Hello, writers. So we’ve had a bit of weather here. Nothing like down in NYC and NJ-- just a bit of weather. Hurricane Sandy soaked through the uncaulked edges of my new window, sent water pouring down the walls, soaked the carpet, oh and the basement is flooded, but other people have far bigger problems.
So I’ve turned off the circuit breaker to my writing/bedroom, and ripped up the soaked carpet, and am kind of camped on the edge of the flood here… the inconvenience of which gives me sympathy for people who were really hit by this thing.
How about you? Any storm stories?
NaNoWriMo begins today. You can sign up on the
official site, but in the past, rebels that we are, we’ve tended to do it unofficially. If you’d like to keep us apprised of your progress, leave a comment below letting us know you’re doing it.
NaNoWriMo, and drafting in general, is very different from revision. Most of the professional writers I know hate drafting, at least on some level. (Usually, it’s the loud, vociferous level.) When you’re drafting, you’re trying to increase your word count. You shoot for so many words a day, or a week. When you get a couple thousand words written, you feel fulfilled.
Stephen King says in On Writing (which you should read) that in a first draft, you’re telling the story to yourself, and in a second draft, you’re telling it to others.
In the second draft, and the third, and the eighteenth, and the hundred and fourth, the word count is your enemy—or at least, it is mine. Every scene, sentence, and word has to fight for its right to remain. You watch the word count to make sure it’s staying under control. Before I start revising a scene, I write down its word count. I try to keep the final product either at the same word count, or below it if I’m trying to cut. If I’m adding a lot of material, I’ll let the word count go up slightly, but will have to cut somewhere else.
Word count matters. Controlling your word count means insisting on quality. And basically, you can’t go over the standard word count for your genre unless you have a very good excuse.
Anyway, with that in mind, tonight’s challenge is an exercise in extreme word count control.
Below is a list of scenarios. Choose one, or else use your own work-in-progress.
- A callow youth and his/her stout companion, having just received word that Froop dropped the sacred Jewel of Togwogmagog in the Eternal Swamp, have gone back to look for it.
-A stranger has come to the Wiltchester Dragon Farm, wanting to buy a baby dragon, but ace dragon breeder Jocasta Entwhistle doesn’t trust him one bit.
- Belinda sees Lord Postlethwaite-Praxleigh (pronounced Puppy) leaving the ballroom on the arm of her rival, Adelaide, who isn’t even capable of appreciating all he went through in the Peninsular Wars.
1. Sum up each character in the scenario in six words. The six words can be dialogue, description, or action.
2. Write the scene, in twenty words.
(I am really interested to see what people come up with for this.)
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