I prevailed! I crossed the finished line with 24.something hours to spare! I’m too hyper and tired to give it a full write up, but I am listed among the 3,000+ winners, and have been given permission to display the following picture with pride (I thought the viking helmet was apropos). More to follow tomorrow.
“A man paces up and down the street, a wild and desperate look in his eyes and a wooden sign strapped to his chest proclaiming: ‘The End Is Near!’” That’s not a quote from my book, but that’s what I think of when I look at my word count and my calendar (I always think that word needs to “L”s in it). The end of the month is near, and the end of my goal is near, but to continue the little scene: “A little girl, prim and proper in her lacy pink dress, walks up to the man, tugs on his greasy robes and looks up at him with large brown eyes. He stoops down curious what such a small child would have to say. She opens her mouth and shyly states, ”But the end is not near. There is still a lot more of the story to tell.“ I know for certain I will not complete my book for quite some time, but I think I might actually reach the 50,000 word mark. I will reach 42,000 words before I go to sleep tonight, and while I doubt I will finish the book tomorrow, I ought to be able to get it done before the final deadline.
Oddly, my main character, Jory, is turning out to be more of an inquisitive three year old than a young man in his early twenties. I’m getting concerned that he is asking too many obvious, or simple, or just plain too many questions. It’s as if I have designated him the tool by which I can explain how things work and function in the world without having to resort to narration. I like having characters explain the world so much more than simply narrating it. In some way it feels like I’m cheating when I just tell people how things work. In the real world we don’t have the luxury of knowing all the ins and outs of a group of people unless we are a part of that group, so why should I tell my audience all about that group when none of my characters know anything about it? Where’s the adventure, the suspense, the discovery, when a known villain challenges an unsuspecting hero? (Okay, so that sounded just pitiful. I’m trying to get to 50,000 words and I’m spending my time debating modes of conversation and writing tips.)
One thing I am rather anxious to find out is how the women characters will develop in the story and which one Jory would be more likely to ”hook up“ with. I want to have a bit of a romantic struggle in the story, and I had planned on Jory falling for the second woman, but it’s almost looking like he’ll have to fall for the first, given the way I have developed each of the personalities, and how they have already interacted. All of this makes me now understand what Tolkien, Lewis, and other authors have said regarding characters having a mind and a will all their own. It still sounds creepy, but I know what they mean more than I ever did before.
I’m not sure if I should be terribly excited, ashamed, embarrassed, stunned, or a combination thereof. I’m on target as of this morning. I needed to be at 20,000 words by the time my head hit the pillow last night (to meet my own goals) and I hit it, exactly (so I wrote 25 more words for good measure). Looking back at yesterday, I was quite a handful to deal with, spewing words of frustration and fear at those who know me best, for I really thought I was going to remain behind. I was down 1,500 words, had a meeting, and then found out my in-laws were making a surprise visit from out of state and that’s when all Hell broke loose. Despite, or maybe because of, the circumstances I made up my deficit and then pushed forward to complete my 2,000 word goal. I managed to write nearly 1,000 words on my lunch break (I’ve usually taken that time to just relax), wrote a few hundred at the meeting, and hacked out another 1,800 when I got home. (At times like this I can imagine my mother calling me “prolific”.)
At the meeting last night, one of the few participating gentlemen complimented me on my diligence, having read some of this blog (hullo, hullo!) and I merely passed it off a “being lucky.” As I later thought about that, I discovered it’s true in some senses, but not really true at all. I too have been noticing that I am meeting my goals consistently (or making them up) and am well on my way to “winning”. I really cannot say how I am doing it, or where I am finding the motivation to write, so I can only shrug my shoulders about my diligence and just say, “It happens”. Even then I’m trying to figure out how and why, because I will not finish the book at 50,000 words, so I will need to continue writing well beyond the end of NaNoWriMo and the biggest challenge for me will be to maintain a good writing habit and finish the book.
If I have any “secrets” about my “success” it would be a few simple points:
Maybe this will help some people, maybe it won’t. This is what I have to do just to get the story told, for I am a perfectionist and would otherwise never finish the story (I’ve got a file folder full of these) because I would get stuck on a spot that was not good enough. Hopefully I will find that I can finish this book, then edit it and make it sing with a pleasing harmony, so my readers will stop gouging their eyes out.
