The Making of The Street Justice Series
This story idea started with a dream as most of my ideas do. Then I started working on an outline when I decided in 2010 that I was going to enter the Nano contest. Nano is slag for, NaNoWriMo a contest where we authors try to write 50 thousand words in a month. I thought, I can do this. That will be easy. I've been writing ever since I was 8 years old. I knew that I was writing a lot, but I'd never really did a word count to see how much I was writing. You can learn all of the official rules about the National Novel Writing Month HERE.
The contest is in November and it starts on the first and finishes the last day of the month. But we avid Nano's are always ready when the clock strikes midnight to get started. You see you can't even write the first line to your story. You can outline, and say this will happen in this chapter, or that, or make a list of characters. But no actual words are allowed to be written until the clock strikes midnight on November the first. It can be very challenging because at times when you're thinking about your story, scenes or ideas come to mind, but you can only capture ideas.
Your first part of the outline may say, Charlie runs away from home, but you can't write write the chapter until the contest starts. It can very hard, because you want to start writing once the characters start coming into place. I can't recall exactly how this all started. It had something to do with a dream and I got the idea of Charlie and Angel meeting. So I started writing down names and it was the first real Novel outline I'd done so it was bare bones for the first so many chapters.
I had things like, something needs to happen in this chapter, and Charlie meets Joe for the first time. Many times I didn't even end up following the outline. Angel or Charlie would take me in another direction. I worked on the outline and couldn't wait to start the actual story. I had talked to several people from a wonderful forum called Christian Writers, about Nano and I knew that I needed to have a plan. Friends told me that when you need to get that word count in for the day, your mind can go blank.
Anyway, lets go back a bit. I'm sitting outside trying to work out the first few lines of my outline. I'm sitting out in the swing, the dogs are playing, and I'm trying to work something out for my chapter one outline. Charlie who at this time was the guy wasn't giving me anything. Angel who again at this time, was the girl, was just being quiet. I was like what's wrong. I'd never had this kind of trouble before in writing. I thought maybe it was because I was doing an outline and not writing.
I sat pen in hand for for a long time, watching Jack and Max play in the back yard. I was sitting there staring off into space when it hit me. Something in my brain, said switch the names. I thought great, people are already going to make fun of me for the names I've picked. Now they'll be laughing and saying not another guy with the name Angel. Well, to say the least I switched the names and the two characters came to life.
After that moment I didn't have any trouble working on the outline. Things came out smoothly and before I knew it November first had came around. I couldn't wait to get started. I'd began the first line in my head two or three times trying to figure out what would be the best way to start this story. Finally, around midnight I started to write. I don't know what I came up with first, but I decided 80 some thousands words, and several edits later to go with this. I'll try to write another installment later. If you find this interesting and would like to hear more just email and let me know that you've enjoyed a peak into the making of the Street Justice Series. Email me here
Charlie sat on the floor leaning against the kitchen cabinet. She glanced at the gun and the crimson on her hands and shirt. Was it her blood or Benny’s?
******
The contest is in November and it starts on the first and finishes the last day of the month. But we avid Nano's are always ready when the clock strikes midnight to get started. You see you can't even write the first line to your story. You can outline, and say this will happen in this chapter, or that, or make a list of characters. But no actual words are allowed to be written until the clock strikes midnight on November the first. It can be very challenging because at times when you're thinking about your story, scenes or ideas come to mind, but you can only capture ideas.
Your first part of the outline may say, Charlie runs away from home, but you can't write write the chapter until the contest starts. It can very hard, because you want to start writing once the characters start coming into place. I can't recall exactly how this all started. It had something to do with a dream and I got the idea of Charlie and Angel meeting. So I started writing down names and it was the first real Novel outline I'd done so it was bare bones for the first so many chapters.
I had things like, something needs to happen in this chapter, and Charlie meets Joe for the first time. Many times I didn't even end up following the outline. Angel or Charlie would take me in another direction. I worked on the outline and couldn't wait to start the actual story. I had talked to several people from a wonderful forum called Christian Writers, about Nano and I knew that I needed to have a plan. Friends told me that when you need to get that word count in for the day, your mind can go blank.
Anyway, lets go back a bit. I'm sitting outside trying to work out the first few lines of my outline. I'm sitting out in the swing, the dogs are playing, and I'm trying to work something out for my chapter one outline. Charlie who at this time was the guy wasn't giving me anything. Angel who again at this time, was the girl, was just being quiet. I was like what's wrong. I'd never had this kind of trouble before in writing. I thought maybe it was because I was doing an outline and not writing.
I sat pen in hand for for a long time, watching Jack and Max play in the back yard. I was sitting there staring off into space when it hit me. Something in my brain, said switch the names. I thought great, people are already going to make fun of me for the names I've picked. Now they'll be laughing and saying not another guy with the name Angel. Well, to say the least I switched the names and the two characters came to life.
After that moment I didn't have any trouble working on the outline. Things came out smoothly and before I knew it November first had came around. I couldn't wait to get started. I'd began the first line in my head two or three times trying to figure out what would be the best way to start this story. Finally, around midnight I started to write. I don't know what I came up with first, but I decided 80 some thousands words, and several edits later to go with this. I'll try to write another installment later. If you find this interesting and would like to hear more just email and let me know that you've enjoyed a peak into the making of the Street Justice Series. Email me here
Charlie sat on the floor leaning against the kitchen cabinet. She glanced at the gun and the crimson on her hands and shirt. Was it her blood or Benny’s?
******