Wait I thought it was day 9. How could a day just disappear like that? Sounds like another plot bunny for someone, I just wish I could find a few for myself.
Anyway it is day 10 and although I was tempted I did not skip day 9. I didn’t write a devotional or a blog post on my activities, because I didn’t actually write till 9:00 last night. I’m not sure why I felt the lack of motivation, maybe it was carry over exhaustion from mad Monday, or maybe my brain along with all of my characters were staging a revolt. They seem to be doing a lot of that this month.
So I’ll fill you in: Monday night went to a write in among other things and got my word count up to 15652, 1652 words beyond my Monday goal. So I was partially set for yesterday, I could have coasted and just popped in 348 words somewhere. So if you do the math my goal for last night was to reach 16000 words. I did a word war last night with a group of writing buddies and reached 17011, obviously beyond my projected goal and a cushion for the future.
Today as you can see I am a little slow getting into my writing zone and my goal for the end of the day is 18000. Tonight another word war is scheduled so I should easily reach that and beyond. Going forward I am hoping to have more than my 26000 word goal by the 15th, which will put me over half way there. We shall see if I can maintain the momentum however small it may be, but with the girls having the next four days off from school it will be a challenge.
While I have you here, I will tell you a few things I am learning from this journey. The biggest one I have encountered is this plotting- vs -seat of the pants writing. I have been a seat of the pants writer and it has served me well, so I decided what the heck, I would change things up a little this year. I had two reasons for my plan: One. One of the ml’s for this district asked me to do a teeny workshop on plotting, so I figured I had to try it. Second. In spite of the fact that seat of the pants is always the way I have done things, I thought it would be nice for a change to have an idea where the story the story was going. Last year when I did Nano, the only things I knew where the characters and setting and a vague idea about the lessons to be learned. It worked out okay. This year the book I am working on is book two in a three or four book series, where books one and three are already written. So I thought, hey this plotting thing, a piece of cake and what better book to do it on then on where I know the beginnning and the ending.
So before the month starts, I write a brief, rough outline and put in it the things I know have to happen and then some things I think might happen. November 1 I pull out the outline and start writing. I actually get three or four days in and about 8000 words give or take a few, before my characters start to revolt. The story feels stale and contrived. I am trying very hard to what is written on that sheet of paper. Finally around day four the main characters refuse to fill the story line. They will not cooperate for anything and I am stuck. Well I can’t force them to play, I’ll just have a go at some secondary characters for a while, and maybe skip ahead a few chapters. I can always come back to these guys later, after they finish their snit.
While working on the secondary character, things begin to come back to life. I reach a point where the mc’s are willing to play again and the story takes some interesting, unexpected turns.
For a moment I look sadly at the outline and I realize that it isn’t all the characters fault. I had been trying to force them down some predetermined road that just would not tell the story that we all wanted to tell.
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Bottom line: Outlining is not my friend. Do not misunderstand, I am not saying that it cannot or is not your friend. Just that for me it doesn’t work. The most it can do for me is serve as a reminder of things that might occur within the story, but for me it can never be the whole story. For me, the story refuses to be locked into those invisible boundaries.
Resolution: Next year back to no outline, ml cannot assign me the plotting workshop. and for the rest of this month the outline is only a reference, the characters must have their way.
Happy Writing and God Bless,
Chris
Palace of Three Crosses
Word Count 17011
You’ve been talking a lot lately about this WORD WAR stuff and I’m curious, what is a word war and what fabulous prize does the winner get?
A word war is a challenge a group of writers puts before each other. In essence we set a time limit and word count and then write. The fabulous prize is the satisfaction of completing the challenge or at the very least participating. The goal is to get as many words as you can. You have a whole group of writers doing the same thing and encouraging each other. It breaks up the monotony of writing alone and you can do it on a computer in your own writing space or at a write in.