8 posts tagged “my novel”
#1: Just Do It.
Quit yappin' about it, dreaming about it, wondering if you'll ever be good enough to actually do it... and DO it!
('S the only way to get better.)
#2: But do SOME prep work first.
Next year, when I do it again, I'm going to spend September and October whipping my outline into shape: What I want to achieve in each chapter, in terms of introducing characters, the dilemma they face, what they learn, how they develop... and oh yeah, how the plot moves forward.
#3: Make Conscious Choices on Point-Of-View: It's Crucial.
Probably the technical aspect of the writer's craft where I most need to develop my judgment is POV. Next time I do this, I'm going to spend a LOT more effort ahead of time, during the outlining process, planning out my POV.
From whose perspective should most of the story be written? Should I EVER show a scene which that character doesn't witness? To what purpose? And, if so, what alternate perspectives should I use? And why?
C.J. Cherryh, for one, in her "Foreigner" series, uses a 3rd person that is so deeply linked to her protagonist (Bren) that it FEELS like 1st person. She never shows a scene which Bren doesn't personally witness. You, the reader, NEVER know anything Bren doesn't know. Even what he witnesses, he interprets in the light of his own preconceptions -- sometimes wildly inaccurately. When other characters go off on mysterious errands, you, the reader, NEVER find out where they've been or what they've been up to until Bren does.
This gives the story a kind of breathless off-balance feel where you constantly feel like you don't understand what the heck is going on -- because Bren doesn't -- and you HAVE to keep reading so you can figure it all out at the end. It gives it momentum, like a runner leaning forward for the finish line.
Lois McMaster Bujold, however, does switch POV characters during a story. She does show things happening "off-stage" from her protag's action. This is usually when she's got more than one main character. For example: "Mirror Dance," in which Mark truly begins to develop a persona separate from wanna-be-Miles. Couldn't really show this unless half the book was written from Mark's perspective, not Miles's. (Also b/c Miles was technically dead during much of the book -- and the Vorkosigan universe is not a ghost-inhabited one -- making it rather difficult to show things from his perspective. Awfully boring, the inside of a cryopreservation tank, even if he had been conscious within it, which he wasn't.)
Or in "Komarr," where she wants to teach us something about Miles that he can't see for himself -- precisely BECAUSE it's a point of faulty self-perception -- she shows it through Ekaterin's eyes, watching Miles and speculating about him.
But the point is she makes these switches in a disciplined way, not just bouncing from person to person for no good reason.
#4: Slow Down.
A little. Only a little. Maybe 40,000 words in a month instead of 50,000. Give yourself a LITTLE time to add in some of those artistic details and fix a few of the more awfully awkward sentences. Bring down the wordcount average from 900 per hour to, say, 700 per hour -- editing time included.
#5: But Don't Slow Down Too Much.
Don't get so hung up on perfecting what you've already written that you fail to make forward progress in word count.
It will never be perfect at the end of the first draft! So stop trying to make it perfect.
It will never be perfect until someone else has read it and given you honest feedback about what is unclear, what is slow-moving, what characters feel wooden, what holes there are in the plot. Several somebodies, if you can drag them into it.
So your goal with the first draft is NOT to make it perfect, but just to make it to the point where you aren't ashamed for someone else to read it and give you that feedback, which is what WILL make it perfect.
#6: I Need Deadlines.
Even self-imposed ones. Which is all NaNoWriMo really is. Self-imposed deadline, and a nice friendly cheerleading squad to help keep you motivated to achieve it.
As I told various people about this over the past few weeks, many of them would look at me quizzically and say, "But what do you GET for it?" And I would have to say, "I just get to know that I did it." And they'd be like, "Oka-a-ay..."
Don't know why, the deadline spurred me on.
I've always done my best work under pressure, actually.
So I need to think of a new way to impose deadlines on myself.
*****
So that's it.
I've been thinking of adding to my self-descriptors, "Unpublished Novelist." ;-)
But, I think I'll wait until I've gotten this novel at least to first-draft stage.
50,000 words or not, it's still at a very rough-draft stage. Not even what I would consider a good first draft.
I don't think I can call myself a "Novelist," Unpublished or otherwise, until I have a novel that I'm not ashamed to wave under the nose of anyone who challenges me on the title!
*****
Thanks, everybody, for your unwavering support and enthusiasm!
It really means a lot to me!
- C (Author-In-Training)
In honor of which, I get to display THIS lovely sticker:
Final word count as of 10:00 PM on Tuesday, November 27, 2007:
50,157
And I even got my protag where she needed to go!
I'm so proud!
But you wanna know the funny thing?
Now that I've actually "done it" -- I don't want to BE done with it!
I'm on fire to go back and FIX it all!
Go back and outline what I've already got, then work out the character arcs and subplots and so on that I WISH it had, and then write a new outline to get me there, and then keep cranking it out!
AAAaaahhh!