This will probably be my first and my last NaNoWriMo (though who can tell). I set out to see if I could first of write a book, second of all write 50,000 words in 30 days. I know the answer to those two questions already (though I should wait until I am done to see if my knowing was really knowing … I just love epistemology). The pace being set for me is too much. Too many pieces of my life are on hold, and I cannot sustain that for much longer than a month. There are things I want to do, people I want to visit with, and having to push everything aside just to write 2,000 words a night … there is not enough payoff in the end to make it worthwhile. One thing I will need to figure out, come December, is what pace is comfortable. I will say I am satisfied that I am writing and that it is going well, but I don’t like seeing everything else around me begin to decay.
The second day of the second week (I cannot count Sunday) and I’m in great shape (though my wife tells me I need to get some exercise). I not only hit my goal of 2,000 words, but I finished early, and I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,000 words on the tip of my tongue. I decided to quit because I was tired, excited, and really wanted to continue watching a series on TV. I’ve learned that when I lose focus I don’t write well, so I took a break and don’t mind not writing any further tonight. I’ve met my goal, I’m on track. The tortoise beat the hare in the fable.
The wonderful thing is I’ve begun to have fun. Some part of me now knows I will be able to exceed the 50,000 word goal, baring any unforeseen calamity. I’ve started to enjoy the writing process again, like when I was a kid. My mind is filling with visions of the scenes my characters find themselves in and I am like a tiny tot in a toy store, staring about me with wide eyes and eager to see, hear, and touch everything. I had nearly forgotten how much fun it can be to create such vistas in my mind, revel in them for a moment, then describe them in way that will [hopefully] convey the same mood to my audience.
If there is anything about my evening’s writing that could be disappointing it would have to be the fact that I did not finish my chapter. I thought I would only have 2,000 words to finish out the chapter but I found it took me 2,000 words to get to the spot that will now take me between 1,000 and 2,000 words. This could very well mean that my second chapter is not paced properly, and that is something I am concerned about (but only when it is time to edit, because for now it means I’m going to finish NaNoWriMo with ease). My poor proofreaders will have to be the judge of my pacing, and if it is too slow I’ll have to shift some conversations to appear later in the story.
I think I can rest happy now, and perhaps dream of the settings I so recently narrated. I only hope no one nor thing will distract and derail me.
My writing software informs me I have completed 28% of my goal, an exact count of 14141 words, pure luck that it’s a palindrome. As to the percentage completed I want to strut about proudly. Double spaced this would be about 50 pages, and I can honestly say I’ve never written anything so large in my life, and I’m only in the second chapter! I would be slightly worried about this week, considering the veterans tell us this is the worst week of the entire month, but I cannot see how I will struggle. I do well writing in the evenings after work, and I am coming upon the sections of my story that I’m somewhat eager to tell. The real challenge, for me, will be near the end, because I’m not quite sure how to unravel and resolve the conflict. I know the end result, but not the means, not yet anyway.
One thing I have noticed about my writing is I spend most of my agony in the transition points. I am constantly trying to get one scene to flow into another, and those points seem to sap my mental strength. I have also noticed that spending more time writing doesn’t necessarily mean proportionate word count. Last night I needed 2,700 words to catch up (I managed 2,800) and I found out that 2,000 is a comfortable goal for me. After two and half hours of writing I wanted to be done. After I hit 2,000 I was beginning to spend more time motivating myself to write, so my words per hour dropped by a few hundred.
I will finally admit, that if my writing could ever be known for anything, I would like it to be remarked as vivid, able to paint fantastic pictures in the minds of my readers. I have hesitated to ever make that statement for fear that discover or be told opposite. I know I cannot achieve vivid detail in every scene, but I would love for people to read my stories and get caught up on the imagination of it all. In the end I would want people to close the book and have the impression that I painted a vibrant picture in their mind, and that they enjoyed it. I don’t know if I will achieve this. Taste is subjective, so folks may not like my writing, might not care for my scenes, and perhaps it is to ward off these people that I have never before stated my goal/desire for my writing. Hopefully this admission will not do me in.
