Every time I start a new novel is another chance to meet more characters for the first time. It’s always interesting to me how they show up partially formed on the page, and then they transform themselves the more I write, twisting and gyrating like snakes until they emerge completely whole in the course of the re-writes. But right now, 3 days in, is the time for growing pains, and some pretty big ones.
Normally I leave my titles until last, but I have to have a working title in order to save the file, and to post my updates on the NaNoWriMo site, for all the maniacs like me who are spending this month falling in love with a new story. So my working title is Leaves in Fall, and I created a cover that I like more and more each time I look at it. I have to keep reminding myself, though, that I am no more tied to it than a traveling ranch hand is to the person who used to pay him.
Eventually I will probably move on from the both the working title and the cover that comes along with it, but the characters will live forever, so I want to do right by them. And until now I’ve set my stories primarily in major cities (or at least larger cities), but I felt this massive pull to take these cast of characters to a small town in Kansas. And that’s where they are, living their lives under the watchful scrutiny of my omniscient point of view.
Word count: 5,734 words.
Sam
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