First Impressions

They say you can’t judge a book by its cover. But they also say you shouldn’t stand in the middle of a field with a lightning rod wearing metal soled shoes during a thunderstorm, so what do they know? The truth is I’ve picked up many a book based on cover art and title alone, and while I don’t always pick a winner, there is obviously something to be said for the power of first impressions. If we’re honest with ourselves book covers often color our judgement about a work before we’ve even touched it let alone cracked open the pages.

With that thought in mind, I’ve produced a cover for my currently in-progress NaNoWriMo novel, The Dark Mile. If I didn’t know how awesome this story was going to be already, I would be itching to get my hands on it once I saw this:

Just looking at it makes me want to go and write some more of this story right now. I think I will.

Day One

It’s here! NaNoWriMo kicked off today, and I woke up feeling like a kid on Christmas morning. The story I’m working on this year has been percolating in my head for a couple of weeks and finally getting those first pieces of the plot puzzle on the page is a feeling like nothing else I know. The joy of NaNoWriMo is the push to let go of everything else and just write. You’d be amazed at some of the things that sprout out of your mind when the pressures on to get those words written no matter what.
At the end of day one, I’m proud to report a word count of 3,138.
If you’re struggling you keep up your word count, you should go and check out a program called PunishPad which allows you to input a word count goal and and time limit and prompts you to keep writing if you start to fall behind. It’s opened up whole new worlds of possibilities for me as a writer and I think it could do the same for you.
To all of you participating this month, good luck, and happy noveling. See you at 50,000 words.