chronicled & illustrated

Well, NaNoWriMo is done for another year. It was a month of steady-steady-steady writing. I think I had three days when I didn’t get my quota (1667) done and one of those was Day 1 when I’d just returned from being out of town for three weeks. Even in that steadiness, however, I felt many ups and downs.

The bottom line is that I didn’t end up with a cohesive novel. I spent time the last day, after reaching 50,000 words, just writing notes to myself about what seems good about the writing and what doesn’t. One of the things I did was to list all the subplots I had going on. No wonder it never gelled! There were about ten separate things, some of them introduced once and never revisited!

I also wrote what I thought the plot should be. After spending a month immersed in that world and those characters, of course I know better what directions I should gone. I think the notes helped and will help in the future. I have more of a overview of what I wrote rather than being left with the impression of the last few days of writing which was less than inspiring. I also feel that the notes will serve me well later when I want to go back to it. It will give me a way into the story.

So that’s a wrap on Nano 2007.

On the other writing front: I finished the first draft of the short story on Saturday.

Ahhh, such a simple sentence.

Finishing a short story was once close to impossible for me. I had a writing teacher early on who was in the habit of spending 6 months to a year on a short story. She was a very bad influence on me!!! I have since joined a writing group with some wonderful role models who are much more practical. They have been a very good influence on me!!!

This story was a personal challenge to see if I could come up with an idea, write it, edit it, polish it, and send it off to the Nova Scotia Writer’s Federation contest all within 3 weeks. Oh, one other thing: it had to come in under 3,000 words, a feat I’ve never managed before.

So you see… it’s a simple sentence with much import for me. Yesterday I edited and rewrote the ending. Last night I read it out loud and felt it was choppy so I worked on transitions today and did line editing. This afternoon I gave to two trusted readers. While handing it over is always nerve-wracking, I did feel proud that I’ve gotten it to this point with four days to go before it has to be postmarked. The verdict is in from one of my readers; it got a thumbs up!

Now, finally, I have time to clean the bathroom.
What a reward, eh?
Oh the glamourous life of a writer!

…IT’S DONE!!!

Or, at any rate, it’s over.

I’m happy I did it and more than ready to get on with so many things that I’ve neglected this month.

I’m not through with writing for the year, however. I’m deeply embroiled in the antics of two characters in the short story I started last week. Still trying to write it in as few words as possible. Quite a challenge for me and a different way of writing than the novel, but it seems to be progressing. I’m determined to get it into shape by December 7th in time to mail it out in the the world.
A Christmas present I’m giving myself.

Happy. Relief. Sense of Accomplishment.

Sighhhhhhhhh…

hearing
Originally uploaded by nuanc

Two days of November left.

I went to writing group tonight and was asked how it was going. I said, Oh pretty well, my word count’s good enough that I’ll be finished in two days time. Well. It’s true.

I’ve only had one other NaNoWriMo where I wasn’t way ahead of 50,000 at the end of the month. That was my second year and as many Wrimo’s have found out, there can be a definite “sophomore slump” especially if you had a fantastic first year as I did.

This year hasn’t been that bad. I’ve had a few down days here and there, but nothing prolonged. But I’m not thrilled with the way the writing’s turned out. I think, after a few weeks—or months—when I go back to read it, there will be parts that I like and parts I don’t. But my lack of planning time definitely came into play in this. About 3/4’s of the way through, I really began to suspect that I’d written the wrong story… that there was another one which interested me much more.

At least I know that now.

The fact that I’m ending on a relatively calm, up-beat note and more so, that I’m busily working on a new short story with a very tight deadline, shows that it’s been a month that has spurred me on rather than defeated me.

The photo is of my two dogs, Summer and Charly. They are patiently waiting for me to get finished!

Last week in the middle of the NaNoWriMo home stretch, when I was at around 38,000 words out of 50,000, I decided to write a short story. I have a December 7th deadline to enter a provincial writer’s federation contest. So, since last Saturday, I’m writing a novel and a short story with two imminent deadlines. It’s going pretty well and it’s teaching me some new things about writing.

In NaNoWriMo, the idea is to write full tilt for a month and sort out the details (and everything else) later. This short story is a completely different kind of writing. Instead of writing as many words as I can in a short period of time, I’m trying to finish a story in as few words as possible (in a short period of time). To say it’s a different mind set is to say the least!

Because I’ve never written a short story under 6,000 words (usually they’re more in the 8-9,000 word range), I found that I have to think of this more like poetry than prose. In poetry, especially, every word counts. It should be the same in a short story, but my tendency is to tell the story with all those lush details that flesh out characters and setting and back story and not worry to much about the word count. This is a good exercise and discipline for me.

The way I’m going at it so far, is to start over each day. After writing a novel this month, the idea of 3,000 words seems like nothing, but—here’s the rub—these have to be the exact right words in the right order!

At a certain point, I will know enough about the story to keep the draft from the day before and pick up from that point to the end, but right now, starting each day fresh is keeping the story lean, if not mean. Hopefully that will make it lean and seen (as in published) in the future! In the MEANtime, my mind is a slightly blown having these two writing techniques going at the same time, so if this blog post doesn’t make that much sense, you know why.

View of Little Tobago
Originally uploaded by nuanc

I started off this month with a feeling that I had enough NaNoWriMo experience that I might be able to offer other people tips on how to get through it. I actually have evidence that a couple of people did get a little encouragement or a helpful message at the right time from these tidbits, so that’s good. I like that. You don’t do something like this 5 times without learning something.

But now, the 26th of November, I’m bushed! I do not feel chipper anymore. I do not have the energy to make little graphics for the blog or to even think up anything helpful to say to anyone. If I had any energy, I’d go looking for tips just to help me get through the next few days. I don’t know if my age is showing or if blogging every day has added just that much extra work or if it’s that short story I masochistically decided to begin over the weekend, or the other dozen things I could name that have nothing to do with writing. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. November is almost over.

I’ll get through it and I’ll get my winner’s certificate for what it’s worth, but this experienced Wrimo will be positively plodding her way to the deadline!

Illustration: I took this shot of my older son and my stepson with their heads together while on a superb vacation in Tobago

passssst
Originally uploaded by nuanc

Oh boy! My novel FINALLY picked up some speed today. It’s been going in that direction for the last two days but today was truly the first day this month that I felt as if I could just keep going, as if I couldn’t type fast enough to get the words down. In fact, I wasn’t surprised when I got to the end of the chapter I was writing that the word count was 3,163 (to be exact) words more than yesterday.

It’s momentum. What a great feeling! An exhilarating sled run after a long hard slog up the hill. It’s gratifying after all the work put in so far—the feeling of having to paste myself into the chair and duct tape myself to the desk, all the draggy days, the suppressed doubts (because they never actually Go Away, do they?), and the endless setting up of characters until you are quite certain that it’s going to be a book about nothing whatsoever except six single characters milling around in search of something to do!

At this point, however, my main characters have finally come together into a situation that not only brings up aspects of what has happened in the last two novels set in this world, but also sets up new mysteries and, later on, when it’s time, a resolution. No. I don’t know exactly what that will be, but I CAN tell now (as opposed to three days ago) that I’m on the right path to discover it. And so are my characters. How nice to be on the same page as one’s characters.

If you’re not there yet, keep going! You’ll find that momentum sooner or later as well. It’s worth it!