NaNoWriMo update
Wednesday, November 28th, 2012 08:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chanaleh
Yeah, well, so. I pulled together a bunch of old material in the first few days of November, did a bunch of timeline research for the year(s) I intend to set the story, and started framing out an outline of scenes. But I got lazy/complacent/"busy" after that, and haven't done much more since.
Part of this is to do with my freelance book design project -- which is finally in page proof stage, but now they also want me to index it... for which I will charge them additional by the hour, fortunately. But it's the kind of hanging-over-my-head thing that basically makes it hard to focus on doing either that OR the writing at any given time. In short, I didn't commit very hard to actually making the time for this in the month of November, and it shows.
Returning to myresolutions goals for 2012 ( LJ | DW ), I was actually rather amused to see that I had listed "Complete a draft of a novel" as the 10th goal. (Of the overall list, four have achieved successful completion, two show essentially zero progress, and the other four have progress bars ranging from about 25% to 50%... or might by the end of the year. For now, I will leave the identifications as an exercise to the astute reader.)
Supposedly it's possible to "come up from behind" in the last week of November and still finish in time to "win" NaNoWriMo (by completing 50k words within the 30 days). I had good intentions (as usual) of putting in a great many hours over Thanksgiving, and that weekend I did finally sit down and do a couple hours -- once. But one session isn't going to get this story written. One session every single week, maybe. (In 30 weeks?)
I do feel like I've gotten enough of a foothold that I will push through and finish the draft. But at this point, I'm not setting the expectation that I will really get it done before the end of the year, at least until after the book project is safely at press. (Though, um, I also agreed to be the lead program designer for the Blue Hill Troupe's Mikado this spring. Which is a 120-page perfect-bound monstrosity. But I'm pretty excited to get to do it.)
So I think it's going on the goals list for 2013.
In the meantime, I have acquired some nice articles about the fiction-writing process, which have already been useful to varying degrees:
How To Write A Novel: 8 Essential Steps
http://www.more.com/member-voices/your-stories/how-write-novel-8-essential-steps
More "Writing Tips from Masters"
http://www.writingclasses.com/InformationPages/index.php/PageID/269
Target character and conflict with a handy checklist
http://www.writermag.com/en/Articles/2011/12/Target%20character%20and%20conflict%20with%20a%20handy%20checklist.aspx
Part of this is to do with my freelance book design project -- which is finally in page proof stage, but now they also want me to index it... for which I will charge them additional by the hour, fortunately. But it's the kind of hanging-over-my-head thing that basically makes it hard to focus on doing either that OR the writing at any given time. In short, I didn't commit very hard to actually making the time for this in the month of November, and it shows.
Returning to my
Supposedly it's possible to "come up from behind" in the last week of November and still finish in time to "win" NaNoWriMo (by completing 50k words within the 30 days). I had good intentions (as usual) of putting in a great many hours over Thanksgiving, and that weekend I did finally sit down and do a couple hours -- once. But one session isn't going to get this story written. One session every single week, maybe. (In 30 weeks?)
I do feel like I've gotten enough of a foothold that I will push through and finish the draft. But at this point, I'm not setting the expectation that I will really get it done before the end of the year, at least until after the book project is safely at press. (Though, um, I also agreed to be the lead program designer for the Blue Hill Troupe's Mikado this spring. Which is a 120-page perfect-bound monstrosity. But I'm pretty excited to get to do it.)
So I think it's going on the goals list for 2013.
In the meantime, I have acquired some nice articles about the fiction-writing process, which have already been useful to varying degrees:
How To Write A Novel: 8 Essential Steps
http://www.more.com/member-voices/your-stories/how-write-novel-8-essential-steps
More "Writing Tips from Masters"
http://www.writingclasses.com/InformationPages/index.php/PageID/269
Target character and conflict with a handy checklist
http://www.writermag.com/en/Articles/2011/12/Target%20character%20and%20conflict%20with%20a%20handy%20checklist.aspx