#My500Words Challenge: Day 2

The Challenge

1. Write down your goal for this challenge. What do you want to accomplish?
2. Ask yourself, "How am I going to do this?" If you want to write a book or get caught up on your blog, what will you write each day? Decide this before you have to write, so that you don't have to spend your writing time thinking or planning. Make this decisions in advance, so that you can stay on track. If you're just trying to build a habit, think about a writing theme that you can adhere to for the next month.

The 500 Words

My goal for this challenge is to be inspired, and conceptualize the sequel to my novel in addition to strengthening my literary voice. I want to be able to recognize the events that play out in my life and know which ones I can incorporate into my characters’ storylines. Which ones can my audience relate to, which ones will shock them, and which ones will help them make it through whatever experience they are currently going through.

As far was what I will write each day, I feel that whatever pops into my mind first will serve as the seed of the writing plant that will grow and blossom. A good writer should be able to turn on the inspiration at any time, regardless of the topic, and I think my five hundred words from yesterday serves as proof that I can do just that. If I practice this power, I know it will only get stronger as I become more savvy with how to communicate my stories via the written word.

I believe that writing is just as important as planning out the next story (at last to a certain extent). I like to have a general idea of where my story starts and ends. As I wrote my last novel, I planned out the basic idea, but that does not mean everything went according to plan.  

For instance, some random comment on Facebook that wasn’t even from one of my friends sparked an idea for a new character. She wasn’t necessarily a villain, but this new character gave my leading lady a chance to bond with my leading man. It also gave my leading lady the chance to showcase her loyalty as a friend to my leading man’s little sister. Another instance was when I created an attractive cousin character for my leading man. It gave my leading man some legitimate competition as he vied for my leading lady’s heart, but also gave me an unbiased observer to obviously point out to my leading man that he had genuine feelings for my leading lady.

I love how my story turned out, it became so much more than I originally wanted it to be. I can only hope that I can do that with the companion novel, which highlights my leading man’s story of how he came to star as a leading man in the original story. I’ve gotta say that I secretly want this novel to be even better than the original. My leading man is amazing and special, and I want to showcase that he is brilliant and perfectly perfect regardless of all of his fundamental flaws.

Being able to write on a whim is something I want to be the champion of, because I want to be able to take advantage of the small moments that I have to devote to writing in between working and graduate school. Writing is my passion, and it deserves to be a priority. It deserves the right kind of attention.