Below is an excerpt from last night, an inspired piece if I do say so myself.
They continued to talk and walk, sharing interests, swapping stories, and passing the time. As Conn stated they were passing time far faster than they realized. They came upon the crossroads and took the southern fork, barely taking the time to notice they were a half hour early in arriving. The sun continued its constant journey towards the horizon stretching its lazy dusk light over the distant hills and spilling it out upon the clouds. The trees captured the remaining light and soaked it in with great relish, letting only brief glimpses sneak past their leaves and branches to rush towards the travelers and create long shadows that slowly climbed the trees.
In the waning light Jory spied a grove of flowering trees, whose blossoms of pale pink and light lavender tugged upon his soul with a beckoning unfamiliar to him, but too strong to resist. Conn agreed the spot looked well suited to setting up camp for the evening, though he was reluctant to use any of the nearby wood for a fire, stating that such delicate beauty was often cared for with a zeal that should never be disturbed. Jory was quick to agree that the trees should not be disturbed, and gazed lovingly at the trees and their blossoms. When the wind would blow groups of delicate petals would take flight from the tree, swirling and dancing on the breeze, sometimes surrounding the two travelers, but never landing upon them. At the end of their dance they would rest upon the ground, adding to a carpet arrayed in the most delicate of hues fit for the bed of the most noble and purest of elvish maidens.
As Jory stood in rapturous delight his heart began to swell with emotion. Feelings of warmth, of comfort, of peace began to wash over him. His head was filled with the fragrance of the trees; his ears heard nothing but the sound of the whispering wind holding conversation with the trees all about him. He dared not move and break the enchantment of the small, quiet grove. In that quiet, still moment he forgot all about Meagan, he forgot about the journey, and he forgot about his growing hunger. In that one moment he was taken up in the delight of such beautiful natural wonders and desired to see and protect such treasures; in that one moment he knew there were things in this world that were much bigger than his life, that this world offered riches beyond compare, but riches few men would count as valuable.
Conn eased himself out of his own pack, and sat himself upon the ground, letting out a near-silent sigh. “These groves are marvel aren’t they.” Conn whispered. “The elves planted them long ago, as sanctuaries, they say. They swear they are not enchanted, but I say otherwise. The beauty in these places, and the peace it brings, is an enchantment all to itself. Even a toughened old soldier like myself has been tempted to turn poet in groves such as this.”
“I would swear there is magic at work here,” Jory faintly whispered. “This is too beautiful, the fragrance too alluring, and the atmosphere too calm.”
“You are not the first to notice, nor will you be the last.”
This weekend was a terrible mess as far as writing goes, but in that mess I think I might have learned something I suspected might be true: the weekends are bad writing times for me. There are simply too many distractions, too many things I want to do, too much unwinding from the week I need to do in order for me to make any real progress. This is good for me to know, because in the future, when I want to write another book, I will not force myself to write on the weekends. Instead I’ll be free to socialize, work on household projects, and vegetate.
I have to end the weekend 1,000 words short of my minimum goal and 3,000 words short of what I would have liked to obtain. And to top it off, I am beginning to wonder if I should shift my outline some, or make this one book into 2 or 3 books (it looks like daglo was right after all). More on this later, for now I want to go watch some TV!
I did it! I actually finished my first chapter of my novel! I’m not so much stunned that I finished a chapter, so much as that I have been consistent in reaching my word count goals each day (on average that is). By this time I thought I would be complaining that I was 1,000 or more words behind and giving myself an ulcer. Instead I have found that at any given point I can sit down and crank out words. I’m flabbergasted that I can do this, for at no other time in my fiction writing attempts have I been able to just write. I usually had to sit there and agonize over what to write. I credit my success to my outline, for I know where I am and what I need to do next, so I always have something to write (until I run into one of those dreaded plot holes).
For example, last night I had to pay the bills before they got away from me. I hate paying bills (who actually likes it?) and when I was done I was none to happy. I didn’t know if I was even going to be able to write (I hate finding out that no matter how hard we work we still don’t have the money we want). Regardless I managed to get to 8,000 words by 11:30, and I started at 9:30! :)
First, I have noticed that inertia is at play in my writing as well as in the physical world. I have the hardest time writing when I start. Once I have a three or four sentences down I can usually work straight through to my goal without a problem, but those first few sentences can take me 5-10 minutes! I have had to force myself, each night, to start writing, and once I’m started I rarely want to stop (so far I’ve actually had fun watching the world develop).
