Love My Dead Guy

Four Thousand Six Hundred and Fifty Three Words yesterday, dear readers. My total word count was much higher until I started the dreaded editing yesterday evening. I deleted a whole page of dialog, my weakest point, because it didn’t ring true. To tell you the truth, Calvin, my dead guy, sounded like me, sitting around talking to my gal pals on a lazy Sunday afternoon. So I had to ‘man up’ and fix his story. Calvin is the narrator and he’s a bossy dude; he’s a lot like my G-ma Lucy was, except in male form. I did ask myself several times yesterday who was writing this book? Was it me or Calvin and the answer was clear as a bell: Calvin. I don’t have a single clue where my book is going or even who all the characters are but Calvin sure does. Calvin knows who did it and who saw what and why they did what they did. So, I’m going to let him have his head today; I, Cathy-the-writer, am choosing to get out of my dead dude's way. I will push aside my writer brain’s desire for a story-driven plot and let Calvin lead the charge in a character-driven plot.


Four Thousand Six Hundred and Fifty Three Words. Isn’t that impressive written out in its entirety? It certainly is to me! My word count may not be as high as others but then again, I am writing a book from scratch. And by scratch, I mean just that. Nothing is as I had planned when I was preparing for NaNo. All my formerly nice and tidy plotting efforts went out the window when I sat down to type. Calvin promptly jumped up and OMG – I’m having a revelation here. Calvin has the same voice as the Beetlejuice guy. That’s why he sounds so familiar as he’s telling his story through my fingers. Oh, Calvin’s nothing like that ghost. My dead guy is, sorry…was, 88 years old and was a stocky, bow-legged horse rancher his whole life. Highly moral, very family oriented, personally organized, and definitely a ‘take action’ kind of guy until the moment he died (and obviously even afterward LOL). However, this is not a ghost story, per se. There are no floating apparitions or mysteriously slamming doors. There are no woo-woo moments ~ wait, that's Cathy-the-writer talking. I don't think there will be any ghosty stuff but then again, Calvin's going to do what he wants regardless of what I want (isn't that just like a man?). I (again, Cathy-the-writer' POV) think Calvin is a man telling his tale to highlight the redemption of someone else. Hmmm, now where did that just come from? I’m learning so much about my writing persona ~ I write much better as someone else, as a character. Calvin is a natural born storyteller, much like the cowboys of old, so I will shamelessly use his voice, his point of view, to achieve my goal of writing a novel.


Four Thousand Six Hundred and Fifty Three Words. I’m very pleased that Calvin got me off to such a good start. Just two days ago, I had a goal to meet: 50,000 words by the last day of November. Now, I have a story to tell. I'm not sure that 50,000 words is enough.