NaNo: Three-quarters
Well, things have picked up over the last week. I've made a real effort to catch up and I'm now sitting pretty at a little over 37,000 words, about a quarter of a day's worth ahead of schedule. Go me!
I'm also 1800 words ahead of my 3000-words-per-chapter target. This is a good thing, as the next chapter is in danger of being about two paragraphs long. I have an outline for it - three sentences and 11 words of it. Making those sentences into proper narrative text would take about two paragraphs. What I really need is to imagine a couple of incidents which demonstrate the situation; but that's a bit more difficult.
I suppose I could always write the two paragraphs and move on to the next chapter, which should be easier to bulk out: it's a meeting, so basically a long piece of dialog punctuated with enough description to make it interesting. I'll think about how I can write the tricky chapter properly, though, as it'll be nice not to have to use a gratuitous filler.
It's just as well I'm ahead at the moment. I'm away and very busy this weekend, and I'm not sure how much time I'll have to catch up next week (the final few days!) so I need to get as far ahead as I can.
I'm focusing on quantity in this post rather than quality or substance. And what not? That is, after all, what NaNo is all about. But I do at least feel that the last week's worth has been no worse than what preceded it. I think the two biggest issues with the last few chapters have been a lack of key detail due to a lack of research / knowledge on my part, and dialog which doesn't adequately distinguish the characters involved. Ah well. Maybe that's something I can work on in future. Still, I do feel that I have improved my style in one area: I wanted to avoid long passages describing the characters' inner thinking and feeling, and rather to make their feelings apparent through their actions and conversations. "Show, don't tell," I think it's called. I don't know how good my "showing" has been, but at least there's a lot more of that and a lot less "telling". That's got to be something.
So, one more week to go, and my "novel" is reaching its grand finale. Things are going rapidly downhill, and my characters are about to embark on their heroic last stand together. Yes, it really is that tacky. But how will it all end?
I'm also 1800 words ahead of my 3000-words-per-chapter target. This is a good thing, as the next chapter is in danger of being about two paragraphs long. I have an outline for it - three sentences and 11 words of it. Making those sentences into proper narrative text would take about two paragraphs. What I really need is to imagine a couple of incidents which demonstrate the situation; but that's a bit more difficult.
I suppose I could always write the two paragraphs and move on to the next chapter, which should be easier to bulk out: it's a meeting, so basically a long piece of dialog punctuated with enough description to make it interesting. I'll think about how I can write the tricky chapter properly, though, as it'll be nice not to have to use a gratuitous filler.
It's just as well I'm ahead at the moment. I'm away and very busy this weekend, and I'm not sure how much time I'll have to catch up next week (the final few days!) so I need to get as far ahead as I can.
I'm focusing on quantity in this post rather than quality or substance. And what not? That is, after all, what NaNo is all about. But I do at least feel that the last week's worth has been no worse than what preceded it. I think the two biggest issues with the last few chapters have been a lack of key detail due to a lack of research / knowledge on my part, and dialog which doesn't adequately distinguish the characters involved. Ah well. Maybe that's something I can work on in future. Still, I do feel that I have improved my style in one area: I wanted to avoid long passages describing the characters' inner thinking and feeling, and rather to make their feelings apparent through their actions and conversations. "Show, don't tell," I think it's called. I don't know how good my "showing" has been, but at least there's a lot more of that and a lot less "telling". That's got to be something.
So, one more week to go, and my "novel" is reaching its grand finale. Things are going rapidly downhill, and my characters are about to embark on their heroic last stand together. Yes, it really is that tacky. But how will it all end?
posted by tomdg at 4:11 AM
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