I think I can spare a moment to tell you how it's going. If you haven't been following along, I entered NaNoWriMo with only a couple of characters, a situation, and a tentative ending. My story, at nearly 20,000 words, does not remotely resemble the loose idea for a plot I had going in. It is much, much better.
Inspiration comes with the writing, and seldom precedes it.I believed that before, but this NaNo experiment has been a highly effective reinforcement. While I am able to devise novel-size plots with nothing more than bullet points and time, they've always seemed mechanical and dead, my characters genetically engineered to run the maze I'd built. I'm just not experienced enough to create the layers and textures that compel me without actually writing and letting them unfold one step at a time.
- Gillian Roberts, You Can Write A Mystery
I can't wait to see where the next 30,000 words go.
That said, the NaNo project is also, of course, a big hot mess. For example, major characters become major with no warning. There are laughable anachronisms. I'm writing the story chronologically, so there are entire swathes of scenes missing because I didn't know they'd be needed until later - or because I just wasn't in the mood to write them. Oh well, that's December's joy. And probably all of 2010, but who cares?
P.S. I made it! 20,000 words! On schedule!
Yay to 20,000 words!
ReplyDeleteI've found I have to do quite a lot of my thinking away from the keyboard, although some of it comes in the writing. My Nano is a big fat mess too but at least I'll have something to edit.
My pattern is kind of like this:
ReplyDelete1. Write 400-1000 words.
2. Take a break and think about something else while subconscious decides where it wants to go next.
3. Maybe jot down a sentence or two to prime the pump.
4. Write another 400-1000 words; ad infinitum.