I confess...

Dear readers, I am sorry to say that I am, so far, not on schedule. At all. I am not failing! I am just rather far behind.

It's day 13, and I should be at just over 21,000 words. Currently, I'm at just over 7,000. And it's taken me till this moment to realize why.

This entire time, I've been gearing up to blow a publisher's mind out of the water. I've been writing this like I've written everything in the past--editing as I go, trying to make everything sound ridiculously awesome. If you need to write a ten page short story in a night, that works just fine. But with a novel, you have too many things going on at once to try to make that method work. I'm just now realizing (even though this kit has been trying to hammer it in my brain, that this first draft will be absolute shit. And I have to be okay with that.

No one wants to put their name on something that's shit. They don't want it to be on a shelf, they won't tell their friends about it, and they'll never want to be recognized for it in any way. If I ever published something that I felt was indeed complete shit, I'd probably change my name, change my appearance, move to a different country, and live as a hermit.

But this round, I must accept the fact that I will write absolutely, positively, horrendously awful shit.

This novel will probably change sixty times before I take it to a publisher, then change a few more (give it five, if I'm lucky) before they accept it, then another ten or so until it's ready for the press--then I'll probably have to change it again after the first test audience.

I can start of with pretty much dirt, as long as I have faith in that dirt. You know, most people would go with that whole "make sure there's some seeds in that dirt, then keep tending to it blah blah blah happy cliche garden of happy" metaphor. Don't get me wrong, that's definitely true.

But here's what I'm thinking. If you start with dirt, you've got something. I mean, you make sure it's good dirt--not too dusty, not too wet, and not in a place that's been a dumping ground for toxic waste. Got that? Good. Leave it alone for a few months. When you come back, you'll see the weeds that you kinda saw before, but didn't wanna deal with right then. Only now, they're pretty freaking big and ugly. So you find something that can be used as a vase and throw 'em in that to take home to that neighbor who thinks anything that grows is a flower.

You've got a pretty good plot of land, there! See that random stack of wood that appeared with a toolbox beside it, that definitely wasn't there before? Yup. You're gonna use it. You might build a seesaw that doesn't really work, or a table that won't stay steady. Ideally, though, you'll make a platform floor. When you're done--leave. Yep, leave. You come back again and find that some of the wood is flimsy, some of the nails popped, and it's not quite the shape you want it. So you fix it till you find a good shape, seal it in, then work on some walls. You see where we're going?

No, you're not just making a house, silly! YOU'RE MAKING A SUPER AWESOME CLUBHOUSE OF AMAZINGNESS AND HAPPINESS! (sponsored by unicorns). But if you hadn't made sure the dirt was exactly right, you might've had termites or mold or some other crap by like, month 6! And then you have to start all over, just delaying your SACoAaH!

In order to motivate myself (and you!), I'm making a list of things that are good for my dirt. You know, to make sure I'm getting the right dirt and all.
•Mud Pie Makeability: is it the proper texture for mudpies when given just enough water? [can you make this go somewhere, structure wise? Will this be an interesting thing, stylistically, to read after a few edits?]
•Map Drawing Capability: can you draw a good treasure map with it with a twig without it breaking and without the map being hard to read? [does this have any remote possibility of an actual plot?]
•Stain Making Probability: does it have a high or low probability for stains? (you want high! Messy people are more creative!) [will people remember this? Will it stick in their minds or wash away?]
•Footprint Maintenance: can it hold a footprint long enough for Gibbs and the rest of the NCIS crew to come investigate? [Can you get good tension in there, potentially?]

If the answer to any of these is yes, your dirt is most definitely on the right track.

Tomorrow (er, today when I awake) the writing shall commence. Avast!

My Last Night As a Sane Person...

Good Evening, Ladies and Jellybeans!

My name is Charlotte Fraser, and 31 days from right now, I will have finished writing my very first book (50,000+ words).

Yup, I'm a masochist.

I'm a Creative Writing and Religious Studies double-major at Vanderbilt University. I'm a Kappa Kappa Gamma (I'll be finishing this book JUST in time for recruitment! YAY BABIES!), I dabble in writing satire (New Year's Resolution: write for The Slant again), and have a pretty serious work hard/play hard mentality (as every smart, hard-working college student should).

I've known I wanted to be a writer since I was very young--I take that back, actually. I knew I loved stories. I'd be given diaries, and rather than using it as an actual diary, I'd write poems and stories in them. I figured out when I was about 13 that writing was really my forte, and I'd love to someday be a writer. Everyone told me up until junior year, however, that "it's not economical, you'll be broke, blah blah blah, be a lawyer or doctor." Well that's great and good for them, but I'd be a good lawyer only because I'm stubborn, and a decent doctor only because I've been sick so many times that I can tell you what you've got and how to treat it.

So I waved at the people who shook (and still shake) their heads, and walked into Vanderbilt on a full ride, ready to tackle the challenge of learning how to become a writer.

What I didn't realise is that I already knew how to write something. I didn't know how to be an *author*. That takes years, time, and patience. But I'm not gonna wait until I think I might possibly know what it takes to be a full fledged author, because by then I'll be in my fifties or sixties and probably living with my mother. Or in a cardboard box.


I've gotten a pretty good grasp on writing short stories, poetry, and flash fiction. But now I'm tackling the oh so lovely challenge of writing my very first novel.

50,000+ words.

In 30 days.


...I'm a masochist.

So I've created this blog for a few reasons I've listed below.
1) I'm sure there's another college kid who's thinking "Whenever I write that first novel..." but is too scared to actually do it. Well, now you can! I'm living proof!(er, will be.)
2) I'll be able to stay publicly accountable for my daily deadlines. Nothing like public eyes to make you actually get shit done.
3) When I do well, I can get public congratulations. Hey, I wouldn't be whoring myself out over this if I wasn't hoping I'd get some support (and future readers!!!) along the way.
4) When I produce an epic fail, you can (via intarwebz) give me a Gibbs headslap.
5) When I'm wallowing in "Y AM I DOING THIS?!", you can send me happy things. Like bunnies. And sneezing puppies. And laughing babies.
6) Prince Harry might see this and realize I'm his one true love, so when I move to Edinburgh he can come find me and sweep me off my feet.

Hope you're ready to go on this lovely venture with me!