I forgot to mention the progress I've made throughout the month of October: I have been working on the story I wrote for NNWM 2006- the one in the best shape, the second novel I wrote. FINALLY, I was able to 'talk' to the main character and get some information out of her; I was finally able to make a breakthrough and figure out what needed to happen.
I have also sic'd another beta reader on the story- the third person and the only boy, and he's only gone through chapter one thus far so I think it's okay that I haven't woven the new ideas and chunks written in yet.
The thing is, it's not exactly 'new'- it's a new turn, but the reason leading up to it was not only obvious (in hindsight), but I had written a piece in August directly relating to it; I found a place for that piece. I'm not sure how much new words I've added to this book this year (not counting edits)- around 2200 I think. The thing is, I'm no longer concerned about the word count; it will definitely continue to go up based on the two new sections I decided to add (which in my last inspired session turned out to be more like one; they interwove themselves). So now I'll be making more sense of this story- sometime soon anyway.
I have to be careful- can't let it (or book 1, 3, or 4) get in the way of my NNWM goal!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
NaNoWriMo 2008
It's that time again and I am this close < > to freaking out. Yes, of course I am doing NaNoWriMo again and I don't have a clue what to write! Well actually that's not true- I've already decided I would bend the rules a bit and work on an idea I had that involved a series of short stories taking place in my country (mentioned in the previous year- book 5: BC). I've got titles and a general idea of what I want most of the stories to be about. One would think I'm well on my way to a successful NaNoWriMo but I simply don't know how I'm going to handle these stories. No idea of the characters, how I'll get the messages across...it just feels like a lot of half-baked ideas with a lot of potential, and I don't know how to make them live up to their potential.
Alternatively, I suppose I could follow the rules completely and write a full-length novel but I don't have an idea what I'd work on, no idea that has been sitting around for a while waiting for the opportunity for me to dedicate time to it; I've worked on all the novel ideas I had. That problem came about as a result of me working on two novel ideas I had last NaNoWriMo which turned out...okay I guess but I was spread all over the place because I worked on those two new ideas as well as on my two old 'completed' novels. I believe that happened as a result of me not having a solid plan/outline going in; I'd decided to kind of wing it, 'fly by the seat of my pants' in a way. I wanted to see what would happen if I did things with less planning as opposed to the previous (my first) NaNo where I went in with a good idea of where I wanted to go and had the first several chapters outlined. Once the challenge began and I wrote those chapters out, worked out/came up with more chapter ideas then tackled writing those out. It resulted in a successful NaNo. So it seems I am much more likely to be successful if I work out as much as I can, have a clearer outline in mind (and on paper).
Therefore, back to the original game plan (and the drawing board?); Nano's in 4 days...
ETA- Later in the night (wee hours of the morning of the next day that is) I got some ideas regarding characters and the situations I could use and each character's issues for book five. Once I started thinking about the people/places I knew best, I realized the answer was in front of me all along; there is one place I remained for a long time, saw folks come and go but a lot stayed. I got to know many people to some degree, and witnessed various episodes regarding them. It was like a family.
I still don't know if this is the idea I'm going to go with, but push come to shove...
Alternatively, I suppose I could follow the rules completely and write a full-length novel but I don't have an idea what I'd work on, no idea that has been sitting around for a while waiting for the opportunity for me to dedicate time to it; I've worked on all the novel ideas I had. That problem came about as a result of me working on two novel ideas I had last NaNoWriMo which turned out...okay I guess but I was spread all over the place because I worked on those two new ideas as well as on my two old 'completed' novels. I believe that happened as a result of me not having a solid plan/outline going in; I'd decided to kind of wing it, 'fly by the seat of my pants' in a way. I wanted to see what would happen if I did things with less planning as opposed to the previous (my first) NaNo where I went in with a good idea of where I wanted to go and had the first several chapters outlined. Once the challenge began and I wrote those chapters out, worked out/came up with more chapter ideas then tackled writing those out. It resulted in a successful NaNo. So it seems I am much more likely to be successful if I work out as much as I can, have a clearer outline in mind (and on paper).
Therefore, back to the original game plan (and the drawing board?); Nano's in 4 days...
ETA- Later in the night (wee hours of the morning of the next day that is) I got some ideas regarding characters and the situations I could use and each character's issues for book five. Once I started thinking about the people/places I knew best, I realized the answer was in front of me all along; there is one place I remained for a long time, saw folks come and go but a lot stayed. I got to know many people to some degree, and witnessed various episodes regarding them. It was like a family.
I still don't know if this is the idea I'm going to go with, but push come to shove...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)