Hello, writers. So here we are at NaNoWriMo again, and the doughty writers listed below are giving it a go. All are shooting for 50k words in November unless otherwise stated.
terrypinder
Orinoco
jeremybloom
WiseFerret,
Prinny Squad
cfk (will report on compiling the story of Jasper and Hitch)
not a lamb (will report dissertation wordcount)
Cassandra Waites
rugbymom
That's a much longer list than we had last year, I think. Write on!
If you're doing NaNoWriMo, and you hit 10,000 words by midnight tonight, you're on track. Remember, this is just a draft; give yourself permission to write badly. You'll be surprised, when you look back at it, how well you've written some of the time.
Later, when you're finished, let it rest, like bread dough. Stephen King says six weeks, which is good advice.
I've just unpacked and started reading through a draft I finished about two months ago. Some bits are pretty good. Others are disjointed. (Characters arrive at places without having departed for them. Characters abruptly drop out of the story. Et cetera.) There are some scenes I obviously meant to polish later. Now it's later and I'm staring at them in dismay. That's okay. It's all part of the process.
The important thing is that now I recognize which parts need work. When I set the thing aside back in September, I called it a hot mess. Now I see that most of it is salvageable. The hot-messy places are much easier to identify. Now I just need to figure out how to fix them.
A few things that need repair:
Characters
I'm still trying to get a sense of who the characters are. Some clearly need further development. Others need to be handed a pink slip. Too many characters crowding the stage hampers the story's forward momentum, because you always need to keep track of what each one is doing.
Throughlines
I've talked about these before-- the step-by-step development of a plot or character element, which the writer needs to trace from the beginning of the manuscript to the end. (An example of a throughline is Frodo's changing attitude toward the Ring:
1. It might be useful. 2. It's a responsibility he doesn't want. 3. It's a responsibility he accepts. 4. It's his Precious.)
I find it much easier to develop throughlines after I have a draft.
Clarity of Purpose
Looking at my manuscript, there are times when I don't understand what the characters are doing and why they're doing it. They all bundle off in a group to beard the lion in his den... but why? What are they hoping to accomplish? What do they want the lion to do, or concede, or acknowledge, and how will that help them attain their ultimate goal?
These bits need to be clarified. A simple statement (it took me years to learn this) of exactly what it is your protagonist is trying to do can work wonders. The more complex your plot, the more you need these statements. They should be brief, and they should be dropped in every few scenes to the minimum extent necessary.
Identifying that minimum extent is one of the reasons we need to let the manuscript rest.
Tonight's challenge:
In order to obtain the Jewel of Togwogmagog and save the realm, a callow youth and his/her stout companion must cross the treacherous Bridge of Ties and consult the fabled Oracle.
It's up to you to decide what makes the bridge treacherous. Just make sure they have a tough time crossing it.
Drop a reminded into the scene of just what it is the callow youth and his/her stout companion are trying to accomplish.
Try to limit yourself to 150 words.
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