Bornfamous

10/28/2003 8:44 AM

Five more days to NaNoWriMo. Well, four if you don’t count Saturday, which is the first day to start writing. I don’t know how I will ever be able to write 50,000 words in one month. It just seems impossible, since I can’t even make myself do 2500 words a day, even as practice. But maybe that’s because I haven’t been letting myself get into the story, saving it up for Saturday, so I’ve just been trying to come up with something, anything to fill the page. All I need to write is 1600 plus a few words a day, but I want to give myself a cushion by getting ahead on good days. So–never stop just because you’ve reached your quota for the day. Keep going until you can’t write any more. But–don’t stop just because you can’t write any more if you haven’t reached your quota, okay?

Crap. I don’t see how I can do this. I just have to remember what Barb Rubin said–”So you don’t get it done in a month. Do it anyway and you’ll be much further along than you were at the beginning of the month.” Or something like that. It’s not an exact quote. Let’s just call it creative nonfiction, ok?

And that’s what the book is going to be–creative nonfiction. Maybe I should take this opportunity to re-read my favorite book on autobiography–can’t remember the title right now, but it’s always good for inspiration and courage because it gives step-by-step instructions for how to get to the deep stuff, how to structure it, how to rewrite it–just everything. Yes, I think that will be my bible for the next few weeks. When I’m not writing, I will be reading that book, and reading it again. What the hell is it called? Shit, now I have to go find it.

…

Aahh… Amazon to the rescue: “Your Life As Story: Discovering the ‘New Autobiography’ and Writing Memoir As Literature” by Tristine Rainer. Good thing I remembered her name. Now I just need to find it and keep it nearby at all times. She gives workshops up in L.A. too–and even consults by email, I think–but the book is enough. It’s all there. Now I just need to stick with it.

I’ve been worried about writing an outline because when I try to do it, it just turns me off of the whole story. I lose interest because the outline itself sounds so trite and stupid. That’s what always stops me from writing, when I read it and pass judgment on it. Gotta stop that. Anyway, the book will guide me through the outline process. I can use it to start preparing for Saturday right now. No need to try to fill this page with drivel when I can use it to work out whatever problems I have with the story. In fact, I can start work on it right now. Why not? Okay.

…

So the one-line premise of the story is this:

A teenage girl resents her new stepfather and rebels, but when he is nearly killed in a shocking act of violence, she discovers that she loves him.

Okay, so where do I go from there? Read the book, dummy. Yeah, but I don’t want to stop writing long enough to find it. I think I remember the first step–creating a string of memory “pearls”, or scenes, that tell the story. So let’s try that, shall we? Okay, but this is where I get nervous.

589 words, 1911 to go

Here are just a bunch of scenes in no particular order:

1. Entering the diner after jr. hi graduation, wearing white dress. Bob shows me his new car.
2. Working at diner–Bob tells me his wife left him because she was driving by when I got in his car, and wouldn’t believe I was only 14. He laughs, I’m horrified. New customer comes in wearing fedora, giving him coffee, seeing Mom light up, spruce up, and go talk to him. I’m suspicious.
3. First date. Watching tv in the diner while Mom and Joe go out.
4. Break-up. Mom’s very upset, tells me Joe got “fresh” with her and she got out of the car to walk home, but he talked her back into the car and took her home.
5. Driving in another part of town, she sees him, stops and calls him. “What’s he doing here,” she asks me. He comes over and says he’ll give her a ring. “A ring!?” “On the PHONE,” he says, “on the PHONE.”
6. Second date. We go to a drive-in to see an Elvis movie, all three of us in the front seat. I notice Joe’s hand on Mom’s knee.
7. Mom says, “How would you feel if Joe and I got married?” I say, “Okay, but can you wait until I finish high school?” She doesn’t say anything.
7a. Joe starts working at the restaurant, bossing everyone around. A gossipy waitress tells me he’s after Mom’s “money”–like she actually has some.
8. Mom tells me they’re going to get married next Saturday. I’m upset but pretend I’m happy for her.
9. Getting ready for the wedding, Mom sings, “I’m getting married in the morning” over and over. I roll my eyes and gag, but laugh too. I’m getting into it. I wear my my only nice dress, the white graduation dress.
10. Joe picks us up and we drive across the border to Sioux Falls, where there’s no waiting period to get married. We go to a picturesque little wedding chapel, and the minister mistakes me for the bride because of my white dress. I’m horrified. My mother laughs like it’s a great joke. Joe says nothing.

…more later…

963 words, 1537 to go