Saturday, November 2, 2019

Year of an Indie Writer: Week 44

by
Scott D. Parker

Two things dominated this week: the new Kevin Smith film and the start of NaNoWriMo.

Oh, and a baseball series...Congrats, Steve.

Kevin Smith Live and In Person


If you read my personal blog, you'll know that in advance of the new Kevin Smith film, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, I watched the previous twelve Smith films. I reviewed each one and this week--on the evening of Game 7 no less--the new movie premiered in Houston. Now, I bought my ticket in July never dreaming it would conflict with anything as monumental as a Game 7. I fully expected to check the score once or twice during the film, but I didn't.

I waited until the credits.

It's a nice film, but not my favorite of Smith's films. I ranked all of Smith's films on Wednesday and ended up with...Jersey Girl. Read my reasons here.

Anyway, Smith and his buddy, Jason Mewes, introduced the movie and conducted a Q&A session afterward. It's a great way to see a movie, and it was the first time I've seen a Smith film with an audience full of Smith fans.

NaNoWriMo: A Tale of Two Writing Sessions


You've done it. I've done it. And I decided to do it again this year.

I haven't written a novel in a little bit. Other things have consumed my time--including me writing a new story for Paul Bishop's new anthology, BANDIT TERRITORY--and it was high time to start. I almost always start a new tale on the first day of the month. This month just turned out to be NaNoWriMo month. Why not?

Well, come 5:15 a.m. yesterday, I was starting to fret. I had the open scene in mind. I knew the main character. Heck, I even had a working title, a rare thing from.

When I opened my Chromebook yesterday morning and started chapter one, it was slow going. Frustratingly so. There have been opening days on novels in which I wrote over three thousand words. Yesterday morning's session, I managed 755.

Come lunch time, it was time for session two of the day. Taking a cue from Dean Wesley Smith, I re-read all that I had written that morning, tweaking and editing and adding bits of color along the way. Then, when I reached were I had stopped, I had a head of steam and kept going.

And kept going. The words flowed.

All the way up to the moment when the last line of chapter one clicked into place a few minutes before I wrote it. The grin that spread across my face was pretty big. I walked back to my day job desk floating, remembering exactly why writing is such an awesome thing. 2,063 words done.

I know every day won't be this way. I know every book won't be this way. But as a creative, those are the times to cherish.

Anyone else doing NaNoWriMo?

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