2 posts tagged “nanowrimo”
So, 5 days into National Novel Writing Month and I've broken 10,000 words. I'm discovering a lot as I do this...
First, it really helps me to have a "sort-of" outline. This story started as wordplay, which turned into a poem, which turned into images that nagged at me for months, which I then started outlining onto 3x5 index cards. About a month ago I lost the index cards! I'm sure they're in the house somewhere (I think I'm sure...) but I realized as I started writing that I don't need the index cards. The outlining helped but now I'm just going on instinct. And I'm amazed at how many new ideas and themes are showing up into the writing.
Another thing: I've always read about the "inner critic." The whole goal of NaNoWriMo is to turn off the inner critic and just write. Quantity over quality (and then rewrite in December...). Turning off the critical facility while I'm writing has really freed me up, but I'm noticing something else interesting: my creative side doesn't trust the critic! So, even my creative instincts are saying "We should rewrite this because I've got an interesting idea of where it could go..."
When I feel that way, I tell myself: trust the rewrite. We'll be able to do it when we get there.
You see I'm splitting my personality. Well, here's what I've decided:
November belongs to the heart. I'm going to write this story down as passionately as I can, without thinking about it much.
Phase 2, which will start in December, will be heart and head together. There are bound to be plot inconsistencies and sections that need to be removed or added. Also, I plan on rewriting each chapter one by one. At that time I will know what's going on with each chapter, how it fits in with the whole novel, and I will understand the characters, settings, and themes better.
Phase 3 is mostly from the head. This is going to be critical editing. Fixing grammatical problems and that kind of a thing.
After that: submit to an agent and hope for the best!
Last year in November I had a vision about a young warrior discovering what it means to be a man. I've been letting the idea grow in my heart over these last 12 months and the other day I decided I would rebuild my laptop (with Linux) to be a word processor for writing this down. I want the laptop to be a stripped-down computer with one purpose: I turn it on and write my novel.
As I was reading up on writing software for Linux, I discovered something I had heard of but completely forgotten about. November is National Novel Writing Month! I saw this on November 1, and I had my laptop ready to go on November 1, so I think that's a sign I should get busy and write this thing.
What better day to start? I'm taking a two-hour train ride to Richmond tonight. I should be able to get a few thousand words in.
Keep an eye on my progress here: Doug's profile at NaNoWriMo