Second, I have been sleeping better even though I have been sleeping less. This positively baffles me. I will got to bed, on average, 30 minutes later than usual (meaning I get 6.5 to 7.5 hours of sleep instead of my needed 8-10), and yet when the alarm rings I’m awake and rested. What gives? Thus far I have not noticed any ill effects, and on a few occasions I wake up wanting to write instead of going to work (we’ll see if this holds true tomorrow morning). A friend suggested I am probably getting better sleep. I’m guessing he might be right, because I go to be happy and satisfied (I finished writing a rather creepy villain section last night just before bed and half expected to give myself nightmares, thankfully I was safe). As long as I can continue to get restful sleep and get my writing done, I’ll be happy.
I was lucky last night; at least that is how I look at it. My wife’s car needed some work done on it, so we took it over to my parent’s place as it is better suited for work (our drive way is sloped, and I’d rather not trust an emergency brake with my life). I knew last night would be a hard night for writing; my parents are friendly people and we get along well enough that we usually miss our intended departure because we are engaged in conversation. Last night was not much different, with the exception of my ability to show off my writing software to my mother (who writes), and that they left me alone for about an hour so I could try to hack out something, and that is where I got lucky.
I dodged a bullet, but it grazed me. My writing time was divided last night. I planned my story some on the way to my parent’s house, spent some time writing while I was there (thank goodness I have some really good headphones), and had to wait until I was in bed before I could pick up again. I have never worked in such spurts, and I felt certain I would fail to meet either of my goals (either 2,000 words for the night or 6,000 words total). I don’t know how I did it, and I am a little proud of myself, but I managed to make it to 6,000 words before I went to sleep; I was grazed by that bullet in that I worked longer than I should have and did not finish until Midnight (I am drinking tea this morning!).
I ran into an interesting situation last night, one I am not sure how readers (or editors) will react. I hope that I can state, without sounding mentally ill, that I talk to myself from time-to-time. My main characters takes after me in this regard and is one who would think things through by having a mental dialog with himself. The quandary lies with showing the reader the thought process of my protagonist without sounding too awkward. There are times that I will just narrate that he thought of something, but as I found last night, it seemed completely uninteresting to just state that, so I decided to have my character spill his thoughts upon the page in a sort of dialog with himself. This is one thing I have not heard anything about from other authors or from writing teachers, and I cannot recall reading anything similar either. I could be violating some “rule”, but I decided it is far more interesting to show my audience (will I actually have one I wonder?) what is going on in the troubled mind of my character rather than just tell them his mind is troubled. (If you’d like to chime in your opinion on this, feel free to leave a comment.)
One thing I recall I have been instructed on over and over again is to maintain a consistent tense. I should not interweave past, present, and future tenses in the same scene, or so I am told, and I fear that is one of my weaknesses. As I was writing last night I realized I most probably have mixed my tenses as I have been attempting to close my first chapter (I almost pity my readers, for my first chapter will probably be around 8,000 words). I know that I will need to carefully re-read my story, when I am done, and fix this little mess I am leaving for myself. I could try to catch it as I write, but I think I’d rather get my word count done than spend time making sure my grammar and my structure are sound. No one said I need to have a finished ready-to-publish “novel” by the end of November, just 50,000 words. :)
One last thing, I managed to come up with a “side” quest help fill in that early hole I was facing. Since I did not reach it yet and I have begun to fill it in I am quite happy!
I am surprised. Despite the inevitable distractions of meeting new people and conversing with them I not only managed to reach my word count goal for the day, I exceeded it by 400 some words! I was able to write 1,000 words in the 90 minutes I was at the meeting (I had to come late) and by bedtime tonight I had exceeded my goal with ease. In fact, were it not for the fact that I want to get a good night’s sleep I would write some more. I can actually be even happier at my position tonight, because I spent at least 10 minutes looking for some names (I renamed my protagonist to Jory from Jayce). There was a point while I was looking and hunting for names that I began to panic about wasting my time, but now I see I was fine.
