National Novel Writing Month Group?

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

I've now finished Chapter 1, which turned out to be a bit of a beast. It's basically a hyperactive short story in its own right, setting up the situation where the real plot of the book begins.

 

[ColGray]

Hit 35k. Realized over the weekend that i had more edits to make early on to make the MC more complex and fraught.

That said, I'm really enjoying writing YA. There's kind of an innate intergenerational conflict with the structure of the genre-- the younger characters are kind of definitionally dealing with the fallout of their parent's choices and it's an interesting jumping off point. Kind of like why no Disney princess has parents: it's hard to have agency when someone is telling you what to do.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

I don't think I'm really NaNo-ing this thing any more, even though I'm still working on it. Really messed up a scene earlier this chapter. NaNo wisdom says "ignore it, keep going", but I'm not talking about "lol bad prose goes derp" here. The scene doesn't do what I need it to do either dramatically or functionally, and it's really hobbling my ability to write the next bit because the foundation for it just isn't there. So I need to re-write it. Which means my already tiny word count is going to go down, not up.

 

[ColGray]

@Fiberglass Cyborg I totally sympathize with that. Hopefully you got it worked out?

I had something similar where I knew i wanted my MC to be a teenager visiting family for the summer and unhappy about it but their parents had insisted, beyond all reason (in their opinion) that they visit the mom's family's business (a (unknown to the MC) magical inn). I'm intentionally aiming for cozy YA and steering clear of world-shattering stakes, so everything needs to be personal, limited and focused on the MC's world.

The underlying why i initially touched on was a family feud-- oh, hey, what if Romeo and Juliet lived, married against both family's wishes and had a kid? Wrote it, kept moving.

And found it wasn't enough. It felt low stakes and kind of lame and didn't work with the whole, magical inn, central plot location. In the course of writing, found that, oh, actually the MC has magic but the dad's family cursed them and locked away their magic but it keeps poking through in strange and disconcerting ways. I went back, re-wrote the early reveal scene, and moved forward.

And found it wasn't enough! It gave me a lot more to explore and work with, but it felt incomplete. I toyed with other ideas and then over the last few days decided, oh actually the MC's dad is an elf and they're mixed race. And, oh actually I can make elves be a bit like the Sidhe with bargains and agreements and that's how they fuel their magic. And, oh actually, etc. I still need to go back and re-write the reveal scene, but I may move forward for the time being and come back to that particular scene-- knowing I'll need to edit a bunch in general.

Though, if anyone's looking for an explanation about how pantsers/gardener writers write, well, there's my iterative thought process for plotting and background.

 

[Lafayette]

I don't think I'm really NaNo-ing this thing any more, even though I'm still working on it. Really messed up a scene earlier this chapter. NaNo wisdom says "ignore it, keep going", but I'm not talking about "lol bad prose goes derp" here. The scene doesn't do what I need it to do either dramatically or functionally, and it's really hobbling my ability to write the next bit because the foundation for it just isn't there. So I need to re-write it. Which means my already tiny word count is going to go down, not up.

It looks like you're being stressed out.

I'm not entirely sure if I approve of NaNo-ing. This may be because I'm not a fast thinker and don't like being stressed out. However, I may have a more reasonable disapproval. NaNoing encourages cookie cutter writing, which encourage faster speeds and less thought. I do like a rip roaring novel once in a while, but I enjoy a book more that makes me think and I'll remember later on and that I'll want to read again.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

It looks like you're being stressed out.

I'm not entirely sure if I approve of NaNo-ing. This may be because I'm not a fast thinker and don't like being stressed out. However, I may have a more reasonable disapproval. NaNoing encourages cookie cutter writing, which encourage faster speeds and less thought. I do like a rip roaring novel once in a while, but I enjoy a book more that makes me think and I'll remember later on and that I'll want to read again.

I am really not a very experienced writer. NaNo was useful to get me kick-started on this thing, but I think I've learned I can't work that way. Not yet, anyway! I've done a similar music challenge many times with decent results, but I'm a lot faster and more fluent at writing music.

 

[ColGray]

Oh, and check in-- i'm around 35k.

I am really not a very experienced writer. NaNo was useful to get me kick-started on this thing, but I think I've learned I can't work that way. Not yet, anyway! I've done a similar music challenge many times with decent results, but I'm a lot faster and more fluent at writing music.

I mean, same. I'd say I've read a lot but I've only written 4 books (2 fiction, 1 non-fiction, 1 rule book), mostly finished another and started about 10 more (with between 8k-15k words in each). Spending time writing and being able to focus on the structure of scenes and arcs and hook-middle build--reveal has been incredibly helpful and I'm not sure I would have caught, or spent time thinking about, deficiencies in my hook prior to the last 9 months.

While I find the pace of NaNoWriMo to be punishing-- I'm US based, so having Thanksgiving smack dab in the middle is like, there's a 0% chance I'm going to be able to write for a few days-- I've found the structure and tracking of it all to be very beneficial for me (ADHD brain: engage!). It's also about intention and goal: I don't expect to have an edit ready draft by the end of the month. My goal is to have 50-ish-k words down in a new setting, with new characters and in a new genre. If I've got that, then i'll feel successful.

 

[ColGray]

I also had fun with playing around with Stable Difussion and feeding it a couple lines of description to see what it could generate relative to my mind's eye. Pretty good and definitely fun!

 

[THX1138]

@Fiberglass Cyborg Try writing Flash Fiction sometime. From what I know of your writing skills, it might be a good exercise and I think you'll do well.
And if one of them catches your attention, just build up from it. You have great word mastery and imagination, so you'll be a natural at it.

 

[ColGray]

Wrap Up

I ended up just over 50k words on the month.

Result

I'd say maybe 40k is any good. I hit a definitely flow in the last couple days, but the middle part of the first act is slow and plodding and all over the place with details and development. I eventually stopped worrying and just moved forward and that freed me up a lot. But I also took waaaay too long to get to the point -- aiming for about 75k - 80k total words and I'm barely in Act 2 at 50k.

Reflection

This was a good experience. It was a very different experience, and for a number of reasons.

1. I was writing in a very different genre (I've never written YA before)
2. I've never written as a sprinter and while I enjoy and find structure and tracking very useful, the pressure to get 50k words in a 30 day period is draining (in a negative way)
3. I did a Foolscap outline prior to writing. This proved somewhat helpful as it gave me a rough structure, but I also promptly ignored specific beats when I found the story growing in a different direction.

Would I Do It Again

Yes--but with reservations. I think the structure is helpful, but my thought is to take the focused intention of sitting down to write for a couple hours each day, every day, for a month, rather than the artificial word count target.

I like writing something outside of my norm. I like living in a, Just Move Forward, mindset for writing. I like forcing myself to not worry about making a "great" first draft. Just write. Just get it down. Find it on the page.

How did others make out?