A Novel Idea

Hello, textFIGHTers.

I know it's been about a billion years since I've posted anything here, and I missed all of the 3-Day Novel hoopla as I floundered through the summer. NaNoWriMo is approaching, though, and I'm considering jumping on the bandwagon this year. I've wanted to in the past, but the timing never worked, or my head was all befuddled in some way. This year, however, I've been revisiting an outline that I left abandoned a few years ago, and I think I've got the stones to finish the outline in time for November, which would put me in a pretty good place to participate in NaNoWriMo properly for once.

Who's gonna hold my hand? Anybody else willing to punch out 50,000 words in a month?

To clarify...

I meant, as good as I cam make it today.

Important distinction.

Sleep comes last.

And it's done.

At 11:30 p.m. I realized that this book is as good as I can make it. I have, as I've said, no idea what level of quality that is.

If I do this next year, I'm going in with an outline. Of the three years, this was, by far the closest I've come to giving up. Happily, I got a burst in home stretch when everything became clear plotwise.

Thanks.

Finished.

Draft one is finished, with two and a half hours to go. Which is good, because I need to seriously work on the last section in Nulm. To be kind, it sucks.

but the book is there. For better or for worse. My shortest yet, and surely in need of revision and expansion, but there.

I believe I will sacrifice half an hour to relax, and clear my head.

Mid afternoon.

Well into it now, and the end is in sight. I know, roughly, each scene I need to do. Plotlines are converging, and though this is an extremely compressed narrative it's a functioning one, more or less.
I don't think I'll have any time to edit the thing before midnight. I suspect I'll be writing to the wire. One never knows.

Day three

Okay. I'm having some breakfast right now, and then back to it. I am a little nervous about finishing. I guess we'll see.

I know what I have to do. Mostly, it's a issue of can I get there before midnight rolls around.

130 am

and all is well?

I give up for the day, shy of my goal, but feeling good.

Nearly midnight

Gayleen just finished her book. She was aiming for a middle school book of about 20,000 words, and she's done that. Now she gets to revise.

For my part, I'm now confident that I can finish. I'm not sure how long mine will be. I'm currently and just shy of 18000 words, and I'd like to hit 20k before bed.

Part of what's resolved my plot into something that can be dealt with involved introducing YET ANOTHER CHARACTER to the book, and in so doing, invalidating the thousand words I cut this morning.

Oh well.

8 o clock and all's well

My progress is slow, and I'm expecting a looong night. I'm cruising at an altitude of about 15,000 words. I would like to hit 20,000 or more before I go to sleep. This is probably realistic. I don't know.

I've gotten past the hurdles of considering vast cuts or just giving up. I will finish this.

I've had sufficient feedback to determine that it's readable if not brilliant. It's maybe more dependent on the previous two 3-Day novels than is likely to be good for it, but I knew that might happen.

The book has made me laugh twice and shudder twice, and that's okay.

I know, more or less where I need to go, and I just need the characters to take me there as naturally as they can. It's just a race against the clock.

One weird thing is that, in a rare turnabout for me during the contest, I think this book gets BETTER as it goes instead of starting like dynamite and kind of fizzling toward the end.

That's better? Right?

More as events warrrant.

Oh.. hey I just realized that I can put the 1100 words or so that I cut this morning back in soon. Whee!

Mid Day

Okay, so it's 4:15 and I'm a little less than halfway through. My pace is definitely slower this year, and I went through a period about an hour ago where I very seriously considered chucking it. Then I thought, maybe I'd cut a section.

Now I'm just back at it. I think it's working better than I'd thought. A couple kind people say they're enjoying it, though they know they are clearly missing some stuff dependent on the other books. That's fine. As long as it's STILL fun for them, and it seems to be.

It's a crazy fucking book again. I just had a character discover the Munchkin autopsy film.

Oh the emotional ups and downs....

Checking in

Bit of a late start this morning. Slept reasonably well. Started the day with a read of what I've done already. Um...well...it's some words. I have no idea of course. I never do. I did cut the last chapter I wrote last night, which dropped me a thousand words or so, but I'll be adding it back in later in the book

I need to pick up the pace a little today.

That's about it for now.

Day One

I am now at 10,000 words, or thirty nine pages. Almost exactly a third of the way in. I intend to have a little rest now, and maybe a nap. If it turns out to be a night's sleep so be it. I might wake up and write a bit more.

The section I just wrote actually creeped me out a bit, and I'm not sure if it's creepy to anyone but me. I guess we'll see.

I've written some things today I'm very happy with, and some stuff I just don't know about.

I'm in the kind of free-associative state that I was last year, but with a little less of a fixed idea of what will happen in each section. The characters keep surprising me, and that always changes things, and that can take a books on some unexpected turns.

Which can be good artistically, but can really fuck with the actual writing. Sometimes your imagination needs to catch up.

Over the worst

I would like to think I've turned a corner. I think I've wrestled the structure of the book into place, and can do this. I just don't know, at this point, if what I'm writing is any fun to read. So I've recruited a beta reader to take a look at what I've got right now. Drop me an email if you want to take a look. Honest feedback was tremendously useful in the last two. The thing about these novels is you can easily commit to a very bad decision just because of the pace you need to write at.

Silver Bullets, in particular, was saved by an early bit of feedback.

So that's where I'm at. I'm still a bit further behind than I'd like to be in terms of word count, but I think my brain has been busy plotting int he background and that slowed me down.

I'll keep you posted.

Book's called Never Land by the way.

Okay

I need a break. I've written five hundred words in the last hour. That's not so good. But midnight is a long way away. I am not sleeping until I break 12,000 words. So it may be a long night.

This is fucking hard

Doing a parallel narrative, like milk, was a poor choice.

I'm doing some writing I'm okay with, but the timing is gonna be hard.

My progress is much slower than I'd like. I was already at near 10000 words byt this time last year I think.

Saturday, 930 am

Okay, I'm up and back at it once I put some food in my food hole.

Okay then

So, in a strange turn of events I am writing a combination of two different ideas. The book will be called Never Land. It's about a support group, sort of, for kids who went into magical kingdoms like Narnia and Neverland when they were kids, and now have to life the rest of their lives in the real world.

It will also be the third in the series I've been writing for the last two years. So I'll have three novella, which, together comprise the Sel Souriad.

So I'm underway. G is at work in her room as well.

It's 1:30, and I'm a chapter in. I'm gonna sleep and get back to it in the a.m.

Midnight

It begins. Wonder what I'll write...

Glutton for Punishment.

It is Friday September 3rd. At midnight the 3 Day Novel Contest begins. This will be my third year in a row. This year, Gayleen is also doing the contest again. It will be nice to have another nut in the house.

As usual, you can check my progress here. I'll post regularly over the weekend. Gayleen likely will not, but I'll keep you updated as events warrant on both of us.

Cheer us on, the morale boost is always nice.

I'm still not 100 percent which book I'm writing. I guess I'll find out tonight. G is still doing her middle-grade noir detective story with a dog as the lead. It's a crazy, far out concept for her, outside her comfort zone and perfect for a 3 day.

I'm excited/terrified.