How Goes The NaNo?
Posted under: Four whole days into NaNoWrimo *gasp, shock, horror* and I thought it’d be a good time for an update.
How’s My Progress?
If you’re ever curious about my progress on my various writing projects, feel free to pop over to the site and check the colorful bar graphs I have in my sidebar. I’m tracking Stained’s progress as a percentage of chapters done, while NaNoWriMo is pure wordcount – what percentage of 50,000 words am I at?
Hopefully, that will provide a tidy at-a-glance checkup on how I’m doing.
Did The Planning Pay Off?
Did. It. Ever.
I am so incredibly in love with my outline/synopsis, you guys have no idea.
I feel like I get to write this book twice (and the fun kind of “write” rather than “revision hell” which often counts as a “rewrite).
I’ll know 100% whether or not this method works for me when I finish the book (you can never be truly certain until the end of a path is reached) but as I write RIGHT NOW, all I can say is that I feel like I’m embarking on an adventure with a clear map and goals, instead of just a vague sensation that I should go left and I should probably pack a change of clothes.
Instead of feeling as if I am bored, writing something that’s already been decided, I feel ALIVE and in control and joyful to a greater degree than I felt when I wrote with no sense of what I needed to do.
Love. Lovelovelove.
Moment of Magic
I tried to “meet” my characters before I began writing (and those exercises were not wasted!) but they did not come alive until I began writing them in this story.
My favorite NaNoWriMo moment from this year was when Shayla (my main character) “woke” in my head.
She had interacted with a few faceless characters up to that point, but I was writing her blandly, with only a vague sense of how I wanted her character to be.
It wasn’t until she saw some of those faceless characters standing around in the face of danger that she sat up in my head and angrily shook her fists at them. “Are they just going to stand there and do NOTHING?” she snarled.
Bam. One line, and she went from being a character sheet on paper to pacing around the back of my skull like a restless tiger in a cage.
I want to hold that moment of magic to my heart, clutch it and never forget it. She became exactly who I needed her to be. Who the story needed her to be.
And You?
I know not everyone who reads my blog and is doing NaNo is a member of the Saucy Forums. How are you doing? Are you pleased with the pre-planning you did, or are you taking notes for what you want to improve for next time?
Have you hit a moment of magic yet?
Woo woo! Go, Tami, go!
*pom poms*
(Elmer for Head Cheerleader)
*giggle* He’s uncomfortable in that short skirt!
I kind of hit a magic moment tonight. My muse must have been in the neighborhood and decided to stop by. Before I describe that, though, here’s what I’ve gone through to get to this point, in the most succinct way I can think of:
* Began with a synopsis.
* Rewrote it with bullets, as the prosy synopsis grew out of control.
* Got to writing and realized the rise to my climax was a bit … uh … vague.
* Quit writing for a week and hashed that all out more better.
* NaNoWriMo started and I “reset” my word count to zero.
* Tonight I got into the midst of those climactic bullets and accidentally took an unexpected left turn.
On the one hand, this was good. On the other, I found myself in completely unplotted territory and I was suddenly pantsing it again. Crap. I nearly locked up when all of a sudden a light went off in my head. (Wait, a light went on. Why do we say off for both “off” and “on”?)
Anyway, I suddenly found myself with something better than I ever could have imagined. Whether it ends up working in the larger context of the story remains to be seen. But this is the first draft, and I’m allowed to do stuff like this.
What’s really amazed me is writing over 22,000 words in four days. Never knew I had it in me.
Charlie Hills´s last post ..NaNoWriMo Day 4
Nice! Congratulations on riding the new path and in getting so very many words written, that’s incredible!
Tami´s last post ..How Goes The NaNo
@Charlie Hill – wow, amazing word count ;)
I laughed myself silly during my writing session this morning. The stuff I was writing about was funny, yes, but some of my insights and commentary were even funnier. Now, if everyone else would just APPRECIATE MY GENIUS, we’d be in business!
Wulf´s last post ..Exploring my muse with NaNoWriMo
[...] (affirmed?) that I write “by the seat of my pants.” The aforementioned Mrs. Moore is a confirmed outliner, and I couldn’t be happier for her.2 And I imagine at some point (very possibly when I start [...]