with you the opening two paragraphs from my 'masterpiece-in-the-making':

IN THE OUTER

Jules Nolan turns the steering wheel and reaches down to press a button, never taking his eyes from the road. The window separating the driver’s cab from the rear of the limousine slides down, silencing the couple arguing in the back. Jules lets out a breath. They’d been at it for the last ten minutes and the words had melded together to become a constant flow of nothing.

He blinks at the high beam of a car passing on the other side of William Street. The limousine dips into the road. Jules turns his head a fraction to catch a glimpse of a lone hooker dressed in scraps of leopard print fabric and fishnets, standing under the fluorescent lights of an all night convenience store.

And so begins this crazy month of 1667 words per day. Good luck to us all and may the caffeine be with you.

14 comments:

Stephen Blackmoore said...

An excellent start!

Daniel Hatadi said...

Thanks, man. I've decided to scrap the previous beginning and start fresh.

And to you: Kick ASS!

Mystery Dawg said...

Stephen and I have to wait another 10 hours before we can start.

I'm in under Mystery Dawg

Daniel Hatadi said...

Whoops. I added you as Aldo. I better sort it out before he thinks I'm stalking him. :)

Sandra Ruttan said...

Awesome start! I wish I was doing this, instead of reading my own book again.

Daniel Hatadi said...

Thanks, Sandra. Beginnings are always exciting. But that inspiration has to lead to perspiration if the work is going to be any good.

Positive vibes right back at ya!

Steven said...

Sounds like a good start. Nice voice. Good luck.

Daniel Hatadi said...

Thanks, Steven. Who knows how it will end up, though. I'm planning on trying out my very first prologue at some point, but I wanted to kick the thing off quickly.

angie said...

Good on ya, Daniel!

Anonymous said...

WOW great start babe and I am definitely keen to know what will become of them! Good luck...

Daniel Hatadi said...

Thanks Angie and Mary.

Mary, you can read a little more from my NaNo profile page, but that's all anyone's going to see for a while yet!

anne frasier said...

great opening!

best of luck, daniel!

pattinase (abbott) said...

I am in awe that anyone could write so fast. I only write to rewrite and that wouldn't cut it.

Daniel Hatadi said...

Thanks Anne, and Patti, it's all in the rewrites anyway. My usual word count on a decent day is about 500, so it was pretty interesting to see myself knock out 2000 on the first day of probably similar quality.

But the first draft's always shit anyway. :)