Right on Track

The idea for the book I'm writing now, came from a true story of a POW in Vietnam. It's a story that came to me over and over again in strange ways, and has haunted me ever since. It's really been over a year or longer, the story has been rattling around in my head. I feel compelled to tell it.

I began writing it and very quickly went off track. I hated what I'd written and was disillusioned about whether I could actually tell the story the way I'd envisioned or not. When NaNoWriMo, came up I thought it the perfect way to start over. I scraped the first version off the page into the trash and started over. I am very excited about the way this second one has begun, but I found myself worrying about rushing through it.

This story feels so important to me. So instead of trying to finish 50,000 words in one month, I am going to use NaNoWriMo to motivate and drive me to continue this book, but I'm not going to worry about getting to the 50,000 mark as much as just keep writing.

Because of this decision, I decided I could spend some more time researching this week. I really need to feel wrapped up in Vietnam in order to write about it like I've lived it. So yesterday I went to the book store. I left my two kids in the children's section and headed for History and War to find a couple of books. I knew my kids wouldn't last long, so I hurried. I pulled three books off the shelf. The first was a history of the war, the second a story of the waiting wives back home, and the third a book of POW survivor stories.

Last night I picked up the POW stories and began to read. Within the first chapter I found the name of the exact POW I'm writing about! It's amazing! This book tells the stories of seven different men, (I call them men although at 18, 19 years old they were really just boys) and one of the men knew and talked about my guy throughout his chapters! It's just another affirmation that I'm on the right track. Out of all the books on Vietnam and all the POW's, I picked a book off a shelf in five minutes and ended up picking the EXACT book I needed.

Isn't life great?!

My excitement and confidence is renewed. I'm reading and thinking and writing~ and I'm happy. I know I can do this right. Next week when I'm off track again, because I'm sure I'll loose all this confidence and excitement, I'll just read this little blog and try and find my happy place once again...