Post-NaNoWriMo

I haven't written much at all since the end of November. I did need a break - I will admit to that, but now I need to get back to writing and I'm in two minds.

I had always intended to write some more scenes in December and then edit the scenes into the right order in January, ready to re-write them in February and March. Now I'm wondering if this is the right thing to do. Most of the story is there, but it does need organizing and bringing together.

I'm hald convinced that I should reorganize now and start the re-wrting in January. Trouble I know I don't stick with my descisions, which is exactly what I'm doing. In both cases, some scenes won't make it into the next draft and new scenes will have to be added.

I just feel, right now, that I'm writing stuff that won't be going anywhere and it would be a better use of my time actually fixing the scenes in order and seeing what is missing. As I have never managed to go much beyond the first draft, I think this is a barrier I need to cross.

So it looks like I'm going to start the reorganisation and then write more scenes. If I can do this and end up with a half decent and complete story, I will be happy.

Yesterday

Things went bad at work yesterday, so I got absolutely nothing written.

I'm glad it didn't happen before yesterday, otherwise I would have been much lower on my NaNoWriMo total. So there won't be much happening on the writing front until I get this mess cleared up.

Time to try shifting my writing to evenings and weekends.

It's over

So NaNoWriMo is over for another year. Congratulations if you won! I'm more statisfied with my writing this year than ever before and I seemed to have picked up a writing habit in the process.

I wonder how long it will last. Anyway time to go write another scene.

It's been a very long time...

since I last posted. I went on holiday and did all the usual stuff, but the one thing I didn't do was write. Yesterday that changed.

For some weird and wonderful reason I thought NaNoWriMo was October - stupid I know. Of course it's November. However I had a slight panic attack when I thought it was only a couple of weeks away and I hadn't even thought about what to write.

My exact thought was 'I have no plot or even a single character...maybe that will work...damn complicated though...might work...let's see' and I started to write. OK not a huge amount, just a few hundred words, but it's more than I written in months.

I don't know why I stopped writing. Probably it was because it just seemed like too much trouble. By the end of the last school year I was getting very tired and stressed. Not a real excuse, but I think the break has done me some good.

What it all amounts to is a very complicated plot for NaNoWriMo, which will span 80 years, with five or six separate stories that will weave in and out of each other. Did I mention it's complicated. I have no idea if it'll work, but if it does it could be the best thing I've ever written.

Should be fun to find out. So back to writing the plot summary, which will be in the form of a time line spanning the eighty odd years that the book will span. The actual book will not follow the time line, but the stories will be revealed in flashbacks. Maybe flashbacks is not the right word, still the actual story line will move back and forth through the time line.

Hi, ho, hi, ho, it's off to write we go...

long time, no blog

I've been writing scenes. Quite a few and new ones at that. I've also planned out a timeline, which means it is now easier to write some parts. I'm about halfway through and I am slightly stuck. I'm not sure which scenes should come next. I've been thinking about it for over a week now and I still can't get them in order.

I've decided to start writing the scenes from the first half and see if it all fits together, perhaps then I will see the second half more clearly. Of course the fact that I keep changing the climax of the story isn't helping. A little distance is needed.

I'm bad.....

at writing blog posts. I can't believe it's been so long since I updated. I have done some writing and I can honestly say that the quality of my writing is much improved.

OK, I'm not going to win any awards, but I am writing scenes and not just narrative summaries, which was my favorite way of getting out of the bits I wasn't enjoying.

I am now up to 6000 words of a novel. Here's to many more.

NaNoWriMo aftermath

I am so glad the NaNoWriMo is over. I will freely admit that I didn't enjoy it much this year, which came as a surprise to me. I thought I would. However I hated my story, which I think is the reason. The story was easy to write as I had a wonderful, detailed outline, but the story was boring and obvious. I chose it for that reason, so that I could finish a story from start to finish, where the plot didn't morph on the way. It's boring.

The characters, on the other hand, are interesting. They just didn't get to do anything interesting. So what I'm going to try to do is blend this year's characters with last year's plot. It may not work, but it also helps me get round a plot hole or two that I was having problems with.

And I start this weekend. Hopefully. A new outline, then new scenes, and finally a new novel.

Watch this space...

Not yet started.