Tonight I had to return to what I wrote last night and add a crucial point, something I was missing: I described my protagonist. I gave a description of nearly every other character but my main one! This afforded me the opportunity to use the revisioning technology in my writing software, and so far it seems to work great (I have not tried to go back and look at my first version yet, so I don’t know how well or useful it will be). I hate revising what I wrote, because I usually like the structure of what I leave behind and I often have to rework entire paragraphs to fit in the desired (or needed) piece, and often that means I have to touch some phrase that I liked as it stood. Hopefully I will be able to manage through this as I know I will need to edit this before I let it see the light of day.
On that note, I did not write in the same quality as I did last night. I’m not sure why. It might have something to do with the mental distraction of being in a room full of other people who might at any moment ask me a question or offer a comment. Regardless I know I did not write great dialog tonight, but that’s okay, my only goal is to reach 50,000 words. I’ll make it “good” literature later.
I am not one for experimenting and making an already difficult task harder, but I came across an idea at work that I think I would like to employ in my novel, and one I hope will not be too difficult. I have read many books that weave two or more simultaneous treads together, alternating from one to the other. I would like to add that to my novel, so I can better develop the devious conflict the story will need. The question I will need to work out is how to add it without distracting the reader, and to know how much to reveal about the “evil machinations” to the reader while not revealing it to the characters. One thing I enjoy as a reader is discovering things along with the characters. I’m always … disappointed when I know something the characters don’t (this does not include foreshadowing).
I will work with the material some, and pass it around my head while I work and carry on about my life. I might even take my lunch breaks at work to develop this idea. I definitely think it is something that will help move the plot and help move the reader to side with our heroes, but I want to make sure I keep a careful balance and not reveal too much so as to make my story boring (okay, so I guess I not only want to reach 50,000 words but I also want a half-way interesting story to read).
This was a very hard night, and I hope to have learned a few things (though I wonder … ). To start it all off, I was too tired to really concentrate, and I had to force myself to develop my story. Instead of surfing the ‘Net I shut everything down except my IM application and my writing software. This forced me into dealing with my plot and story. This proved valuable, for while I did not make staggering progress tonight I made progress, which is more than I thought I would do. So:
• Lesson One: Make time for writing, and use it only for writing, especially if I don’t feel like writing.
Instead of really tearing into my plot and adding lots of interesting points I found myself organizing my outline. I started grouping things together in movements and sections (I still need to work on actual scenes, but I think I got a fair start) and identifying the areas where I want more plot points. I even gave myself a section for “unsorted” plot points for things I know I want to happen, but I don’t know where. This all proved helpful for it allowed me to see my story in terms of larger strokes (previously I had it grouped under “Beginning, Middle, and End” just to start) that made sense, and adding the unsorted events already proved helpful as it allowed me to flesh out an idea and place it already! So:
• Lesson Two: Organizing my outline; it will allow me to get a better handle on my story and compartmentalize the movements and discrete units.
The third thing which continues to be painfully clear to me (and is one of the sources of my “stuckness”) is my struggle to name things. I have to come up with names for people, names for places, names for kingdoms, names for legends, names for creatures, names for races … and I have a hard enough time picking a nickname for myself to use when chatting on the ‘Net! I’ve used name generators in the past, and those are okay, but there is still the struggle to pick a name that seems to fit the item (either by the sound or the meaning, or *gasp* both).
My only other point of “stuckness” is finding things for my hero(s) to do. I don’t want it to be a boring book (obviously) and I don’t want things to go by too quickly, and I like books that have little side plots that eventually tie into the whole in a way that few could predict. I imagine such complexities are beyond a 30 day deadline, but I still hope to have a tribute to such delights, perhaps editing after the fact to make it more full.
(As an aside: daglo got to see my outline as it stood tonight and he is convinced I have something close to 300,000 words worth of movements, while I can only see 20,000 words worth of points. I hope he is more right than I am.)
