Nanowrimo Update: 4,170

I know, I know, this is my second post today. My second post in about two hours in fact. But I’ve made some good headway with my Nano novel.

I’m up to 4,170 words, which means I’ve done the equivalent to two days of regular nanowriting. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a lot more done tomorrow and be well on the way to 50K.

The story is coming well. I’ve attempted to start it a couple of times before, but I’ve thought about it and mulled it over for the past couple of weeks. I developed some momentum, and hopefully the steam will continue to keep it running through tomorrow and for the rest of November.

This is probably a very badly worded blog, but I’m very tired and I just wanted to give a quick update on my reasonably successful first Nanowrimo day.

So I’ve Given into Pressure

I’ve actually decided to start NaNoWriMo after all. I’m nearly a week late, but I couldn’t help myself.

I saw various blogs on here dedicated to the contest, and also did a search for #nanowrimo on Twitter. I guess I just got drawn in by the sense of community.

I might be a week later than everybody else, but I’ll definitely give it a good go. I’ve only been writing for about an hour and I’ve already got 2,226 words. I worked out how many I need to do per day if I started now, and it came to around 2,175, so I’m still on target. I’m going to leave it for today and hope that I can catch up further tomorrow.

The story is going strongly at the moment. I feel like I could write for longer, but I’m very aware that my housemate has just gone to bed and is literally just behind the wall that my desk is against. My typing must be a very irritating, very irregular tapping. Maybe I’ll move my laptop onto my bed so I can work for a little longer.

But anyway, here’s to starting Nano again! Albeit a bit late. Perhaps this novel will be something I can use in my creative writing classes. Two birds with one stone comes to mind.

A bit of information about the novel:

It’s a kind of fantasy, psychological, armageddon type thing that I can’t really place. One of the main themes is the difference (or lack thereof) between the real world and the world of dreams. My character is undergoing therapy, and the book is essentially her story about growing up differently to everybody else and becoming isolated. I think the general idea is strong enough to keep going for 50,000 words, despite the lack of preparation. It’s been mulling in my mind for a couple of weeks, though, if that counts.

I’ll keep you updated on how it’s going!

Another milestone reached

Just a short post to say that I have good news. Today I reached 10,000 words. I think I can safely say that I’ve finished my beginning (the first time ever) and I can now move onto the middle. Well, to be honest, I finished my beginning a few thousand words ago.

It’s all going well. I can tell where lots of my writing does need work, namely my last finished chapter. It’s a chapter full of explanation about what’s going on, and I can see it reading very slowly. When I edit I’ll find ways to split up this explanatory chapter and spread it throughout the novel rather than dumping so much information on the reader at once. In a way, this chapter acted as a conduit to get my ideas about the larger scale parts of the plot that are important to why things are happening.

I’ve never had so much fun writing as with this novel. When I write an action sequence, I come away from the keyboard a little short of breath as I realise that I had been holding it whilst writing. Naturally, some days are better than others, but I am up to speed on my targets, and am making good progress. Hopefully it will be done by mid-September.

Another milestone reached, and many more to come across along the way. Wish me luck!

Targets give you something to shoot for

A new month, and I’ve given myself a deadline. 10th September, my last day in America. I chose this day in mind that I can print it out and do a bit of editing on the seven hour flight back to the UK.

My target word count is 50,000 words. This is taken from the Nanowrimo target, though I’ll not be doing it in November, and I’ve given myself a bit more than a month. Nanowrimo (NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth)  is something I recommend to get into the practise of writing lots, regularly.

Using these targets, I’ve given myself a daily word count to reach each day. This amounts to 1156 words, which is less than an hour’s work. Breaking it down into these bitesize chunks have made the whole prospect of writing a full-length novel less daunting.

I only created these targets yesterday, but already I can tell that they’re helping. Yesterday I wrote 1510 words, and today I have already written 1279, bringing my total so far to 8539. No, I haven’t got that good a memory; I’m keeping track of my progress using Excel graphs. It’s nice to have a visual representation of how much work I’m doing each day.

All this together should make writing this novel feel a lot easier; it’ll give me concrete objectives that I can meet and then feel accomplished about, and makes me realise that my work in progress is, in fact, in progress.

So, my advice to any new authors out there is this; set yourself targets. It really does make all the difference in knowing whether you’re on track, or need to work a little harder to catch up again.

