Well November’s come to an end and I’ve got a mostly finished first draft of a novel. Looks like the final word count is going to be somewhere between 65,000 and 70,000 words. I’ve just started the climax of the novel and I’ve got it pretty planned out, so it should be relatively easy to wrap up.
So what did my NaNoWriMo experience teach me? First off that it is possible to write 50,000 words in a month. Sure this November had an extra weekend, and that certainly came in handy. However, I now have a good idea about how long a first draft should take the next time I tackle one of this size.
I also was able to just focus on actual writing and not be too concerned about what I was writing (hope that makes sense). I’m sure that some of what came out (especially in my lengthy dialogue scenes) will need to be clipped. I mentioned the exposition issue in the middle of the book in my previous blog. There was also an awkward transition between the final portion of the story and the climax of the story. It felt boring to write and I’m sure that at this point it’s pretty boring to read.
I also noticed that the story has some pretty typical plot points in it, especially in the middle and end portions. When I go back to the draft, I’m going to have to see if I can shake up the narrative a bit. It doesn’t do any good to keep the story suspense free after a solid first portion.
I also learned that the plan I put in place last year, of writing 2,500 words each writing day really prepared me for the task of participating in NaNoWriMo this year. 3,000 words each writing night didn’t seem so impossible after the 2,500 words. In addition the whole plan helped me keep on track. I fell behind a few times, especially when some holiday craziness intervened. Luckily I was able to catch up on the weekends.
With all that said, I had a real good time working on NaNoWriMo. I’m looking forward to the challenge next year and I encourage anyone who is interested in novel writing to give it a try. If anything, I finally got another part of the larger dark fantasy story I’ve been working on for years out onto paper (or into my hard drive). And that’s a very good feeling.
Did you participate in NaNoWriMo this year (or previously)? What was your experience like? Do you have any questions about my experience that I didn’t bring up in my blog? Are you happy to see this over so I can get back to ranting and raving about movies, books and music?
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
A nice healthy info dump – NaNoWriMo
One of the main issues I've run into while working on my NaNoWriMo story was the problem of exposition. There are some minor issues. Characters all have pasts, and sometimes these pasts come up in conversation. So the reader, who doesn't know anything about these pasts, may find the conversation to be a little confusing. I usually keep these conversations short and to the point. In my second draft, I'll review these and see if they are necessary or just color that happened to appear in my first draft. Most can be culled without any affect to the reader.
The bigger problem comes from basic story construction. My main character, Martin, is given the ability to see layers beneath our world. This happens suddenly and creates much of the fear and uncertainty in the first portion of the story. Martin then tries to find out more about why this happened, and soon finds that he's a target for the cultists I mentioned in an earlier blog. The mystery of the cults’ goals, and their dedication to these goals compels Martin in several scenes and drives the tension up. The lack of information for Martin and reader keeps things interesting and drives the story at the same time.
Then comes the moment when the motives of the cult must be revealed. The story screeches to a halt while characters talk and talk and talk some more. Now, I don't mind writing dialogue, so I'm having fun with this section, but the story itself seems to be bogging a bit. For a first draft, I'm not too worried, I just want to get the story down and I'll work with it later.
It's the second draft I'm thinking about. How can I reduce the amount of talking in the middle? The first option is to keep some for the revelations secret even longer. Perhaps my font of knowledge doesn't have all the answers, and Martin and his comrades discover more as the story goes. This sounds like a good option, and I think that's where I'm leaning.
The other option is to have Martin learn a bit more about the cultists earlier in the story. Problem I have with that, is that much of the good and scary stuff comes from the unknown. Why are these freaks attacking Martin and why are they so determined? To undermine that mystery would hurt that first portion of the book.
The last option would be to continue the mystery without the "Fount of Knowledge" scene. I'm not too keen on that option either, only because Martin will still be clueless and it would be up to dumb luck that he even starts down the right path to completing the puzzle. Dumb luck is a little too close to happy chance and coincidence for my tastes. I think Martin must engage in the Fount of Knowledge scene for the story to head toward its climax.
Where does that leave me? Well right now, it leaves me with just finishing draft one and letting the whole story rest. But when I come back to it, I think I'll need to look at places where I can place hints for Martin before the Fount of Knowledge scene. This will make some of the conversation go a bit quicker, because Martin will not have to be brought up to speed. Second, I think that my Fount will not have all the answers. This will lead to some good surprises down the stretch. Heck just writing this, I've come up with a good twist that I telegraphed in my Font scene, and that would be much better without any warning... Hmmm.
