Day 16 - No shit, Sherlock, I’m still here!

Okay. I gave in. I reverted back to my good old chaotic method of writing. In the end, it seems it’s what works best for me. And I’m ready to resort to such methods now.

You see, for NaNo 2006, I didn’t consider myself as especially well-prepared. I had a bit of an outline for a few chapters, a global idea of my story, and a somewhat good enough idea of its atmosphere. In fact, the two things I was pretty much sure of were the beginning and the ending–it’s good, in itself, because at least I knew where I was heading to! However, being aware that what was to lie in-between was a big chunk of nothingness and vague concepts, I had decided to follow a linear way of writing. Chapter after chapter, in the normal order of reading. In the hopes (and conviction) that this would allow me to develop my story, world and characters in a better way than what I had done in October.

Boy, was I wrong.

It doesn’t work for me. It just doesn’t. Whether I have an outline or not, whether I have plenty of notes/snippet/post-its or not, the truth is, I thrive in chaos, and chaos usually thanks me of this by rewarding me with a chapter or two. This means I’m not that talented at writing exactly in the right order.

So I bit the bullet, and started a chapter that takes place further in the story. A chapter in which Althea and Edric (I really wasn’t fond of the ‘Idan’ name anymore for him, sorry) consider sneaking into the Library’s reserve to find out more information about another mage who may hold a couple of revelations about… certain things. And Althea wants to know more about him, so that she can tell her mother afterwards.

I’m not sure if I’ll post a word count tonight (although it’s certain now that it WON’T be a big fat 0 like in the past few days!). If I fail to do so, I’ll update more precisely tomorrow morning or afternoon.

Tags: NaNoWriMo | novel | over yonder | writing | word count

Frustrations

I’ve just understood why, without me noticing it at first, my writing has somewhat slowed down - and by this, I don’t mean the problems with my dead hard drive, but something more general, with different roots.

I’m currently stuck at a scene I absolutely hate, yet a scene that is essential to the story. The one where my two groups of characters meet, and realize they come from different places, places that shouldn’t be in contact with each other to start with, places about which each involved party has its own beliefs/ideas/legends. It IS an important scene, one that has to happen at some point, since this little bunch of characters wear signs of not originating from the same continent, and it would be totally out of character for them to not ask at least a few questions. On the other hand, my attempts at writing it have, so far, all been pretty dull.

I could distillate the information in-between action scenes, but I’m wary of burdening the reader under too much action, under combat chained to pursuit chained to combat, or anything close to that. I could write your average sit-around-the-campfire evening and have the characters honestly answer to each other’s questions, yet this is a) too much exposition all at once, b) revelations that are spoon-fed too early and too fast to the reader. I’m pondering trying a mix of both methods - a beginning of discussion, followed by an interruption, from which other relationships/a spark of trust could emerge.

In a way, I’m even glad that I’ve ran into this problem: I know that when I manage to overcome it (because I WILL overcome it, I’m not giving up!), I’ll get out of it with a new experience under my belt, and a very valuable one at that.

Right now, though, I’m just at a loss about how to make all of this interesting. * cringes *

Niltoy | scene | writing

State of the Novel

Current word count:

66,578 / 75,000 (88.8%)

It’s very weird. These days, I have ideas for other stories, and as a result, I’m itching to start them, putting the rest on the backburner for a short while. Then, as soon as I’ve ranted and written about how lame I am for being unable to finish a novel before starting the next (see the Y logs and other places where I flail myself with noodles), I fire off the word-processor and add 1k or 2k words to the current work-in-progress. I don’t understand myself, but as long as it works and helps me remain focused on said WIP, perhaps I simply should suck it up, take it as it comes, and feel happy?

And I can’t access Zokutou anymore, unless I get through Tor and Privoxy first o_O Go fig, this will probably get fixed by itself in a few days, much like it’s been for every site with which I’ve had this kind of problem. Since I don’t like seeing my own stuff broken, I’m switching to Feath’s counter for the time being.

Tags: NaNoWriMo | novel | word count | writing

Falling Short? Uhm, No

I added some more to yesterday’s count, but it was past 11 pm and I didn’t feel like making an update again. Writing’s going on this morning anyway. Should everything go well, I may actually reach my 50k on Sunday evening. It’ll all depend on what the week-end has in store for me projects-wise (hey, maybe we’ll end up taking down another wall again in the house! Haha).

About ten days ago, I was afraid I’d fall short of 50k with my story, feeling that I was just going too fast, not putting enough descriptions, etc. Right now, I have to scrap this fear down. In fact, I won’t even be finished when I cross the 50k mark, and in a way, it’s a good thing that I’ll be having a week left, since this will provide me, I hope, with time to do so, even if I need to only write the main plot points only in the remaining chapters, and develop them afterwards. I so want to see this story finished, with “THE END� written in… well, the end. I’ve gone too far to leave this to its unfinished state.

Well, worse comes to worst, there’s still December, but I really want to do the more I can this month…

Tags: NaNoWriMo | novel | writing

For Once Music Is A Hassle

I so totally have Specimen’s “Syria” lyrics stuck in my head. Way to go. You’d think it’d give me some inspiration, given that, after all, the action of my novel is set in the very martian place that is called Syria, but no. The song is way too bouncy for that. I’m really thrown out of the loop, as stupid as it can seem. Now to hope that the tune leaves me by tonight, because I really find it hard to dive into “serious” scenes, and to be honest, it’s what still remains to write.

Turn it up, up, turn it up, turn it up, up, up…

*bangs head against desk*