Okay, guys. Today is Day 9 of Nanowrimo. We made it past the first week! I finished yesterday a little below goal at 13,028, but I've already written over a thousand words this morning and I'm going strong. It's hard to reach the daily goals, but don't feel discouraged if you miss a day. I missed this last Tuesday/Wednesday thanks to election jitters and a stomach bug, but I'm nearly caught up!
I've also discovered how important really good outlining is. The first third of my book was very thoroughly outlined. I knew what happened, where, with whom, and in what order. Which meant that when I sat down to write, I knew exactly what was going on and could churn out scenes with minimal difficulty. The I reached the middle. Now I know a lot of writers have trouble with a "sagging middle," but I didn't think I was going to have that problem. Lots of exciting stuff happens in my middle, although the first half of the middle is mostly character interaction. My problem? My outline said vague things like "she starts being interested in him." Which means absolutely nothing to me when I'm trying to visualize a scene before writing. Where are they? What are they doing? What was it that interested her? I don't think I intentionally fudged on the details when I was outlining, but the end result was a huge stumbling block.
Thanks to Nanowrimo, I went ahead and wrote. If I didn't have that motivation I probably would have stopped and struggled with it for a while. And while I did write, I'm not saying that what I wrote is good or whether or not I'll end up keeping any of it. But at least its there on paper. I can see what's wrong with it and how to fix it. But editing/rewriting will have to wait until December.
So I plowed through that difficult section and I'm finally back on firm footing with my outline. I'm reaching the middle of the middle (where something exciting happens!) and I'm doing pretty good at churning out the scenes.
So that's where I'm sitting at the end of my first week of NaNoWriMo.
How are you guys doing?
Sigh...I simply cannot keep myself from revising as I go along. I'm way behind on word count, though I am happy I've written quite a bit this month. I'm hoping to do some catch up next week, since I'm off work.
ReplyDeleteI am very excited about my book though. I also find my outline pretty bare in some respects, but in a way that's allowed me to add some very interesting plot points that I hadn't completely worked out.
Also, if you're interested, my blog is http://thewiseserpent.blogspot.com/. I choose the Wise Serpent because of its similarity to my current book title :)
It has been very difficult for me to not revise as well. After all, editing is probably my favorite part. Focusing on the numbers is the only way I've been able to keep myself moving forward. And I agree that the best outlines are ones that have a bit of wiggle room. Sometimes your characters surprise you!
ReplyDeleteI really like the title of your blog. It's got a bit of Wheel of Time feel too. I'll definitely check it out.
The title of my blog comes from a quote by Alice Walker. "Writing keeps me from the sin and inconvenience of violence."