Do you have any suggestions on handling the dreaded Info Dump scenes? Is this something that shouldn't be a concern in a first draft, or is it good to think about now? Have you read any books that handle this kind of problem well?
The bigger problem comes from basic story construction. My main character, Martin, is given the ability to see layers beneath our world. This happens suddenly and creates much of the fear and uncertainty in the first portion of the story. Martin then tries to find out more about why this happened, and soon finds that he's a target for the cultists I mentioned in an earlier blog. The mystery of the cults’ goals, and their dedication to these goals compels Martin in several scenes and drives the tension up. The lack of information for Martin and reader keeps things interesting and drives the story at the same time.
Then comes the moment when the motives of the cult must be revealed. The story screeches to a halt while characters talk and talk and talk some more. Now, I don't mind writing dialogue, so I'm having fun with this section, but the story itself seems to be bogging a bit. For a first draft, I'm not too worried, I just want to get the story down and I'll work with it later.
It's the second draft I'm thinking about. How can I reduce the amount of talking in the middle? The first option is to keep some for the revelations secret even longer. Perhaps my font of knowledge doesn't have all the answers, and Martin and his comrades discover more as the story goes. This sounds like a good option, and I think that's where I'm leaning.
The other option is to have Martin learn a bit more about the cultists earlier in the story. Problem I have with that, is that much of the good and scary stuff comes from the unknown. Why are these freaks attacking Martin and why are they so determined? To undermine that mystery would hurt that first portion of the book.
The last option would be to continue the mystery without the "Fount of Knowledge" scene. I'm not too keen on that option either, only because Martin will still be clueless and it would be up to dumb luck that he even starts down the right path to completing the puzzle. Dumb luck is a little too close to happy chance and coincidence for my tastes. I think Martin must engage in the Fount of Knowledge scene for the story to head toward its climax.
Where does that leave me? Well right now, it leaves me with just finishing draft one and letting the whole story rest. But when I come back to it, I think I'll need to look at places where I can place hints for Martin before the Fount of Knowledge scene. This will make some of the conversation go a bit quicker, because Martin will not have to be brought up to speed. Second, I think that my Fount will not have all the answers. This will lead to some good surprises down the stretch. Heck just writing this, I've come up with a good twist that I telegraphed in my Font scene, and that would be much better without any warning... Hmmm.
Do you have any suggestions on handling the dreaded Info Dump scenes? Is this something that shouldn't be a concern in a first draft, or is it good to think about now? Have you read any books that handle this kind of problem well?
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Status Report - NaNoWriMo
Not much of a blog today. I'll try to get something else up later in the week about actual writing.
Currently I'm at 45,066 words into my novel and it looks like the finished work will be over the 50,000 mark. I'm heading toward the climax, but I haven't quite hit it's intro yet, so I'm guessing closer to 70,000 for the completed work.
I'm having a pretty good time, only a few bumpy patches so far, but once I hit some plotting ideas, I was able to steamroll over them.
It also looks like my writing plan has kept me on track.
That's it for now, I'll be back later this week with an examination of the dreaded Information Dump!
Currently I'm at 45,066 words into my novel and it looks like the finished work will be over the 50,000 mark. I'm heading toward the climax, but I haven't quite hit it's intro yet, so I'm guessing closer to 70,000 for the completed work.
I'm having a pretty good time, only a few bumpy patches so far, but once I hit some plotting ideas, I was able to steamroll over them.
It also looks like my writing plan has kept me on track.
That's it for now, I'll be back later this week with an examination of the dreaded Information Dump!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Piecing Together the Story - NaNoWriMo
When I was thinking about what I wanted to write for NaNoWriMo this year I had a bit of a problem. No real great story ideas were circulating in my mind.
I had finished my long mythological novel, and so I was pretty sure I wanted to steer clear of fantasy. My space opera idea wasn't too appealing at the moment, (my last attempt at working on it was frustrating at best). This left my supernatural thriller ideas that I've been cooking around with for almost fifteen years. This slow and simmering evolution of stories, ideas, characters, settings and themes has been a bit of a pet project - something I'm not sure if I have the guts or skill to pull off. Over the years I've written two novels set in that genre with those characters and a pretty good sized fragment as well. A few of my more sinister short stories also fall in this realm.