I'm addicted!!!
Hey, sorry for the lack of updates. (Yeah, I know, you're waiting with bated breath, right? ;-) )
Think I mentioned I was traveling for Thanksgiving, and the destination would not have internet access.
Sure enough, that was good for the word count.
Cracked 43,000 last night!
Only 7,000 to go!
Wow.
I'm sitting here going, how did that happen already? I didn't entirely believe I would get this close to the goal, close enough that I could almost taste it already.
Unless I keel over dead before then, I'm pretty sure I can make it by midnight this Friday! And I'm feeling quite healthy right now. After all, I got my flu shot, and a mere cold ain't gonna stop me!
Thing is, I'm not sure I can get my people where I need them to go in a mere 7,000 words. But hey, just 'cause I get to 50K doesn't mean I have to stop, right?
Okay, cheers, everybody!
Getting back on the homestretch now!
Crossed 30,000 today... and still have at least an hour to work on it now that the kids have gone to bed.
Yeah, baby! Over the hump.
It's starting to feel fun again.
Plus, I've given my protag more to do, and that's satisfying.
"Only" 20,000 more words to go... and you know what? The great thing is, having pumped out 30,000 (at least marginally) coherent words in a row, 20,000 now really does seem like an "only" kind of number.
What a fabulous feeling THAT is!
(And I feel quite confident in saying that they are all correctly spelled, too!)
Is it great art, the kind I yearned to create, the kind that will outlive me? The kind that deals with deep themes of the human heart in a subtle yet powerful way? The kind that you can't put down until you have devoured it, or the kind that moves you to tears as you read it? Or -- still more rare -- both?
Welllll... No.
But that doesn't detract from the accomplishment that it IS. And it is something. WILL be something, when I hit 50K.
(And yes, great art does exist in speculative fiction. Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury, L'Engle, Tolkien, Lewis -- all engendered fame that outlived them and are still widely read to this day, and I'm sure there are others. Movies are still being made "based on" their classic oevre -- or should that be oevres? -- and widely viewed & enjoyed.)
There will still be A LOT of work to do on this thing even once I hit 50,000. And it may always look like a "first novel." But you gotta start somewhere.
It's a little early to be looking around for my first Hugo!
(But may I at least possess the optimism of changing that "No" to, "Not yet"?)
:-)
Broke 25K today!
Woot, woot!
Only one day behind -- I was supposed to have done it last night before I went to bed. But I still had a thousand words to go and I was stuck and tired -- not a good combination -- and I said I'll just bang away at it today. So I did.
But, I'm still slightly behind on my mini-goals -- the word-counts I set myself for each day, in order to stay on track to reach the overall goal -- so I have to keep going.
Still have a couple of hours before Dear Hubby and the kids come back from the in-laws' house -- lovely in-laws! Wonderful people, those! -- and then I can do a couple of hours after the kids get to bed, too. So I think I can catch myself up.
Dear Husband -- he really has been wonderfully game on supporting me in this. I hope it continues through the coming week, because I'm counting on getting a lot done during the holidays. I'm taking my laptop. (No internet access on the laptop, though, believe it or not! -- Actually that could be a good thing, word-count-wise.)
It's starting to feel a little bit like work, now -- not quite as much effortless fun as running down a sand dune. Having to stop and do a little bit more thinking about organizing the story and the story threads, what scenes should happen when, and where should the reflective sequels go -- no, not BEFORE the scene that they're supposed to be reflecting ON! -- and how long to make them. I tend to make the sequels too long, relative to the scenes that came before, especially for the type of piece this is. They need to do more DOING, less THINKING, less TALKING.
Welp, so anyway, back at it!
*cracks knuckles*
*cracks whip*
20,000 down, 30,000 to go.
40% along.
Of course, today marks the midpoint of November, so I really *should* have reached between 25,000 and 30,000 by now. But, I did start six days late, so my own personal midpoint is 2-3 days from now. So no sweat.
I seem to need a day each week when I just *pretend* to write, and veg instead. That day was yesterday, this week.
Yesterday all I did was alphabetize my names list (yes, really!). Female first names. Male first names. Last names. Yes, and then I added to the list, made sure I had all my bases covered. First names that could be last names, and vice versa. Names that could be, or have been, applied to both male and female. Female "virtue" names. Female "flower" names. Biblical names, both male and female. Occupational surnames. Names by culture or nation of origin. Trendy names. Classic names.
You name it. :-) (sorry)
The next thing I did was to slap together first and last names into whole identities, so I have a few handy for when a new character saunters in.
So, having achieved all this *really important* work, I went to bed. Word-count for yesterday: ZERO.
(Good gravy, girl!)
Then today I gave in to the urge to edit. But only a little.
I had been thinking that certain scenes really should come before certain others. Certain scenes would go better if a different character was the main focus. And then my "real" protagonist has done nearly nothing in almost 20,000 words. So I'm going to have to beef up her role, clearly.
