This webpage originally created on
October 04, 2003.

Note -- (12-13-2005)  I have removed the online postings for this and any other NaNo novels.  The chapter headings below might give you a sense of the direction the novel's heading in (but I doubt it).  I've decided to keep the postings off the Web because I have a hope that some of these will be finished eventually and be potentially viable commercially (after a great deal of rewriting, of course), I keep hearing that publishers are reluctant to look at material that's already been published/posted/displayed somewhere, so I rather be safe than sorry.

       On November 1st, 2003, I started my second year of participation in NaNoWriMo, and attempted (for the second time) to write at least 50,000 words of a novel in the space of thirty days. Last year I managed to squeeze out 39, 255 words before it ended.  This year, I finished 53,098 words before midnight on November 30th.

       The novel takes its title, "If a Butterfly", from the original statement by meteorologist Edward Lorenz, describing something called the Butterfly Effect.  He began studying the effects that small errors have on larger systems, and published a paper which had a title something like "Predictability: If a Butterfly Flaps Its Wings in Brazil, Will it Set Off a Tornado in Texas?".  I don't think he ever meant for it to be taken literally.  It isn't a cause-and-effect statement.  I began thinking about the interconnectedness of separate individuals and events, and decided to combine some elements of that idea with the Butterfly Effect, and add the element of the Monarch Butterfly migration into the mix.

       Synopsis:  The finished novel should trace the journey of a particular butterfly from its summer home in Canada to its over-wintering spot in the mountains of Mexico.  While the butterfly is a character in the novel, the novel will also trace the lives of several people; among them an astronaut aboard the International Space Station, a married couple driving from Niagara Falls to Houston, a teacher in Toronto, a late-night DJ in rural Virginia, and a multiple-personality-disorder victim in Phoenix, Arizona.  As the butterfly's flight intersects with each person's physical location, the novel picks up their story.  The characters continue to play a part in the novel even after the butterfly has moved on to the next location, so the cast of characters grows as the journey progresses.

December 1, 2003

       Now that a little less than half of the first draft is written (at 53,000 words), I have a clearer idea what the novel will look like when finished.  During December and January, I will continue to work on completing the first draft, although not at November's pace.  I plan to write a couple of evenings each week (for a few hours), and maybe three or more mornings each week (for roughly an hour).

       In February and March, I will do a massive rearrangement of scenes (the order I wrote things in isn't workable for the final novel), and begin to tighten the scenes up (deleting 20 - 25% of the material I will have at that point.  There is a lot of unnecessary exposition in the current version -- an awful lot.). In April and May, I plan to polish and tweak the words.  Somewhere in the middle of all that, I still hope to find an actual voice for the butterfly, something I wasn't able to do during NaNoWriMo.

       What I did during NaNo2003 is very much like what happens on a movie set.  Scenes are filmed out of order because the movie crew happens to be in a particular location on a certain day that appears several times in the course of the movie, or because the film crew may only be able to have the services of a particular actor on certain days.  I wrote the pieces of this novel as they came to me, but these scenes aren't in any sensible order chronologically.  The scene called "Gunther and His Brush Pile", for example, was one of the first scenes I wrote.  It will show up somewhere in the second half of the finished novel, after the scene called "Gunther Speaks", which was one of the last scenes I wrote.  During the editing process, I will be rearranging scenes (chapters), leaving unnecessary bits on the cutting room floor (editing the words out), etc.  At that point, sometime in Spring 2004, the novel should begin to take on a more coherent structure.

       The links below will take you to the writing as it was done (no it won't) on a day-by-day basis during the month of November.   (see note above, there are no links to the writing).  I won't be posting any more of it on the Web past November 30th, 2003.  I hope it makes some sense to you in the form you see it below.  I hope it will make a lot more sense after it's re-arranged and reworked.

       Enjoy.

       Michael

Day-by-Day Postings

Day One -- Saturday, November 1, 2003 (1,765 words)
       Before Sunrise; Sunrise; Awakening; Billie Crowder; Gunther and his Brush Pile.

Day Two -- Sunday, November 2, 2003 (+3,049 words = 4,814 words)
       Gunther and His Brush Pile (cont.); Gunther's Septic System.

Day Three -- Monday, November 3, 2003 (+1,331 words = 6,145 words)
       Stella and the Creaky Old House.

Day Four -- Tuesday, November 4, 2003 (+2,007 words = 8,152)
        Stella and College; Stella and the Quilt Shop.

Day Five -- Wednesday, November 5, 2003 (+3,197 words = 11,349 words)
       See Dick and Jane Drive; See Dick Teach; See Dick Meet Jane; See Dick and Jane on a Honeymoon; See Dick and Jane Play in the Snow (or try to).

Day Six -- Thursday, November 6, 2003 (+3,062 words = 14,411 words)
       See Dick and Jane Leave for Warmer Climes; See Dick Change Jobs - But Stay in the Same Place; See How Dick and Jane Got to Niagara Falls.