So it's now 12:15pm and I haven't even started writing this years NaNoWriMo. I will start to day and hopefully complete the minimum (1700 words). I might even make it to 3000 words, which I hope will end up being my average for the month.

My excuse is that I was on holiday last week, from work at least. So now I have to catch up on all the missed emails and work I should have done.

Though I been waiting for NaNoWriMo to start, it feels more like an anticlimax than anything else. But then again, I normally do most of my writing in the last ten days when there's a greater sense of urgency. Maybe that's the problem.....

Outline finished!

The first draft of the outline is complete. I ended up with 27 chapters. If, during NaNoWriMo, I write about 3300 words per chapter per day, then at the end I have a finished novel of about 90000 words. Sounds easy.

I will now ignore the outline for a couple of weeks, and work on another outline instead. Then in October I'll come back to it and add/change what I need. The whole thing should be ready by November 1st.

Feels good to have finished the outline. Something is actually complete.

Another update

I really have to start thinking of some titles. I can't use "update" all the time.

Anyway to the update - I have now outlined 15 chapters. That means I am halfway through the outline. It does need some revision and character/place names, but the plot is coming together. This also means that I should be finished before the end of September. If I am, then I shall start the outline of the previous NaNoWriMo and leave the this outline for a week or two.

I will review it in October, before NaNoWriMo starts. I'll edit it and make sure all the details are there and then come 1st November I'll use it as a guide. I'm hoping to write 3000-5000 words a day. If each chapter is 3000 words and I have 30 chapters, thats 90 000 words in total. A real book. If I run out of time, I'll skip or skimp on parts so that I finish in time, but it will be much easier to go back and fill those parts in.

What all this means is this year I am going to write a full length book for NaNoWriMo. In previous years I have written a first draft, but I've never had much luck going back and making a real book of it. Hence the change in approach for this year. I don't know if it will work, but I think it's worth a shot.

For the last year or so I've been trying to get more serious about really writing a book, but with little success. I keep changing my mind and the story ends up so confused it's impossible to work out what was supposed to be going on. So now is the time to outline.

I'll add one other thing, in the past I've always finished NaNoWriMo in about 10 days or so, by writing 5000 words each day. So theoretically I should be able to extend this and write every day, instead of just the last 10 days of November. Of course, life will get in the way so I won't actually be able to write every day, hence the lower target of 3000 words a day. Some days I'll write more, and some days I won't write at all. But I will write.

Dreaming.....

I meant to write this yesterday, but it never quite reached the top of my to-do list.

I read quite a few blogs. OK, so I read a lot of blogs and yesterday one of them, Rachelle Gardner's to be precise, featured an email from someone having trouble writing. The whole thing really struck a cord with me. Here's the link to the story.

"Wondering" loved dreaming and finally tried to write down those dreams, but was finding it difficult. Now I love dreaming too. I do it almost constantly. I don't have a problem writing down the dream, but problem comes from turning that dream into a book.

Let me try to explain. My dream isn't a constant thing. It's always changing, mutating. Characters merge or simply change with no reason. So from beginning to end, my story follows no one line. It changes to match the people/location etc.

This is my problem. In order to write a book, there has to be one constant storyline. I need to fix it in place. I'm not so good at doing that. Writing down the dream, that I find easy. I don't worry if it doesn't make sense, because I know I can fix it later.

Writing is hard. At least writing a book is hard. Keeping to the point is hard (for me). Making excuse not write is very easy.

Now back to dreaming.

Progress at last.

I know today is Wednesday and all the way through NaNoWriMo I never wrote on a thing on a Wednesday, but today I did quite a bit.

With the problems I've been having with writing a new scene, I decided to do some editing instead. The result of this is an additional 8752 words have been added to my total, bring it up to 12528 words.

Now I know this is mostly editing. I have deleted a lot and I have rewritten parts, but mostly the increase in my total is due to the bits I wrote during NaNoWriMo that were actually quite good. (OK, so I think they are very good, but that might change over time).

I think I will continue like this tomorrow and possibly Friday. However I might run out of good parts by then and so I'll be back to writing again. My biggest gain from doing this, is the feeling that I am actually accomplishing something. My lack of progress in writing a new scene was really getting to me.

