Larry M. Coleman

Since for the month of November, I’ll be writing my fifth NaNoWriMo attempt in addition to working a full-time job while also writing a totally separate novel in grad school, the blog will look different for this month before it goes back to normal in December. The Monday analysis/thoughts/topic of the week posts, Fiction Inspiration Fridays, and the weekend Story Cubes posts will be on vacation for the month, waiting eagerly to step back into the spotlight on December 2nd.

This Beautiful Sentence will have a selection from my favorite passages from my NaNoWriMo novels from 2020-23 because it’s important to let yourself acknowledge that even in the midst of a pile of junk, sometimes you can write something beautiful.

Each post will come out at 23:59 U.S. East Coast time and will be a short summary of the day’s word count and other brief notes. Because I advised you to make sure you stay physically active while blasting through NaNoWriMo, I’ll put in what exercise I did that day. I don’t believe in telling others to do something I wouldn’t do myself, so you’ll see me stick to it (or shame me when I don’t). If I can make time for it, then anyone can.

As I said several times throughout my October NaNoWriMo prep posts, this year I’m going into NaNoWriMo with a much different approach than normal. Instead of having at least several pages of jottings, notes, sketches, and ideas, I have almost nothing on purpose. This is the entirety of what I’m starting this year’s novel with:

Title: 6 (because it’s the sixth in this universe)

Epigraph (a quotation that starts a book):

Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new; late have I loved you. And see, you were within and I was in the external world and sought you there, and in my unlovely state I plunged into those lovely created things which you made. You were with me and I was not with you … You called and cried out and shattered my deafness. You were radiant and resplendent, you put to flight my blindness. You were fragrant, and I drew in my breath and now pant after you. I tasted you, and I feel but hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours.

—St. Augustine

(Even that’s less than normal, because I always use two epigraphs.)

Opening line:

Anna. Place of my birth, place of my near-death. Land of love, land of hate. Corn, thunderstorms, and nothing. A great place to be from.

Subject: Richard’s memoir.

That’s it. That’s all I’m starting with. The only other “prep” I’m going in with is actually another self-limitation. I write description very sparingly. It’s a personal predilection as well as a stylistic choice that keeps the action moving. This time, I’m going to force myself to describe the world very thoroughly. It will slow down the reading, but it will also probably slow down my writing even more.

I expect this one to be my hardest NaNoWriMo yet. The first one was hard, but easier because I didn’t know what I was really getting myself into. The fifth time around, I know what it’s like and I’m taking away all of the things that usually help. Wish me luck, and if you’re writing this month too, I hope yours goes great!