I could not be more thrilled than I am right now. For the first time in my life (shh!) I have a plot with a beginning, a middle, an end, and points in between. I still have quite a bit to develop, holes that need filling, and points of interest to bring up (I don’t want to bore myself or my two or three potential readers). Before tonight I only had vague ideas, and I did not have a clear ending; before this project I never really was able to sit down and arrange a plot, adding events and conflict, despite the number of times I have tried (I need to figure out why this is different, though one would suspect it is because of the lack of time to procrastinate under the guise of planning). Before I left work I told daglo that my goal for the evening was: “define 4 plot points, 1 more character, and pick some psychology for 2 of my characters.” I defined more plot points than I want to count (2 pages worth according to my outline software), I added 1 character, and determined the race of an existing one. So I didn’t add any psychology just yet, but that pales in comparison to developing my plot!
I also rediscovered something about myself, something I need to pay better attention to in all my projects, not just writing. When my mind says it’s done, it is done. There comes a time when I can no longer think and develop the way I was, and all struggling to get something done will be empty struggles (usually I have to re-do any work done in that period). I was only able to work for an hour tonight before that point kicked in, and I hope that is due to my lack of sleep and some of the mind-bending data organization I am slugging through at work.
I am a proud iBook packing geek (cum author?), and I truly enjoy my computer. The software I get to play with is top notch and has me expecting even more out of software than I ever have. Sadly, I also have to be willing to part with some of my money in order to play with some of it. First, there is the free (yippie!) note database software Notational Velocity which is absolutely fantastic at allowing me to fire off notes (on any subject) and find them later. Then there is possibly the best authoring software I have ever had the pleasure of using, CopyWrite. This thing allows you to store all your development documents, chapters, and notes (per document (including URLs!) and per project) all in one application. On top of that it has revisioning technology so I can permanently save draft one, hack it apart for draft two, but still see both drafts (I have not tried this yet, so I don’t know if it will show me the changes or the full documents). I had to shell out some of my money for it, but it has been worth it. Just tonight I started playing with OmniOutliner to get my plot outline organized (CopyWrite does not have any built-in outline capabilities). OmniOutliner has been great, but they too want some money. Thus far it has been great to get things organized, show sub-plots (yes, I even have one of those), and collapse those subplots. I don’t think I can afford to get it just now (donations are always welcome, *hint* *hint*) so I will probably have to use the trial and export it (they have a really good HTML export, or I can just save it to PDF and/or print it).
Some of the fun of this project is working with some really cool writing tools, tools I have wanted for a long time and now have. I’m not writing to use the tools, but the tools are making the writing easier and much more enjoyable. (Did I mention CopyWrite will let you set a target and show you a meter so you get a good visual of your progress?) Here’s hoping I hit 50,000 words!
I was quite afraid I would end up echoing daglo tonight. After not getting enough sleep last night, working my tired brain to exhaustion at work, and entertaining a couple of missionaries this evening I was quite afraid I would not get any time to work on my novel (I still don’t have a title yet, but that will come in time); I was most especially afraid I would add stress and pressure to my situation and not only get nothing done, but feel bad about it too. I don’t work well under pressure, I don’t respond well to stress, and somehow my attitude was right and I felt free.
I managed to plan out a few more bits and pieces about the characters in my novel, and a few notes on the greater plot picture. Sadly I still need to define, in greater detail, the movements in my plot. I feel quite satisfied though, for I confirmed something: when I relax and seek to enjoy the process, jotting down things that seem exciting to me, I get more done than if I work under pressure. Hopefully the “pressure” of a deadline will only serve as motivation to actually right, and not a source of stress.
And now the quandary of my tale. I am writing fantasy fiction. I have decided I want multiple races (I think it’s fun!). I’m not yet sure if I should include some of the “standard”; races (i.e. Elves and Dwarves, Orcs and Trolls) or forge out on my own creating all new races. On the one hand, using familiar races will engage my audience quicker, yet it also means I will need to do more research into them in order to maintain a certain level on consistency, lest I frustrate a reader by presenting an elf that is not very “Elvish” (if you know what I mean). On the other hand, creating my own races offers me plenty of opportunity to be imaginative and inventive; I will not have to conform to any standards. However, I may not be able to engage my audience and I run the risk of boring them with details that may not be pertinent.
So what do I do, and what would you suggest? I’ve only got 30 days… .