I was starting to lose confidence. Going back and getting stuff from my first draft has cheered me up tremendously. Not mention it has boosted my word count. I've also identified where new scenes are needed. I haven't even tried to write these yet, I've just simply put a note in the text, which includes a brief description of what I think the scene should include.

I think that I'll end up using about 30000 words from the first draft and hence will be dropping about 20000 words. I don't think that's a bad ratio. Especially since I re-did the storyline and changed the identity of the killer. I think I've worked out a new sub-plot that will increase the word count while illustrating the behaviour of a couple of characters.

So onwards and upwards.

Today's progress

Miraculously I wrote something today. Not much, but it's better than nothing. I added 361 words to my total, bring it up to 3776 words. Nowhere near as much as I should have written, but at least the total is increasing now.

I'm hoping to get more done over the Christmas break. I get 2 weeks off work, so I should be able to get something done. The only day that I know I won't get much done is the 26th December. That's visitor day, when we open our doors and everyone turns up. It tends to end up as a very long, chaotic day.

Now I know that we will also go out on at least a couple of other days as a family, but I should still be able to write. Hopefully I will get into a routine that will help my total increase and perhaps, I'll even reach my goals.

If it turns out to be a real disaster, I'll re-evaluate my plan. Perhaps I'll change to another storyline/plot. We will see.

Here we go again....

I didn't write again yesterday. My excuse is work. I did a lot of work yesterday and that took up all my time. When I got home I did the housework I hadn't done on Sunday because I was out a birthday tea instead.

But today, I have time. Trouble is will I write? I would be stupid not to and I have the time. All I have to do is to start typing. I think writing this post will help. It is at least some sort of writing and is a start. Now all I have to do is get creative.

Update (lack of)

Unsurprisingly, I did not write over the weekend. I managed 0 words.

However I did work out that I needed to change the location of the scene that I'm stuck on. If I move the location and add in a new character, one that isn't actually new, but was deleted from the NaNoWriMo draft because I thought that she was superfluous. Now I realise my first instinct was the right one. Moving the scene and adding the character will add a new dimension and solve some other minor problems. My MC will show herself off in a different environment and that is needed.

It will increase the word count too and that's no bad thing. The first draft, written for NaNoWriMo, was only 52000 words long and the final draft needs 75000-90000 words to lie within the "normal" book lengths.

I might change the timeline a bit too, not sure about that yet though. I think I need to write more before making a decision. Perhaps that's something for the next draft. Keep with the current timeline as is in this draft and see how the whole thing pans out. Sounds good to me.

On a separate note, I seem to have lost the spell checker from my post editor. I have no idea how I managed that, but I really need to find it again. My spelling is so weak, it's scary.

Quick Update

Today's final word count is 3415 words. So the second draft total is 3415 words. It's completely edited, so I did make my 2500 words goal. However I do need to write a new scene. Currently there is a paragraph that basically describes a scene, but I don't actually show it.

I've tried twice now to write that scene and have got absolutely nowhere. I need to approach it from a different angle. I know leaving it for later isn't going to work. It was in the first draft in just about the same form as now and it hasn't gotten any easier to write.

Trouble is I don't understand why this one is so difficult. Maybe it's just one of those things that just don't seem to have an explanation, they just are. Still it's bugging me a little. I think I will start by expanding the paragraph I have now and see if that will lead to proper scene, but that is for tomorrow and I will be writing tomorrow.

At least a little. I know I won't be writing on Sunday as I have to go out for the entire day, hence I'm determined to do at least something tomorrow. Maybe I'll get that scene written.

Writing

So far today, I have added 3884 words to my new draft. This gives a total of 3884 words in the second draft. Most of these words come from the first draft and a lot still need editing. I'm 750 words into the edit. I've already deleted some scenes that are no longer relevant. I just have to re-write the ones that are still relevant.

My goal for this second draft is to get 2500 words written and/or edited per day for at least five days per week. I failed miserably to do that this week, but in defence I did only start writing today. I should have started earlier, but didn't. Still I should be able to make my daily target for today at least.

As for NaNoWriMo, I'll keep a total going on here so that I can track my progress. I'll also update my spreadsheet to see how I'm doing and see if I can meet the goals I'm setting myself. Christmas is coming so that will affect things. I just don't know how at the moment. I won't be working, but there is far more family orientated things to do. Should be interesting if nothing else.

