Category: NaNoWriMo

NANOWRIMO Day Seven

Part two is proceeding.

What can be a bother is that when you’re writing, even to a plan, that ideas come out of left field, and can leave you scratching your head.

So, I’ll be honest, I’m not used to writing to a plan, more that i write by the seat of my pants. But I’m determined to stick to the plan and see how it goes.

On the ‘we’ll look at it later’ pad i write down the latest curve ball, then push it to the side of the desk again. It might get a look in during the first rewrite.

I’m still looking at part three, and while it’s the part where we bring the two together for the first time, that might happen sooner. I was scribbling down a loose outline that was leaning towards a meeting briefly after she was released.

It’s a difficult point and I think I will let the writing go where the storyline leads.

More on this tomorrow

NANOWRIMO Day Six

The first section or part is done. I think.

I had intended it to be longer, but as it pans out what follows belongs to the second part, and I have begun working on this.

There are 8 chapters so far in Part One.

This may change depending on what happens in the second part.

Of course, there are moments while I’m working on this part, and checking the plan, I can see a fork in the road coming up. It feels quirky, but then I just dropped a huge plot twist and will play this out and see what happens.

At the same time, after completing my day’s quota, I have to resist the urge to write more, but that’s just a fear in the back of my mind that I might run out of words and be staring at a blank page tomorrow.

So, looking at the plan, the third section looks like it might need a rework, and I’m playing around with several angles that might be pursued.

I think it’s time to stop overthinking it.

NANOWRIMO Day Five

Remember a few days ago I was looking at a separate first part, and that will be the case. It was not what I originally planned, but it is a work in progress.

Now, having worked on the next part, this is now developing into a section of its own too, and will serve as an introduction to the second main character. I had planned it differently, but this is better.

This section is starting to all but write itself too, which is a good sign, because I’m at over 2,000 words for the day, and the story isn’t done yet.

But, I’m taking a step back, just in case I jinx myself.

Later…

Sitting staring at the ceiling and looking ahead, a few notes for what’s coming vs what I planned, and the work so far will form part 2.

Part three is going to be the main story, where the two main characters come together, more through the circumstances of their first meeting that something that was consciously planned

NANOWRIMO Day Four

nanowrimo-blog-banner-2019-journal

I’m still working on the start and it’s writing itself, so the time I spent on preparation is paying off.

I have a spare hour or two after writing the chapter and start thinking about the start of the next section.   I had some hastily scribbled notes on how I think I wanted it to run, but it’s a bit wordy and needs to follow the start.

I’m going to throw the second main character in the deep end, and break his story slowly, in a series of memories.  Nothing better than to be dodging bullets in the first sentence.  Maybe.  I’m having second thoughts about the bullets.

Maybe not, but there will be something or someone to contend with.

But, back to the start.  It’s not going to be the usual interaction between the two characters, and I’m still a little unsure if the fate of either will be as I originally planned.  There’s a chance something will change, but, as we all know, that might make something else planned for later, change.

Let me sleep on it, and see what I think in the morning.

NANOWRIMO Day Three

nanowrimo-blog-banner-2019-journal

Overnight I had a brainstorm.  You know how it is when you start writing, you get to the end of a chapter, and thoughts turn to the next chapter, or, quite possibly the overall structure of the book.

This part I’m working on now seems to lend itself to a separate section, and I’m tentatively calling this Part One, and it will deal with a specific set of events that will lead into the start of the main story, which, at the moment will seem like we’re in a different world.

But that’s the inevitable situation when you are charting the two major characters, one who comes from the very sort of background the other aspires to get into.  When we pick up his character, it’s in a place he never expected to be and has to try and move on from there.

However, I’m not even ready to write that part of the story, and I have to get my mind back in the current game and come back to that later.

The trouble is my mind is not going to stop fretting about it, and I hope it doesn’t affect what I’m trying to write now.

Ok, Chapter five …

NANOWRIMO Day Two

nanowrimo-blog-banner-2019-journal

Finally, the ship got clear of the wharf, avoided a collision with a barge the strayed a little too close, and had me as captain of the Titanic, worried about people drawing parallels with the barge becoming an iceberg.