Chapter Two

Well I believe it’s safe to say that I’ve managed to do more work on this novel than anything I’ve attempted to do before. This is uplifting for me, but has also made me realise that I haven’t been working on it anywhere near as much as I ought.

I’ve found Chapter Two much harder to write than the first chapter. Perhaps because it’s just a transitional chapter, trying to get my characters to start on their journey. I’ve always struggled with beginnings, even though I have nice ideas about what’ll happen in the middle and towards the end.

I now have 4100 words written. Not a lot is happening at the moment, but chapter three will be a bit more dramatic. This chapter was just about setting out and making those first steps. I’ve introduced the main character’s family and home, and I think he is starting to flesh out in the story. The journey has also begun!

One problem I’m finding is a lot of dialogue. My characters are always having conversations, and whilst I feel like this is good to develop them, I’m feeling like it’s retracting from the action. I suppose there’s a lot because there’s not a lot of action at the moment. This will change (very soon!) and since this my first attempt at a novel, I hope I will be able to hone down my skills as I get further along and redraft.

To the next chapter!

First Chapter Done, but not Dusted

It may be a little late to mention, but I finished my first chapter a few days ago. It’s approximately 2000 words and written truly terribly, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that I finished it. As my first draft, it is highly unlikely that anybody other than myself will read it. I’m just telling the story as it comes into my head; the polishing and smoothing down the rough edges will come when I redraft.

One thing I know I’m doing a lot is info-dumping. That’s one of the downsides of writing something as it comes to me. As I think of developments in character backgrounds or important information to make the plot make sense I write them in immediately before I forget. All it means is that I’ll need to do a little reorganising to make sure that my readers aren’t bogged down. I need to introduce them into my fantasy world slowly, setting them down gently and safely so they feel comfortable.

As a first chapter I think it’s fairly successful. I have introduced the two main characters and the enemy. One thing I think needs improving is motivation behind the character’s actions; I know why they’re doing what they’re doing, but I don’t think it’ll be immediately obvious to a reader. But again, this is something I intend to work on in the redrafts.

I have completed first chapters of attempted novels before. It’s a nice feeling, but I mustn’t get too bogged down in feeling like I’ve finished something. It’s just the start and I need to move on as fast as I can. Chapter Two is well under way, and I’ll be letting you know when I’ve reached my next milestone. I probably won’t update you after each chapter, as that’s likely to get boring, but if I feel I’ve made good progress, I’ll write a new post.

Back to writing!

A Beginning!

Well, I’ve finally begun my novel. It was bound to happen sooner or later.

Last night, I wrote a very short synopsis of the plot that I have been working on for some time. As with most inspired moments, it occurred in the small hours of the morning. I was lying in bed trying to get to sleep, but my story just wouldn’t leave me alone until I wrote stuff down. It was a simple synopsis, with little embellishment. At the time, I figured that would come as I wrote.

I fell asleep happy with what I’d done. It wasn’t complete, but I thought I had about half a novel’s worth of stuff to write. I have an idea about the ending, but I’m not sure of the exact details about how it happens or the events leading up to it. I still found it tricky to get back to sleep. My creative juices were excited, and I just wanted to write.

I woke bright and early at 8:30 and looked over the notes I’d made the night before. Even after having slept on them they seemed pretty decent notes to work from. I felt that I could finally start my novel. It wouldn’t be perfect, but first drafts never are. I just feel as though I need to get the bare bones of the story written down just to have something to work with. Plot, character, style. They’re all things that can be ironed out once the main body of the story is on paper, or computer as the case is.

A few hours later, after letting my synopsis stew in my mind for a little, I sat at my laptop and just began to write. I aimed to get the first nine words down on the page, and the rest came easily. I’m not up to just over nine hundred, which I’m very pleased with. I can see that it will take some reworking, but I’m not worrying about that just now. I just want to tell my story in its rawest form. The literary nonsense can come later.

For those that are interested, it’s a fantasy novel that I’ve been thinking about for far too long. I’ve made numerous attempts to start it, and lots of points have changed dramatically since the first attempt. But I feel happy that I have a strong plot to send my characters along. I’ll just write it as I think of it, with this rough outline of a synopsis to focus my work.

The point of this post is just to say that I have finally made a real start, and I plan to spend the next couple of months whilst in the USA to write it. With so much free time, I should be able to work quickly, and hopefully have a complete first draft by the time I start back at university. 900 words down. Many many more to come!