NaNoWriMo - Middles

[jacey]

Well, I started out NaNoWriMo with every goodf intention of doing 50k words in a month. So far I've done just over 20k and we're 2/3 of the way through. Yeah, I'm behind. Way behind. Excuses? Let me tell you them...

Well, firstly, it was the Northwrite meeting on 4th November, so I had much critting to do for that beforehand and then writers to entertain from Saturday evening to Monday morning. Then the following weekend I did Novacon in Nottingham from Friday to Sunday. So by 14th November I'd lost 5 days of my potential 30. Yeah, that's fair enough, but... but...

What happened to last week?

Ah, I thought I might ask myself that.

I procrastinated. Yeah sure I had day job work to do, but I didn't need to watch TV or crochet a scarf.

The fact is, I've arrived at the middle of the story. I know what's going to happen at the end, but do I need something more to happen in the middle or shall I just jump ahead to the end and see what I've got? Hmmm... Yes, I'm liking that idea.

Comments

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Sounds good to me! This month has been National Not Writing My Novel Month as far as I'm concerned.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Bummer, sometimes a month just has your name on it and the whole world wants a piece of you.

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

That would be the last decade!

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Oh dear! And I thought I was busy.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that the poetry comes when it comes- an equivalent poetry writing month would be no use to me at all. Three or four a year is generally top whack.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of differences between writing poetry and songs and writing fiction. My other half, as you know, is a songwriter. Sometimes the muse strikes and other times he sits down to write to order - maybe for a song to fill a specific slot, which happened when we did the CD for the reunion tour. Oddly enough both ways work for him, muse and work to order - but he couldn't do it day after day.

With fiction - especially novel length fiction - it's different because the One Big Idea that fuels a poem or a song and is over in 4 verses takes the best part of six months to a year to produce then revise and polish, so you just have to apply the seat of your pants to the office chair and your fingers to the keyboard and commit wordcount.

I misquote horribly I'm sure, but novel writing definitely is 1 part inspiration and 9 parts perspiration. I'm at the perspiration stage.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

I'll stick to nonfic!

I think I'm the only person who definitely does _not_ have a novel burning inside her! Hundreds of poems, but definitely no novel! :o)

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

I'm not getting the goal done I originally set for myself, either, but there's a good reason for it: the goal I originally set for myself did not take into account at least two weeks of pure research that absolutely had to be done. But that's okay. I will have the hardest part done by the end of the month, I think, and then I don't know how long it will take to write the rest but it won't be so difficult as this part is.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Sometimes you have to take the long way round to make it in the shortest time. It's the equivalent of the old carpenter's adage: When cutting wood, measure twice, cut once.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I think NaNo gives you the freedom to do exactly what you want. So if jumping around is what you want, why not?

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

No nano for me, but I have got back into the habit of writing every single night. Unfortunately, it usually takes me at least a half hour to really warm up and I'm lucky if I can even get half an hour most nights.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I'm working on the advice of 'skip the boring bits' because Obviously your readers will thank you.
:-)

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

That is a problem when you're writing in snatches. Sympathies.

[maeve-the-red.livejournal.com]

Aha, I was wondering, this very day, how your NaNoWriMo was progressing. If it's any consolation this weekend I realised, over a plot pizza with D, that the current YA novel which I was about 2/3 of the way through is fundamentally flawed in both premise and direction. Wibble. Fortunately my deadline was negotiable, and has now been negotiated, but even when I have sorted my fundamental premise, there're a whole lot of words that will end up being cut.

Hope you manage to solve your saggy middle without making everything unravel.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I think I've perked it up a bit. When in doubt blow something up. Well, ok, no blowing up in a pseudo-medieval castle, but I have inserted a knock-down-drag-out fistfight and am about to write its consequences.