The problem was, I didn't know what story I could tell (I've got a huge time line of events and characters, and picking is tough). So while I was rooting around in my hard drive, I came across a whole set of interesting short stories, story notes, and half started fragments. I started to see little hints of a story wanting to be told, but lacking a cohesive idea. Here's what I found.
Several of the fragments and short stories dealt with a man who was suddenly given the ability to see things that others could not see. In some cases it was visions of the future, sometimes it was the true faces of others, sometimes it was something just buried behind our reality.
So he became my protagonist.
I ran into a half finished novella about a cult that abducted a boy because they thought he was their god reborn. His best friend teams up with a group that is trying to stop the cultists. The two kids were just getting old enough to see each other as more than friends. It was an interesting idea that never really went anywhere.
But those cultists were pretty damn creepy, so they became my antagonists.
I also liked the idea about a childhood friend coming to the rescue of my protagonist. So I took that character and fleshed her out a bit (making her older to fit the protagonist's new age [mid twenties or so]).
I also ran into some great scenes that I wondered if I could use. One in particular was a visit to a museum where the paintings were so vivid they caused people who looked at them to react in disturbing ways.
That became my opening scene.
Finally I had a very strange image pop into my head a few years ago. It involved a song by ABBA, the cartoon Sailor Moon, and a synchronized dance number in a club that normally played techno music.
No, I wasn't drunk or high when I thought of that. But if you listen to enough ABBA you can feel drunk and high!
Believe it or not, I've worked all these things (and quite a few more odds and ends) into my NaNoWriMo story so far.
Have you ever tried to create a story from fragments of other work that you never finished? What do you find is the best way to come up with story ideas on the fly? What does the music of ABBA inspire you to do?
I had finished my long mythological novel, and so I was pretty sure I wanted to steer clear of fantasy. My space opera idea wasn't too appealing at the moment, (my last attempt at working on it was frustrating at best). This left my supernatural thriller ideas that I've been cooking around with for almost fifteen years. This slow and simmering evolution of stories, ideas, characters, settings and themes has been a bit of a pet project - something I'm not sure if I have the guts or skill to pull off. Over the years I've written two novels set in that genre with those characters and a pretty good sized fragment as well. A few of my more sinister short stories also fall in this realm.
The problem was, I didn't know what story I could tell (I've got a huge time line of events and characters, and picking is tough). So while I was rooting around in my hard drive, I came across a whole set of interesting short stories, story notes, and half started fragments. I started to see little hints of a story wanting to be told, but lacking a cohesive idea. Here's what I found.
Several of the fragments and short stories dealt with a man who was suddenly given the ability to see things that others could not see. In some cases it was visions of the future, sometimes it was the true faces of others, sometimes it was something just buried behind our reality.
So he became my protagonist.
I ran into a half finished novella about a cult that abducted a boy because they thought he was their god reborn. His best friend teams up with a group that is trying to stop the cultists. The two kids were just getting old enough to see each other as more than friends. It was an interesting idea that never really went anywhere.
But those cultists were pretty damn creepy, so they became my antagonists.
I also liked the idea about a childhood friend coming to the rescue of my protagonist. So I took that character and fleshed her out a bit (making her older to fit the protagonist's new age [mid twenties or so]).
I also ran into some great scenes that I wondered if I could use. One in particular was a visit to a museum where the paintings were so vivid they caused people who looked at them to react in disturbing ways.
That became my opening scene.
Finally I had a very strange image pop into my head a few years ago. It involved a song by ABBA, the cartoon Sailor Moon, and a synchronized dance number in a club that normally played techno music.
No, I wasn't drunk or high when I thought of that. But if you listen to enough ABBA you can feel drunk and high!
Believe it or not, I've worked all these things (and quite a few more odds and ends) into my NaNoWriMo story so far.
Have you ever tried to create a story from fragments of other work that you never finished? What do you find is the best way to come up with story ideas on the fly? What does the music of ABBA inspire you to do?
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Wax On, Wax Off - NaNoWriMo
Using my word count goal to write this mythological fantasy novel wasn't as tough as I thought it would be. Sure I ran into times when it was hard to push into that 2,500 words, especially at the very start and in the middle of the novel.
For some reason, starting is always really rough for me. I usually find myself over thinking the opening scenes and finding it difficult to get the flow. In this case I had a great opening scene, right from the classic myth, but after that moment, I wasn’t sure how to tie the rest of the story into it tone-wise. Over thinking! I just wrote and forgot about tone. After the first day or two, I have found the novel's grove and just worked through to the goal pretty easily.
