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NaNo Status

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Currently at 35,588. By the end of today I should be at 40,000. Didn’t get as much writing done over the weekend. Feeling increasingly sort of unsure about whether I’m on the right path, which is making it harder to focus on writing. I’ve been getting closer to 1000 words a day than 2000. And I need a bit over 2000 a day to get through.

Part of my problem with plot has to do with me revising my outline last minute on 10/31 and not being entirely finished. So I had lots of good plot hooks early on that need more chapters later on that weren’t on the outline. I’ve also learned that my chapter summaries were a little too brief and narrow for what I needed for a full chapter. Blargh.

The other challenge? Part of my story involves a sort of comedy of errors involving people in love with someone that doesn’t reciprocate their feelings. (It’s less of a love triangle and more of a love Z.) And it takes place over the span of about 20 years. Which I guess can happen, but on a certain level feels like, “Really? Are they all that belligerently stupid?” So I’ve veered off of my original plan a bit. We’ll see how it goes.

State of the NaNo

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I am apparently a filthy liar. I’d told people I’d be blogging about my progress with NaNoWriMo. And I haven’t. And I’m half way through November. Yowzers!

Life’s been something of a zoo. It was this way in October, but it’s even worse now that I’m in November. Work’s been a zoo, writing has been a zoo. Having a feline medical fiasco in the middle of this also hamstringed (hamstrung?) my time. So what time I’ve had to write has been dedicated to the novel. I don’t know when I’ll have a sec to do my post-con report.

But I’m taking a few minutes before I start hammering away at the novel again to recap the last couple weeks.
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Writing War Journal, Day 100

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The last couple weeks have been a zoo. I’ve been trying to prep for AmberCon Northwest the last couple weeks.

Additionally, I’m taking a new route with NaNoWriMo this year and doing an outline. In year’s past I’ve belligerently refused to make an outline, instead drawing off of the mad androgynous man in the back of my head that claims to be a muse. I would point proudly at the likes of Raymond Chandler, Roger Zelazny and Phillip Pullman, three excellent authors who did not bother to use an outline. And there’s a power that comes from sitting at the keyboard and having a story pour out that even I don’t know the ending to, in which the story has a life almost independent of me.

But this year I actually have a story arc I want to handle, and that means looking at things in advance. Otherwise I see myself getting painted into a corner around point B and not knowing how to get to point C.

I don’t know that this will be a long-term commitment to the outline. But I know that when I went through a period of GMing heavily structured games for a while, it really helped me get a sense of narrative flow so that it helped me GM by the seat of my pants. So I think having this new approach this year will probably help a lot.

In other writing news, I finished off two short stories that might appear in small print-on-demand anthology chapbook thingies. I’ll post more about those when I know more about those.

I also have cool news to share on Sunday.

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