View From the Phlipside - NaNoWriMo

These are the scripts from my weekly media commentary program on WRFA-LP Jamestown

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the movies and more. I love 'em and I hate em' and I always have an opinion. Call this the view from the Phlipside

It's week number two of the NaNoWriMo experiment here at the Phlipside. In case you missed it I have been bullied into trying my hand at the National Novel Writing Month by my college aged, writing studies major daughter. The idea of the contest is write 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days. Presumably because I'm easily bullied I agreed.

So after 7 full days of writing I can tell you that I've managed to put down just over fifteen thousand words of my book. That actually puts me ahead of the curve when it comes to hitting the goal by the end of the month. I'm pretty happy with that I must admit. When I started a week ago I had a vague idea for the story (more on that in a second) and I knew that there were two definite characters in this book and almost certainly a couple more about whom I knew nothing. That was pretty much everything I had. Seriously.

My daughter shook her head a little I think at my lack of pre-planning. As the major writer in the family she had complete biographies of her major characters (I'm talking thousands of words here people) and at least sketches of the important minor ones. She talked about outlining chapters and preparing all kinds of thing. She formed a group of students at her university and started giving writing exercises and cheer leading them to prepare them for the event. Me, I got nothin'. Let's just say I'm not the teacher's pet.

As for my book the concept is this - what if vampires really exist but everything we think we know about them is wrong? And what if one of them came to you and asked your help in preserving their race from extinction? Pretty cool idea, right? So far I have a main character named Dan, two vampire characters named Helena and Guy (with that European pronunciation Hell ayna and Gee), a secretary, an ex-wife, a best friend a I still have no idea what it is that's threatening the vampires which means I have no idea what ole' Dan is going to have to do to save them. Or himself. I have this sneaking suspicion that even my vampires aren't to be trusted.

My biggest challenge this week is to try and write well ahead of schedule. Unfortunately I have to be on a retreat Friday Saturday and Sunday when I won't be able to do ANY writing. So my fifteen thousand plus in seven days is actually not too bad. I need to average around two thousand words a day. And they tell me week two is the hardest week of the contest.

Call that the view from the Phlipside