Other things I am doing is adding the scenes into a spreadsheet, which includes a timeline, words per scene and how many scenes I need to reach my word goal. For example, I've set my total word count for the entire novel to 80000 words, which is a reasonable length. Now my first scene is 750 words long. Now if all my scenes are that length, I would need 107 scenes to reach my target.

Of course not all the scenes will be the same length and the exact word count won't be 80000 words, but it's fun to track my progress. I'll keep an update on my average scene length and how many scenes I need to reach 80000 words. I'm hoping that the 107 will come down...

Time to go back to editing.

Argh!

So didn't do much yesterday, but it was a Wednesday. Still can't work out why I don't do much on a Wednesday, I just don't. In the writing sense that is. I do lots of things. I guess I do them on Wednesday so I don't have to do them for the rest of the week. I need to start writing at the weekend and just forget about writing on Wednesday.

Now I have two outlines (actually I have three, but the original NaNoWriMo one is no longer relevant) one of which is very close to the original I used in NaNoWriMo, but with the changes I wanted after having completed the 50k. The other one is no where near complete, but what I have done is, in my own opinion, better than the completed one.

The problem is I'm having trouble completing this outline. I keep going back to it and I don't seem to be able to get any further, so for now I'm going to set it to one side. I am going to start writing and editing the text I do have in order to get my second draft done. When the second draft is done, then I'll go back and see if the third outline is any good or of any help. If it isn't I'll delete it.

I should say that the beginnings of both outlines are almost identical, but they rapidly diverge. I like the direction that the unfinished one takes, I just not sure that it is something I want to write. Sounds a bit weird, but it makes sense to me. I often read books that I would never think of writing.

Lottery by Patricia Woods is one such book. I loved this book. I read it in one sitting. I think it's a great concept and it is written very well. Having said that it is not a book I would write. It's just not my style, but it is a great book.

And I think that might be my problem here. The second outline might produce a great book, but I'm not convinced it's one I want to write. On the other hand, maybe it's the one I need to write.

Outlining

At least that is what I should be doing, writing a new outline. Instead I'm surfing the web, doing my job, cleaning the house etc. In fact anything but writing a new outline. I am a little stuck at the moment, however that shouldn't stop me, but it has.

My excuse is that I'm looking for new inspiration to add to my story as well as boosting what I already have. That's just an excuse. I'm not really doing anything. Part of this is post NaNoWriMo exhaustion. I've been so intensely involved that I needed a break.

The other part is fear. Fear of failing, of being bad, of just not being able to finish what I've started, so why not fail now and do something else instead. None of this is real, it's just in my head. Part of me wants to work on several projects at once to increase my chances of at least one working out.

I know that if I start multiple stories, none will ever get finished. I have to concentrate on one and right now, that's difficult. It's time to knuckle down and get on with it. I know I can, trouble is will I?

One constructive thing I have been doing, is reading. Several books so far and I've another 4 I would like to read. At least 2 have been so bad, it's amazing they ever got published in the first place. Though both had interesting concepts, but, trust me, the writing was atrocious.

One book I couldn't get beyond the first page. It was that awful. I know I've read the book before, but how I managed it, I do not know. Another, one of the really bad books, had so many "She got home, had some dinner and a drink, then went to bed" scenes it was truly amazing. Well, they weren't really scenes, but you know what I mean.

The one I'm currently reading is very well written. It's not a subject I would write about, but that's just personal. The flow is good, but I think there are parts that could easily been cut to make the whole thing tighter, but on the whole these are few and far between. If I had written this book, I would be very happy. I know it's not going to win awards, but it is a good read and that is what is important to me.

Progress and Posts

I am making progress, but it is very slow at the moment. The upshot of this is that I will not be writing a new post every day. Instead I will update my blog 2-3 times a week, more if I happen to be doing well and when I am in a writing frenzy, then I'll update everyday.

But for the next two weeks or so, things will be quieter. I'm working on my outline and refining my characters, including either renaming or simply naming a couple of them. They aren't actually changing, just getting a cosmetic makeover. A bit like the outline.

Hopefully just before Christmas I will start writing in earnest again.