Ever get halfway through a novel and have that bad boy die on you?
Me neither, but it's on life support right now.
Here's a story for you. I wrote a story previously about the same main characters I have been in "The Crawl of Chufule" called "Morian. " Better than 6,000 words, in fact. I liked it, but I didn't love it. Something was wrong.
But that's fine. That's what the second draft is for.
I go through the second draft, and by the time I'm finished, I have "Hero of Ullias Castle." 9000+ words, and, with the exception of a few key points, a completely different story than "Morian." Hell, I even dropped one of the main characters and the main threat
I think I got a better tale second time through, but that's not what I'm getting at. The first draft is a try out, a let's see what's over there. Sometimes you bat it out of the park. More often than not you don't.
I was out on a drive yesterday when I saw the true shape of the novel. What it was about and, more to the point, what was wrong with what I was writing. By my judgment, one character's entire nature and role must be change and I need to add one more major character. EXTENSIVE REWRITING. I look forward to it. I'm eager for it.
But I can't do it and NaNoWriMo too. I've seen that with the rewriting I've done.
Which leaves me to finish a novel I don't care to finish.
Which has caused me to stumble. After fixing the Unmanageables, I did nothing today
Which has put me behind. I think by a day, but I haven't done the math. Too lazy today.
So, where do I stand?
As I see it, the only trouble is finishing it. I can pull 2500+, at least, and two of those'll will put me ahead. I have no Sword of Damocles hanging over my head in the form of not connected stuff. I have a blank slate.
Which is about as damning. It's almost like starting over.
How should I go about it? The way I should have been writing this whole contest. No thought, straight a head, and if there's a curve oh well, I'm going over the side.
The sooner I hit 50,000+, the sooner I can start making this the novel I know it could be.
More later. Maybe.
Me neither, but it's on life support right now.
Here's a story for you. I wrote a story previously about the same main characters I have been in "The Crawl of Chufule" called "Morian. " Better than 6,000 words, in fact. I liked it, but I didn't love it. Something was wrong.
But that's fine. That's what the second draft is for.
I go through the second draft, and by the time I'm finished, I have "Hero of Ullias Castle." 9000+ words, and, with the exception of a few key points, a completely different story than "Morian." Hell, I even dropped one of the main characters and the main threat
I think I got a better tale second time through, but that's not what I'm getting at. The first draft is a try out, a let's see what's over there. Sometimes you bat it out of the park. More often than not you don't.
I was out on a drive yesterday when I saw the true shape of the novel. What it was about and, more to the point, what was wrong with what I was writing. By my judgment, one character's entire nature and role must be change and I need to add one more major character. EXTENSIVE REWRITING. I look forward to it. I'm eager for it.
But I can't do it and NaNoWriMo too. I've seen that with the rewriting I've done.
Which leaves me to finish a novel I don't care to finish.
Which has caused me to stumble. After fixing the Unmanageables, I did nothing today
Which has put me behind. I think by a day, but I haven't done the math. Too lazy today.
So, where do I stand?
As I see it, the only trouble is finishing it. I can pull 2500+, at least, and two of those'll will put me ahead. I have no Sword of Damocles hanging over my head in the form of not connected stuff. I have a blank slate.
Which is about as damning. It's almost like starting over.
How should I go about it? The way I should have been writing this whole contest. No thought, straight a head, and if there's a curve oh well, I'm going over the side.
The sooner I hit 50,000+, the sooner I can start making this the novel I know it could be.
More later. Maybe.
1 comment:
Believe it or not, I think this is actually a good sign. It means the story is growing organically and you're not forcing stuff in, in order to up the word count.
I would imagine, since the story is telling you what to do, that doing the needed additions won't be as hard as you imagine.
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