NaNoWriMo: Six days and Ten Thousand Words

Six days into National Novel Writing Month, I have written over 10,000 words and met my goal of about 1700 a day. Twenty-five more days to the finish line for (working title) To and Fro Upon the Earth.
In the last post, I described how I had chosen a general thematic concept, the literary style, and chosen a broad structure. I also described that I had decided to draw inspiration from the ancient piece of wisdom literature known as Job—not to retell the story and poetry in modern form, but to use some of its theme and especially literary structure to create a novel. Today, I will put some meat on those bones and explain the content of those choices.
As noted in my last blog posts, I adopted a mixed method of writings as both an Outliner and a Pantser (click for Part 1 and Part 2), but leaning more heavily to the latter method. I did so only because I had not done it before, and I was curious to experiment. It has been an interesting experience. While I have a general idea of the story arc, and a general structure to follow, I do not know what I will be writing each day. Though I have written sections like this before, I have never tried a whole novel. Indeed, my nonfiction writings are almost always meticulously planned, with only occasional sections that take me off in unplanned paths. My experience is what I have heard other writers express: the story and the characters seem to lead me in places I did not know we were going. It is enjoyable because I am somewhat like a reader, curious as to what will happen today.
Theme. Though many people think Job is about dealing with suffering (“he has the patience of Job”), it actually addresses a concept that philosophers and theologians often refer to as the “retribution principle.” In brief, this is the idea that if a person is hardworking, intentional, and has moral integrity, things will generally go well for them in life; if a person is lazy, undisciplined, and lacks some moral center, things will generally go badly for them. This turns out to be a a complex doctrine that requires explication, explanation, or perhaps rejection. It is an age-old concept (obviously), and one that many writers have dealt with in many different ways. Mine will not be a philosophical treatise, nor an answer. Instead, I will explore the theme through a first person fictional narrative. I have found, as I write, that the particular aspects of the complex concept are becoming more focused. The character and the story are leading me in directions I didn’t expect. For example, I found that my main character says, quite often, something like “Work hard and be a good person, and everything will turn out right. Bumps along the road are to be expected.” A rather crass way of describing the theme, and not entirely correct. (Who does he think he is, re-defining my theme?). Furthermore, I didn’t think he would be so cavalier about “bumps along the road.” But it’s early.
Style. It has been a day-in-the-life and more poetic or perhaps stream-of-consciousness writing. In writing for the last six days, I discovered that I really enjoy writing some of the character’s daydreams and night dreams. I think it is because in those sections, I do not feel constrained by any style, theme, or content. It’s a dream, write what comes to mind. What I have found is that some surprising (or, more likely, some unconscious) symbolism, wording, and scenes appear.
Outline. As I noted before, I am not retelling the story of Job, but using the literary structure as an outline or, more accurately, a writing prompt. Before I beginning writing the next scene or section, I read a section of Job‚—the beginning and endings are determined by the original Hebrew writer’s literary markers. I might note a few ideas the text triggers; some of the imagery that is evoked, or some words that stand out. After reading, I research some of the linguistic or word meanings in Hebrew, historical and cultural literary artifacts, some of the literary criticism written by scholars. The results of this, along with what I have written in the days before, result in ideas for plot, character, setting, and so forth.
Though Job begins with a description of the main character in his life, setting, and character, this novel does not begin that way. As of now, the story begins with the main character dreaming. We learn about his life, setting, and character as we move through the first few chapters (which is better for a novel).
I will write more on the content next week. For now, here is the beginning of the novel. (Be gentle with me; this is a first draft without any proofing or editing.

Many decades ago, I was born in cataclysm. Heat, light, dark, matter, gas. Explosions. Coalescence. Spinning, flying. Collisions altering my path. Gravitational field pulls this way and that. Spinning. Spiraling.
Rest.
Cooling.
Silence.
Time passes.
Movement. Light, delicate.
Movement. Fast and powerful.
Movement, noise that sounds like the cataclysm, but I am distant. Protected.
Touchdown. Transport. Silence.

There is a sound. Like a hammer and a chisel on stone. Muffled. Then a crack! Momentary silence, then the tapping resumes. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. A piece of me is gone. More tapping. Time and tapping and silence alternate, in a somewhat regular pattern. Chipping away. At me.

Now it is clear. Chipping away at the outer later. The rock, the stone, the basaltic covering. Mining to the inside. With slow and deliberate care, remove the outer layer. To reveal the core. The compressed matter, born out of the cataclysm. The true being, the created being, the product of creation.

Crack! Light! Burning, but wonderful. Open. Free. Yes, it is only a tiny part of me, but it is touching the light. Air. No longer completely encased in the shell of frozen lava. Each period of silence I wait with anticipation for the next jolt, the next tap, the next crack.

They come. Cycles of shards. Cycles of anticipatory silence. Cycles of tentative tapping.
Crack! Light! The tiny part grows larger. The warmth, the light, the air—creation itself opens to me, painfully slow, but opens to me. I have a sense of time now and sense of being now a sense of purpose now a sense of future now. Now future. Firm nurture. Fine nature.

I stand naked in my created state. Air, water vapor, light, and surface…and me. As I was created in the beginning, as I stood without shell, without protection, without cover. I am naked before it all.

I am afraid.

Posts in this series

[box type=”bio”] We are pleased to publish this series of guest posts by Dr. Markus McDowell, an author and editor. He writes primarily nonfiction in the fields of law and religion, but we discovered that he has written fiction since he was 14 years old (but never published any). We convinced him to give NaNoWriMo a try, and to document the experience for us. Thank you, Dr. McDowell![/box]