Month: October 2013

Aaaaaannnnd now I have decided to change my focus for NaNoWriMo. The reasons first:

          I am not a very good “pantser” (someone who writes by the ‘seat of their pants’ – or free-writes their whole novel). While I don’t pre-plan everything, I need a good idea of where I am going. That happens in the preparation stage.

          Even if I could wing it, I don’t have a really solid antagonist for Konor’s story. Without a good antagonist, what’s the point of the protagonist?

          I can tell you what would happen. I would struggle with the story, maybe getting a start on it, become frustrated, and then stall out. And then not only would I not get any writing done on the new story, but I wouldn’t work on my current story and I wouldn’t edit my other story.

          A month of nothing.

          So, I am adjusting my NaNo plans. Since they don’t coincide with the ‘rules’ of NaNo, I guess you could say that I am not actually participating. But, what I will be doing is setting my goal to finish my current book (Zee’s story) in the month of November.

 

The nice thing:

          As a pre-published author, I have the liberty to change my mind. I am not tied down to a contract (mostly because I don’t have anything worth tying down yet 🙂  ). My job right now is to learn the craft the best I can so that I can tell my stories in a way that will transport the reader.

          When I thought about starting the new project for NaNo, I had to weigh that out with the importance of finishing what I am working on.

          I will learn more by finishing the book I am doing right now than fighting with a book I am not prepared to write.

And thus- my mind has changed. I will still be typing madly in November, just not on a brand-new shiny book. That will come later.

I am grateful that I have the leeway to change gears and give myself some breathing room with all the other things that are crashing in November.

What are you grateful about in your current situation?

November is quickly approaching. And if you don’t know, November is NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month.

It works best if you are prepared.

October is the time to prepare and that time is coming to an end. So now is the time to panic! – Just kidding.

Preparing means, to me, understanding who your story will be about. The Characters Drive the Story.

 

I have been thinking about which story idea I wanted to work on. The one that is buzzing around my head right now comes from a flash fiction I did a long time ago. It was a 600 word story contest that I entered – they supplied the first and last lines and you had to write from there. http://wp.me/pC7Og-4O (this is the story so you can read it, if you wish)

Now I have my beginning structure. I always liked the world possibilities and thought about expanding it. This jumping point gives me a small nugget of what will come. That scene may not even be in the story, it depends on what happens with the rest of my planning.

That structure, or initial idea, needs a lot of expansion to make it work. I need to figure out my characters, my antagonist, my conflict, everything else that makes a story enjoyable, and make an outline before November 1st.

Let it begin! 🙂