Day Seven -- Friday, November 7, 2003 (+574 words = 14,985 words)
       Lost in Space.

Day Eight -- Saturday, November 8, 2003 (+1,937 words = 16,922 words)
       Lost in Space (cont.); Stella Learns to Quilt.

Day Nine -- Sunday, November 9, 2003 (+1,564 words = 18,486 words)
       In Preparation for Takeoff; See Dick and Jane Give a Butterfly a Ride.

Day Ten -- Monday, November 10, 2003 (+5,253 words = 23,739 words)
       Billie's Bus ride; Stella Quilts and Studies and Meets Someone; Stella and John; Big Changes for Stella; Through the Rabbit Hole and Out the Other Side; Time for a Change; See Dick and Jane Goof Around; See Dick and Jane Go Shopping.

Day Eleven -- Tuesday, November 11, 2003 (+1,394 words = 25,133 words)
       Burn, Baby Burn.

Day Twelve -- Wednesday, November 12, 2003 (+365 words = 25,498 words)
       See Dick and Jane Try to Wake Up.

Day Thirteen -- Thursday, November 13, 2003 (+1,908 words = 27,406 words)
       See Dick and Jane Go Up, Up and Away.

Day Fourteen -- Friday, November 14, 2003 (+1,801 words = 29,207 words)
       See Dick and Jane Float Like a Butterfly; See Dick and Jane do Breakfast.

Day Fifteen -- Saturday, November 15, 2003 (+3,656 words = 32,863 words)
       A Confluence of Events; A Spiritual Diversion; The Confluence Continues to Flow.

Day Sixteen -- Sunday, November 16, 2003 (+807 words = 33,630 words)
       The Flight Begins.

Day Seventeen -- Monday, November 17, 2003 (+704 words = 34,374 words)
       TV With Extras.

Day Eighteen -- Tuesday, November 18, 2003 (+776 words = 35,150 words)
       The San Carlos.

Day Nineteen -- Wednesday, November 19, 2003 (+2,240 words = 37,390 words)
       Off We Go Into the Wild Tan Yonder; A Drive Through the Desert.

Day Twenty -- Thursday, November 20, 2003 (+684 words = 38,074 words)
       Why is it Called Blacktop?

Day Twenty-One -- Friday, November 21, 2003 (+1,129 words = 39,203 words)
       In the Belly of the Butterfly

Day Twenty-Two -- Saturday, November 22, 2003 (+1,159 words = 40,362 words)
       Over the Canyon in the Butterfly

Day Twenty-Three -- Sunday, November 23, 2003 (+1,172 words = 41,534 words)
       Who Were the Harvey Girls?

Day Twenty-Four -- Monday, November 24, 2003 (+1,107 words = 42,641 words)
       Mary Colter's Bright Angel

Day Twenty-Five -- Tuesday, November 25, 2003 (+1,004 words = 43,645 words)
       What a Grand View!

Day Twenty-Six -- Wednesday, November 26, 2003 (+3,416 words = 47,061 words)
       D.C. After the Storm; Michael Dreams About the Past; Mexico Before the Migration.

Day Twenty-Seven -- Thursday, November 27, 2003 (Thanksgiving) (+1,216 words = 48,277 words)
       Tracking the Storm from the ISS; Billy Falls Down and Doesn't Get Up.

Day Twenty-Eight -- Friday, November 28, 2003 (+2,437 words = 50,714 words)
       Dick and Jane Head for Houston; An Errant Butterfly Flies; Dick and Jane do Natural Bridge Caverns; Back on Track.

Day Twenty-Nine -- Saturday, November 29, 2003 (+1,053 words = 51,767 words)
       Gunther Speaks; Billie Wakes Up; The Persistence of Cosmonauts.

Day Thirty -- Sunday, November 30, 2003 (+1,338 words = 53,105 words)
       21:30-06:00 (ACTIVITY: SLEEP); 22:56-00:42 (ACTIVITY: OTHER).

               After NaNo Writing -- (I may very possibly list it here, just to keep track, but won't be posting the writing on the website).

Day Thirty-One -- Monday, December 1, 2003 (1,228 words = 54,333 words)
       

Days Thirty-Two through Thirty-Four -- Tuesday, December 2 through Thursday, December 4, 2003 (2,299 words = 56,632 words)
       

Day Thirty-Five -- Friday, December 5, 2003 (568 words = 57,200 words)
      

Day Thirty-Eight -- Monday, December 8, 2003 (1,030 words = 58,230 words)

And click here to see the chapter headings for the continuation of this novel, worked on in November of 2005, and early 2006.

Click here to go back to this website's main index page

   This page last updated on February 3, 2006

        All materials at this site are copyright Michael Sirois, November 2003-2006. Reprint or reuse for any purpose other than brief quotes for the purpose of reviewing the work are expressly forbidden.

msirois@rice.edu