Wednesday 19 November 2014

(vol 1) CHAPTER 41: “NaNoWriMo – Day 19.”

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