The writing exercise involves five people. Each person writes a sentence or two, then passes it to the next person. The process went through the cycle several times and the result was a short story that turned out pretty interesting — if you can manage to read it with an open mind.

I changed it a bit so that it would have a slightly more cohesive flow, but other than that, what you’re about to read is 98% of what came to be. I think it turned out pretty cool!

Cherry Blossom

I came into work and had the notion that all my co-workers had been stolen and replaced by exact replicas — a usual day. Yesterday was better because I waited in line behind a girl with a cool cherry blossom tattoo. Pain as usual shot through my veins and up to my bulging eyes as I focused on the tattoo.

I shook my head and thought again about my coworkers, Tim, that jerk, was always on time, Joe was running marathons, and Frank was designing like the angels. Did I enter the bizarro world? Was I sent to Hell and now getting a second chance at life?

I went outside to take a cigarette and then saw the girl with a cherry blossom tattoo coming my way. How could this be? I asked her for a light and she gave me a strange look.

Cherry Blossom was nothing more than an innocent Internet chat. But she soon turned into an online love affair riddled with deceit. It happened to be the best of us for sure, and sometimes it was the worst of us. And right then it hit me: Cherry was hot, but I had to get back to work.

Suddenly, it was the middle of the winter and the Cherry Blossom looked very promising. The online chatting continued and I asked myself, how far do I want to follow the rabbit? Cherry had her finger on the trigger of my brain. My eyes were two barrels staring at her breasts. Bang! My hands went off.

It was a good thing I didn’t go back to work as I played tune-in-Tokyo with the… what turned out to be a super-target security guard — I hope it’s not a trap. Now I’m obsessed with a uniformed 36-Double-D. This is turning kinky!

Then I heard the Office manager, Mr. M asking someone if he had seen me. No answer.

I opened my eyes and Cherry was gone. The sweet cherry blossom tattoo was gone with her and I realized I was under my desk. I had climbed under there for a quick nap, and Mr. M and his damned law got me again. I could see M’s designer loafers standing just out of reach, but squarely in my cubicle.

Should I stay quet or say something? I weighed my options.

I just rolled over and closed my eyes. The cherry blossom tattoo was soft and blurry. It shaped into something else as I drifted off to sleep. Four hours later I awoke. I noticed the strange sent of Elmers glue. I popped my head up and noticed all my co-workers were gone. Must have been a meeting going on or something. Lucky Mr. M was nowhere in site. Not exactly surprised it had gone unnoticed — this morning 100% and now all the way down to 0%.

I gathered my stuff and walked out of the building. It was snowing outside and it fell in my face. I had mixed feelings as I opened the door of my dad’s truck. I drove away but on my way out, I noticed somebody standing on the street corner.

It wasn’t a man, but a small being with big black eyes and an oversized head. I stopped the truck and stared at him. For a second I saw him morph into Cherry Blossom then back again. “You are just a replica.” He said and suddenly vanished.

THE END

There it is folks. Keep writing, keep it interesting, try new things! And if you feel inspired, go right ahead and leave a comment in the box below…

But I do want to say I’ve been coming back to their site for more advice ever since I first discovered them. Why else would I write a headline like the one that made you read this post? It’s #1 on the list from 10 sure-fire headline formulas that work.

Copyblogger is a blog that tells you how to become a better writer, especially if you’re writing copy or blogging.

Anyway, recently I discovered a post on Copyblogger that caught my attention: 20 warning signs your content sucks. Number 17 says, “You write less than 1000 words a day”. Well, if you read that post, you’ll discover there’s a lot of warning signs that apply to my blog; Augh! That’s another story, forget I mentioned it. Let’s talk about number 17 since it’s the one that got my attention.

I asked myself honestly if I write 1000 words a day. I don’t. I tried to add up all my daily emails and IM’s — those count, it’s writing — but it still didn’t come close to 1000 words. The only time I write that much is when I’m working on a special project, like a short story or article, etc. And I think what Copyblogger’s referring to when they say 1000 words — actual content; stories, articles, etc.

