THE PLOT THICKENS
Coming to the end of week three of this year’s NaNoWriMo and
now I’m starting to find the story that wants to be told.
DAY 13 – 2417 words
Back on form today and another of those sessions that feels
slow (600 words) then gets slower (800 words) before snowballing towards a
rather pleasing 2417. And I didn’t even finish the chapter.
I’m really getting into this new part of the story now. In
the opening of this volume, the main character had woken with no memory on a
secluded beach. Heading out he finds his way to the nearby town of Fosters End where
he has been given the job of cook. Not knowing his past he decides to take his
job title as his name.
DAY 14 – 2012 words
Although I hit a nice target during the previous nights
writing, the scene itself was far from over. Cook had settled into his new role
cooking food for the visitors to the town but it’s not long before the town
comes under threat and Cook discovers he has abilities that separate him from
normal men.
This and two Flash! Friday entries too. Another busy day in
the world of writing.
DAY 15 – 619 words
The week’s first bad day comes, once more, with what I feel
is a legitimate excuse. My son had recently turned two and we’d decided to
throw him a party of two halves; friends and kids in the morning and then family
in the afternoon. By the time everyone was gone, presents were unwrapped, the
house tidied and dinner was finally eaten it was late. So all I managed was 619
words that tied up the large chapter I’d started on Thursday as well as barely starting
with a few lines on the next.
DAY 16 – 2080 words
With Sunday being a more relaxing day, I managed a lot of
writing. Once my Angry Hourglass entry was out of the way in the morning I
spent the evening powering through the chapter that introduced the first of the
power players in the new land; Lady Rashett. Her meeting with the second main
character was an opportunity to pass into the lands capital too, a truly epic
place that will make Minus Tirith look like a garden shed.
DAY 17 – 2123 words
From this point I have a couple of chapters taking place at a
secluded temple while several characters come and go. I managed two short
chapters that gave the main character of Cook time to develop and take in what
he’s seen so far.
DAY 18 – 1839 words
Like several of my writing evenings, this chapter started
slow and seemed to get slower. But when you start chopping up the word count
goals it all suddenly flies by. I would just push my daily to 1000 but then my
total word count wasn’t far from rounding up to whole number. So I’d do a
little more. This is exactly what happened until I got to an epic fight scene;
two heroes versus a park of oversized wolves. Blood was spilt during this
chapter and I was exhausted when I finished the scene. Very happy with it
though, very happy.
DAY 19 – 530 words
Which brings me to tonight. I was looking forward to keeping
my momentum going but, unfortunately, my car was hit on the way home from work
tonight. I’m fine and the car is (mostly) fine. However, with digging out
paperwork, phoning the insurance company, having dinner, putting away a home
shopping delivery and writing this post, time is slipping away. I managed to
hand write the start of the current chapter while at work today so I’m just
going to type that up and call it a night. Hopefully I can get my head back in
the game tomorrow.
HISTORY WILL CHANGE
Despite the fact that NaNoWriMo is all about writing and
writing and writing, with editing told to have the month off, my brain is
already looking at what works and what doesn’t. I put a lot of stuff into the
story that just randomly starts and I will need to go back and foreshadow
characters, locations and plot points.
If you were to read through this draft now I think your brain
would explode. The project probably resembles something that was started by a
different author each day with almost no back story passed on to help.
Still, I’m enjoying this exploration phase, which is exactly what
this is all about. Each chapter is like a fork in the road and it’s only when I
get to the end of each one that I know if I want to carry on through with the
plan or strike out into brand new territory. The path may continue off on a
wild tangent for the rest of NaNoWriMo or, like what has already happened a
lot, I might just take a detour, explore off to the left or right for a little
bit before returning to the main path.
I guess we’ll see if this works come February next year when
I start releasing it.
A LITTLE FLASH(ING)
Before I go I have a little bit of positive news. One of my
two entries for last week’s Flash! Friday was award the prize of First Runner
Up (AKA 2nd place). This matches my highest position (see IF YOU GO
DOWN TO THE WOODS TODAY – 11th July 2014). Big thanks to judge Margaret
Locke for the nice words she had to say about my entry INFINITE
MONKEY THEOREM and also well done to the other winners and honourable
mentions.
THEIR NECK AND NECK
(AND NECK)
So NaNo enters its final third and I’m still sat with a
positive word count (1060 words in credit).
Once more a big shout out to Adam Nelson (41905), Caitlin
McColl (29486), David Graffham (27285) and Rasha Tayaket (2700) as well as new
buddy Casey Rose Frank (30567). These guys keep going which makes it easier for
me to keep going.
See you in seven.
No comments:
Post a Comment