Things went great till around the middle of the novel. Everything seemed to be sagging, and because of the nature of the story (my characters were searching for clues on unexplored islands) I found the whole narrative to be meandering and not much fun to write. It got to be a real struggle for a while to hit the 2,500 word mark. This went on for about a week and a half (and I wonder if I'm going to have to do some serious editing of those lifeless scenes), and then I found a good antagonist to really stir up the pot.
The book moved at a better pace after that (I hit a few bumps but I ended up just plowing over them). In the end, the scope of the book got out of hand and I stopped at what was the first third of the story. It was novel length, but I had lost interest in the characters. I had just put them through a good solid quest, and it set things up for the second stage (and a new quest) but I didn't have the energy or desire to really go into it. I put the whole thing aside with the thought to revisit it later.
Still I had stuck mostly to my schedule. Even when it was difficult, I would hit that 2,500 word mark. On good days I would easily pass it and go over the 3000 word limit. I felt comfortable with the schedule and waited for NaNoWriMo. In the mean time I worked on some more short stories and edited some other things I had around. I found some interesting fragments of ideas...
As NaNoWriMo came around I revisited my writing schedule. I knew that 2,500 words a night wasn't going to cover it, but how much would I have to go? Time for some more math. The big difference was that November had an extra day weekend (outside of what I had originally calculated). Good news! Ok, so with five weekends, how would this work out?
I counted up the potential writing days. I had four full weeks (4 writing days) and a weekend (1 writing day); Total was 17 days. This broke down to 2942 words a day. I could do that. I had done it easily over the summer with the myth novel - the only exception being on days where it was tough. The good thing was that I had plenty of wiggle room, especially with free days on the weekends when I could play catch-up if I needed to.
So I went ambitious - 3000 words a day for 17 days and I'd have the novel and some to spare. That means that by Sunday the 9th I needed to hit 15000 words. I managed to do it (even with some unexpected delays in getting started and my scheduled writing days getting pushed around because of my day job). I feel pretty good about hitting my personal goal.
Have you ever come up with a word count goal for writing long fiction? Was my technique too scientific? Do word count goals work for you? Anyone else have issues with the starting and middles of novels?
For some reason, starting is always really rough for me. I usually find myself over thinking the opening scenes and finding it difficult to get the flow. In this case I had a great opening scene, right from the classic myth, but after that moment, I wasn’t sure how to tie the rest of the story into it tone-wise. Over thinking! I just wrote and forgot about tone. After the first day or two, I have found the novel's grove and just worked through to the goal pretty easily.
Things went great till around the middle of the novel. Everything seemed to be sagging, and because of the nature of the story (my characters were searching for clues on unexplored islands) I found the whole narrative to be meandering and not much fun to write. It got to be a real struggle for a while to hit the 2,500 word mark. This went on for about a week and a half (and I wonder if I'm going to have to do some serious editing of those lifeless scenes), and then I found a good antagonist to really stir up the pot.
The book moved at a better pace after that (I hit a few bumps but I ended up just plowing over them). In the end, the scope of the book got out of hand and I stopped at what was the first third of the story. It was novel length, but I had lost interest in the characters. I had just put them through a good solid quest, and it set things up for the second stage (and a new quest) but I didn't have the energy or desire to really go into it. I put the whole thing aside with the thought to revisit it later.
Still I had stuck mostly to my schedule. Even when it was difficult, I would hit that 2,500 word mark. On good days I would easily pass it and go over the 3000 word limit. I felt comfortable with the schedule and waited for NaNoWriMo. In the mean time I worked on some more short stories and edited some other things I had around. I found some interesting fragments of ideas...
As NaNoWriMo came around I revisited my writing schedule. I knew that 2,500 words a night wasn't going to cover it, but how much would I have to go? Time for some more math. The big difference was that November had an extra day weekend (outside of what I had originally calculated). Good news! Ok, so with five weekends, how would this work out?
I counted up the potential writing days. I had four full weeks (4 writing days) and a weekend (1 writing day); Total was 17 days. This broke down to 2942 words a day. I could do that. I had done it easily over the summer with the myth novel - the only exception being on days where it was tough. The good thing was that I had plenty of wiggle room, especially with free days on the weekends when I could play catch-up if I needed to.