So, that’s my goal for the month of July: write 1000 words a day. I’m going to take the advice of Copyblogger and see if my writing improves. But hey, it’ll be our little secret okay, don’t tell anybody. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime so if you decide to join me, keep it hush and happy writing!

Actually, calling it a small victory may not be the best choice of words, since it felt like a pretty significant victory. It was tough to stay committed to this project. I thought writing a novel would be a far easier task than it’s turned out to be; one time through, hand it to an editor, be done with it! I was wrong.

I recently realized how wrong I was when I took a short class on writing a novel. The instructor was a published author who told me she had about 15 drafts before she was able to call it good. FIFTEEN!!!

Personally, I don’t plan to create 15 drafts, but I do anticipate several more drafts on my project. At least one, maybe two or more before I’m ready to hand it over to a select few people for feedback. Once I’ve got some feedback, I plan to do a couple more drafts — including an edit from a professional editor.

Right now, I’m going to put the project away for a short while and wait for inspiration to put draft number 3 in motion. I’m not sure when that will be, but I have a tentative goal to get it done by the next Nanowrimo 2010, in November. A month in which a new book will likely find it’s beginnings.

So, to sum up how I got to this point: when I did Nanowrimo 2009, I completed most of my first draft. I wrote all through November and about two weeks into December. I then harvested the high points from the plot/characters and put them on 3×5 cards that I stuck on a bulliten-board that remains a permanent fixture in my house.

My writing board and my muse

The breakdown:

1st draft – 2.5 months (Working daily, several hours a day)
2nd draft – 4.5 months (Working weekly, on a doable minimum schedule)

The above 7 months of work has actually taken me over 9 months with all the breaks I’ve taken on the project. Completion — if it sees the light of day —will easily take more than a year. I hope it sees the light of day, but I still may decide to shelf it. I reserve the right to shelf it! And if I do, well, all will not be lost.

Writing this novel has been fun, it’s been difficult, but it’s also been a great learning experience. One which I plan to do again and again!

I think if I was a professional author, working only on my project, then 4-6 months would be a reasonable time-frame to complete a novel. Since I work full time and write novels on the side — even though I haven’t finished one yet — I’d say a year and a half to 2 years would be reasonable. But that’s just a projection.

So… if you’re writing a novel, or planning on writing a novel, hopefully my experience will shed some light on the subject. Thanks for reading and keep writing!

This was my first experience with Nanowrimo and I must say it was great. I had no idea what it would take to write a novel and now I know. Having a word count that I had to stick to, helped me overcome perfectionism and procrastination. These two P’s are things that can really flatten your tires on the writing road.

Honestly, at the beginning of the month I didn’t think I would make it. I had several 0 word days and they were offset by several 5000 word days. Mostly I stuck to a 2000 word a day schedule and it worked for me.

I’d like to get a marketable book at the end of all this. It’s going to take a lot of editing and revising. If I don’t have a salable novel, at least the experience was fun and educational. Hats off to Nanowrimo!

Nanowrimo 2009 Screenshot

We’ve reached the midpoint on Nanowrimo and at 18,755 words, things are coming along nicely. At this point I’m going to go for the full 50,000 words at the end of the month. However I’ll be happy to reach 30,000 words. We’ll see how it goes.

I’ve got to keep writing over 2000 words a day if I’m going to reach the Nanowrimo contest goal. Some day’s that’s not a problem and other days are grueling.

I’ve tried writing on my laptop in public bookstores, restaurants and in different areas of the house. Sometimes the change of scenery is all I need to get the words flowing again. One thing’s for sure, I’ll be pulling every trick I can think of in order to keep the word count high.

By the way, there’s over a hundred and forty words in this post. (Sorry doesn’t count) Got to get back to writing now, bye!

As of today I need to write 2000 words a day to reach my goal. It’s proving to be a bit more difficult than expected but so far I’m managing to pull it off.

I don’t think I’ll have a very exciting book at the end of the month, but I’ll certainly have a solid start. Something for me to edit and rework into a good story, then submit to an editor.

It’s good to have a program like Nanowrimo that forces you to write. Practice is the only way you get better. The program’s providing me with the motivation I need and that’s a damn good thing!

I’ll post more on this blog when interesting events develop!