| Renee's Progress |
I'm going to go with a weeknight goal of 700 words and a weekend goal of 1,000-2,000 per day, depending on my plans. I will start incorporating some semblance of a social life back into my schedule so I won't be making 700 words 5 days a week. But I'll keep my social calendar to a minimum and do my best. There they are, my new goals proclaimed to the universe.
Oh! Before I spend any more time blathering on about me, I have terribly exciting news to report!! Karen has finished her book! The first draft came in complete just a few days past NaNo. Please pop over to congratulate her on completing her very first novel.
Now, back to me. *snobbish laugh* You'll notice I bumped up my word count goal from 100K to 150K. The true goal here is between 100-120K, but I know I'm writing super long so I'm trying to set a realistic gauge of my progress. It'll all get shaved off in revisions. Based on where my current wordcount puts me (roughly a third of the way through) I'd say I'm about right. I might be a little farther than a third through the plot, but it's hard to say whether or not I'll keep writing as long (i.e. length-wise) as I have been now that nearly all the characters have been introduced, etc.
The scene I worked on today gave me pause. I'm feeling challenged by this particular relationship in the book. There is a lot of history between these two characters -- history that will be effected by the events in this book, but doesn't actually warrant becoming part of the story itself. So I need to find a way to (quickly!) establish the terms of their relationship so I can get on with screwing it up. Ha ha.
One of the things I hear over and over in the writing community is "show, don't tell." Readers don't just want to be informed, they want to learn, explore, discover. They want to have things revealed to them! They want to have ah-ha moments. They want to infer the nuances of a relationship, not receive a download of the ins and outs of what pulls the two people together.
Which means I can't just spend three paragraphs explaining the history between these two particular characters. Weaving it into the story is much more fun, but also more challenging. I'm afraid I'm not going to do it well enough and the rest of the implications to the relationship are either going to be lost or appear overwritten. (Hey! Who left the door open? Insecurities are creeping in! Were you raised in a barn??)
Either I'll nail it, or I won't, I guess. And if I don't, well, that's what revisions are for. Either way, I just need to write through the scene. Now that...that I can do.
4 comments:
Thanks for the mention, Renee! :)
I'm so glad to see that wordmeter over 50K - that's AMAZING. Very exciting! You'll be fine with the scene, though I do know what you mean about characters who have backstory between them. It's a fine balance - I've got that with a couple of mine, and I just made sure there was a very familiar kind of banter between them. A certain easiness that makes it clear there's a bit of history.
Also, don't be afraid of a *little* bit of exposition to explain things. I'm ultra-wary of it, too, but I think we can go too far 'the other way' and not have *enough* narrative to pull things together in between all the action and dialogue.
P.S. FWIW, I think you should put your wordcount goal at 120K, because that's your goal. If you *do* end up going over it - fine - but you might be less inclined to overwrite if you see a lower target. ;)
Oh, and I'm not sure if I said - I think these are sensible goals, but still... don't push yourself if things get too tough. Even 500 words is excellent - roughly two pages a day. It'll soon mount up, especially if you're putting in a bit of extra time at the weekends. :)
Thank you, woman-of-many-comments! I'll take your advice under consideration re: the word count meter. As for my daily goals, I know I can hit 700 on a weekday so I want to push myself. It won't be 700 five days a week -- there will almost always be a day at least that I'll have plans. Those will be my breaks. :) Truly, I wish I could just push myself at NaNo pace until the first draft is done. But that's not realistic, unfortunately. :(
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