But…

I got the first two chapters done, more or less as I wanted them, but, as you would expect, once you start writing, there are minor shifts in the way it plays out.

It’s fine, however, and I’m not going change it.

The story is running according to the script, and it worries me.  You know how it goes, everything’s great until the engines break down.

Perhaps I should be more optimistic rather than pessimistic.

But, sadly, not so much written today as I’d hoped.

Smoother seas tomorrow one hopes!

NANOWRIMO Day One

nanowrimo-blog-banner-2019-journal

I took a deep breath and could feel the tug pulling hard on the tow line, as the ship eased away from the dock.

In other words, we’re underway!

It’s going to run like this, read the outline that refers to the section or chapter I’m about to write, let it mull in my mind and then, after several hours, sit down and write.

The start is always the hardest because you have to keep in mind that it will serve as an introduction, with some explanation, about the character, and a situation, and still hold interest.  It’s a fine balancing act and I’m not sure if I have got it exactly right.

As for the next chapter, the story is improving, and perhaps, if I’m not happy later on, I will go back and fix it, if, of course,  it needs fixing.

Just the same, we have a long way to go.

NANOWRIMO eve

I’m ready, finally, to set sail.

It was touch and go with the preparations almost foundering on the rocky shoreline that represented the plot holes, and in the end, I put all of the plot lines on cards and blue tacked them to the wall in the order I expected they would play out, and it showed where the holes were.

It was an innovative idea, sadly not my own, but one I used many years ago when working as principal researcher for a company biography, a company that had been in business since the 1890s. Inthat instance, I collated the main points attached to dates, sorted the cards m into date order and it gave a very clear historical outline.

The same, I found worked for the plot, and in being able to attach a loose timeline across all of the plots and sub plots to see where, chapter wise, they were going to fit in. Or where something was missing.

I know there’s probably very good computer software that also does this, but I was getting distressed, and didn’t want to put it all into a program, and find it didn’t do the job quite as i might expect, and being so close to starting time I didn’t have the time to fiddle.

Call me a luddite, but what did we do before computers. Yes. Pencils and paper.

Or was that charcoal and papyrus?

Where does time go?

NaNoWriMo starts in a few days time and I thought I had it under control, the preparatory work that is.

Nothing could be further than the truth.

I was looking at the outline last night, and it was as if I had the finished book in my hands and I was doing the second reading, part of the endless editing process.

Plot holes bigger than sink holes were appearing before my eyes.

The start is, quite frankly, lame.

There something missing in the middle and there seems some disjointed writing that seems to have no relevance to anything before, so..

Back to the drawing board and …

Panic.

What I need is some thing to hook the reader from page one, not put them to sleep.

OMG.

How the hell am I going to get this mess into some sort of shape before the start.

I guess there’s no time like the present.

My NaNoWriMo project is …

Nanowrimo graphic

I was going to say, it was sinking like the Titanic, but that’s a joke going to far.

Last night I was working on some ideas about how the start will take shape, but the problem was, everything I wrote was terrible.

In fact, I was beginning to think I was losing the plot, a rather interesting turn of phrase for a writer to use, don’t you think.

Or a pathetic joke.

So, after about an hour of putting ideas to paper, I looked at it, and then tore it up.  Figuratively, that is, because it’s on the computer and unless I delete it, it will still be there to haunt me.

we all know that deleting a file doesn’t necessarily mean it’s deleted.

OK, getting off track.

This morning I’ve been mulling over it, or more like stressing over it because I need to get an outline on paper if I’m going to get 50,000 words written.

How will I do this if I can’t get the start right?

So, I came up with a subtitle, “what happens in Moscow doesn’t necessarily stay in Moscow”.

Well, it sounded good in my head, not so much now that I’ve put it down on paper.

But…

In essence, that’s what the start is about, and the character it involves is in a great deal of trouble.

Of course, the other character, who is a long way from the event that spawns the subtitle, doesn’t know it yet, but he will be the one who will be looking for the cause because events like these don’t happen unless there’s a reason.

Of course, you’re no doubt, as confused as I am for the moment.

The subtitle stays, the plot needs more work, and there are just seven days to get it sorted.

Back to work then!