So I went ambitious - 3000 words a day for 17 days and I'd have the novel and some to spare. That means that by Sunday the 9th I needed to hit 15000 words. I managed to do it (even with some unexpected delays in getting started and my scheduled writing days getting pushed around because of my day job). I feel pretty good about hitting my personal goal.
Have you ever come up with a word count goal for writing long fiction? Was my technique too scientific? Do word count goals work for you? Anyone else have issues with the starting and middles of novels?
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Time for Some Math - NaNoWriMo
first heard about National Novel Writing Month last year, just as it was heading into full swing. At the time, I was already in the middle of working on a short story and didn't feel good about putting it down to work on something longer. I skipped last year but hatched a cunning plan instead. I would train for next year's event, and be completely prepared for some serious novel writing action.
Sometime in Spring, I was struck with a new mythological fantasy story, and decided to come up with a writing plan that I could use to keep me focused and prepare me for the weeks of NaNoWriMo. It was time for some calculations, 50,000 words divided by four would make up 12,500 words. I picked four because most months have four weeks in them. So if I could reach a goal of 12,500 words a week, I could finish a novel in time for NaNoWriMo.
OK, so the next task is to figure out how much I could write - while focused. I do most of my writing after dinner and before bed with some on the weekends. This means about three hours a night for three nights with about three hours on the weekend. OK, total of 12 hours a week. So to meet my goal of writing 12500 words a week, I would need to write about 1042 words an hour. Meaning each day I should write 3,126 words. Isn't math fun!
Since this was just training, I figured to start off with something a little lighter. and cut it down to 2,500 words a day for a grand total of 10,000 words a week. And with this schedule in mind I started my training montage using my new novel idea (cue: "You're the Best Around" from the "Karate Kid").
I wrote up a page outlining my writing commitments for the novel. The first was for the word count of 2,500 words. The second was for a limit of internet time (since my writing days are also the days I update my blog and do some surfing) to half an hour at the most! I printed this up and put it on the wall to the left of my monitor. It's there staring at me and actually helped me stay focused.
Did it work? Stop by for my next blog to see if I was able to meet my goal and how my first draft turned out.
Sometime in Spring, I was struck with a new mythological fantasy story, and decided to come up with a writing plan that I could use to keep me focused and prepare me for the weeks of NaNoWriMo. It was time for some calculations, 50,000 words divided by four would make up 12,500 words. I picked four because most months have four weeks in them. So if I could reach a goal of 12,500 words a week, I could finish a novel in time for NaNoWriMo.
OK, so the next task is to figure out how much I could write - while focused. I do most of my writing after dinner and before bed with some on the weekends. This means about three hours a night for three nights with about three hours on the weekend. OK, total of 12 hours a week. So to meet my goal of writing 12500 words a week, I would need to write about 1042 words an hour. Meaning each day I should write 3,126 words. Isn't math fun!
Since this was just training, I figured to start off with something a little lighter. and cut it down to 2,500 words a day for a grand total of 10,000 words a week. And with this schedule in mind I started my training montage using my new novel idea (cue: "You're the Best Around" from the "Karate Kid").
I wrote up a page outlining my writing commitments for the novel. The first was for the word count of 2,500 words. The second was for a limit of internet time (since my writing days are also the days I update my blog and do some surfing) to half an hour at the most! I printed this up and put it on the wall to the left of my monitor. It's there staring at me and actually helped me stay focused.
Did it work? Stop by for my next blog to see if I was able to meet my goal and how my first draft turned out.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
NaNoWriMo - The Adventure Begins
Crazy week! = Short Blog
Just wanted to give everyone a heads up. I'm going to be participating in National Novel Writing Month, and that may cut into my blogging time. I'll still be around so feel free to drop me a message of encouragement or just find out how I'm doing.
Wanna check out my NaNoWriMo page - go here: my NaNoWriMo Page
I might be able to post a blog or two about my experience, but I'm already behind in my scheduled word count, so I'm off to put some more words on the page.
Have a great week!
Just wanted to give everyone a heads up. I'm going to be participating in National Novel Writing Month, and that may cut into my blogging time. I'll still be around so feel free to drop me a message of encouragement or just find out how I'm doing.
Wanna check out my NaNoWriMo page - go here: my NaNoWriMo Page
I might be able to post a blog or two about my experience, but I'm already behind in my scheduled word count, so I'm off to put some more words on the page.
Have a great week!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)