Mostly my edits took the form of FIND:NAME, REPLACE WITH:DIFFERENT NAME, and notes to self in ALL CAPS about how to rewrite the sections that need rewriting, when the time comes.
So I didn't REALLY do much editing. Not REALLY.
I honestly think that, while a big part of the editing will be to cut out chunks that turn out to be unnecessary, my word-count may ultimately double by the time I'm done editing. What I need to go back in and add are...
- Fleshing-out of characters, both physical descriptor "tags" and personality quirks;
- Expansions of conversations that are really too abrupt right now, and ensuring that each "voice" in the dialogue is consistent with the character & sufficiently differentiated from others;
- Transformation of exposition into dialogue and/or "showing, not telling" type writing;
- Location descriptors; it's all fairly clear in my mind, but undoubtedly would be murky to anyone else just now. Given that I'm creating an entire planet and ecosystem, well -- gonna have to make it live for the reader.
Right now it's really just bare bones, where the story needs to go. But it is extremely rough in form. EXTREMELY.
I think in future it will probably serve me better to go back to editing as I go along. But I have developed a new appreciation for the value of banging it out. I need to continue giving myself the permission to just bang it out, and still spend the majority of my time doing that until the first draft is done; but still do a little of this "organizational" type editing every day, cleaning up the stuff that was banged out the day before.
So in other words, I don't think the pure "WriMo" approach will be my long-term MO, going forward; but I still think I'm getting a lot out of it.
And still having fun.
Gonna crank up the word-count tonight, once the kids are in bed.
Yee-haw!!
Cracked 10,000 today!
Yeah, baby!
20% there. 10,000 down, 40,000 to go.
I'm going along at, on average, about 700 - 800 words an hour. Sometimes over 1000. Normally I write my first drafts at 400 - 500 words an hour. -- That's editing some as I go along. Add in the total time spent editing, seeking feedback, taking feedback, and editing some more, and my short stories start to get down to around 200 words an hour. But now --
I'm having fun, I'm really have a ball just bangin' it out. No agonizing over this and that. No cutting and tweaking and thumbing through the dictionary. All that'll come later, and that's the real work.
But right now, I'm just letting it flow. And it's really, really fun.
It's just about as much fun as a couple of two-year-olds jumping into a leaf pile.
It's just about as much fun as a labrador puppy fetching sticks.
It's just about as much fun as running down a sand dune.
Why didn't I do this before? What was I 'fraid of?
I feel -- I feel my wings stretching out into the wide world of my novel.
I hadn't realized I was feeling so cramped in the short-story form, before.
If it takes me a month to bang it out, it'll probably take me at least 2 to 6 months, maybe a year, to edit it into an acceptable (to myself) first draft.
Okay! I'm goin' back in. Wish me luck!
Busy busy busy!
I did great the first two days, but yesterday I didn't meet my target. Gotta make up for it today, AND meet today's target.
Spent too much time yesterday reviewing all my notes (some from almost a year ago). I got to a point where I needed to remember who was in this scene and how old they were, and in some cases, what they looked like...
So I spent way too much time reviewing and updating those notes. But I think it was time well spent. Now I think I'll be able to move forward with a little more confidence.
But I still have to catch up on my word count.
Thought I'd share with you something from a NaNoWriMo peptalk email I got the other day:
2) Do not edit as you go. Editing is for December. Think of November as an experiment in pure output. Even if it's hard at first, leave ugly prose and poorly written passages on the page to be cleaned up later. Your inner editor will be very grumpy about this, but your inner editor is a nitpicky jerk who foolishly believes that it is possible to write a brilliant first draft if you write it slowly enough. It isn't. Every book you've ever loved started out as a beautifully flawed first draft. In November, embrace imperfection and see where it takes you.
True, so true!
My inner editor IS a nitpicky jerk! And it's unbelievably hard to resist the temptation to go back and "fix" what I wrote yesterday. But, I can't do that if I'm going to stay on track with my word count.
The urge to edit, it's like this pressure, nearly as unpleasant and irresistable as the urge to go pee. After having drunk a couple of beers.
But resist the Dark Side, you must, young Skywalker!
(PS - Dear Zilla, that's the main reason why I can't share here. It's execrable. If I'm nowhere near happy with it myself, I just can't bear for other people to see it too... But I appreciate your kind interest! ;-) )
3) Tell everyone you know that you're writing a novel in November. This will pay big dividends in Week Two, when the only thing keeping you from quitting is the fear of looking pathetic in front of all the people who've had to hear about your novel for the past month. Seriously. Email them now about your awesome new book. The looming specter of personal humiliation is a very reliable muse.
Yes, also true: personal humiliation IS a very reliable muse! That's why I told all of you here!
(That's also why I've told you my weightloss goals...)
Thanks for your support, er, for being the audience in front of whom I don't care to fail.
:-)
Cheers, all!
