Passages of Light and Darkness

I went over 20,000 today. Though I’m still a bit behind where I think I should be, that’s not bad. I made some changes to the outline, but haven’t thought them all the way to the end of the story.

The other day I introduced some silver rings. I’m still not sure what significance they’ll have, but I’ve got this feeling they should be there. And if the story ends and they don’t come back, I can always go back and delete the references to them.

Also in the outline Gary disappeared and I didn’t have a place where he came back before his mother picked him up. So I put that in too.

I went to the Nanowrimo site today to update my word count and it wasn’t as slow as it has been. I still haven’t finished updating my personal info. The last time I tried to do it, I hit the wrong key combination and got thrown out of Internet Explorer. Maybe I’ll try again tomorrow.

No new characters added, but I did give names to some of the city officials. Got to remember to add their names to the character list. Take care, Barbara

Nanowrimo Day 8:

It’s Monday. Most of the weekend was taken up by family stuff. My daughter had to be picked up from college in a neighboring state Friday night, and brought back Sunday night.  And my son came home for his birthday. He brought his girlfriend and I made a corned beef dinner. The dinner came out well, even though he showed up later than I’d expected. Crockpots are wonderful sometimes. He and girlfriend left with the leftovers and the rest of the ice cream cake. I didn’t need that cake around as temptation.

So, I didn’t get as much done this weekend as I wanted to on my novel.

Today I had a doctor’s appointment and my husband had to go in for blood work. That took a chunk out of today. My current count is 18,278. I’m still a bit behind. Hopefully I’ll make it up during the week.

I had an idea for a slightly different ending than the one I have written down. I’ll let it gel for a couple of days and see if it sticks or not. Sometimes story ideas are like spaghetti. You throw them against the wall and if they stick, they’re ready to use. So off to test the spaghetti.   

I didn’t post yesterday. We went to pick up my daughter at college so she could spend the weekend here. Not for a moment did I think she’d actually spend time here; she has her own plans. But tomorrow, I’d planned to celebrate my son, Brian’s, birthday as a family. He’s living in Boston now, and even though I didn’t see him much when he was in college, it’s worse somehow now he has a “life of his own”. But on the other hand, I’m really proud he’s doing as well as he is.

So, I’m making a corned beef dinner for him and his girlfriend, me, my husband, and our daughter.

So, this family get together means another day of not much writing.

I decided to figure out how much I need to write the way another writer is doing it. I estimated the total length of my novel to be 85,000 words. Then divided that by 30 for the number of days in November, 30. It came out to 28333. So for the end of day 6 I should have 16,998 words. Right now I have only 12, 599 words. So if I figure it this way, I’m behind. Hopefully, this mode of thinking will keep my butt in gear. We’ll see. If this weekend goes the way I think it will, next week could be a killer. So much for being ahead of the game.     

Nanowrimo Day 4:

The chapter I wrote today was in twelve year old Gary’s POV. I tried to keep it as if he were doing the thinking, but I’m sure this chapter will need work later.

I contacted a woman from the UF critique group I belong to and she’s doing Nanowrimo too. So far, she’s ahead of me. I passed the 8,000 mark today, but she’s already over 10,000. I’m impressed and hopefully this will spur me on to write more.

I read through the outline and discovered a very important loose end that was never explained. The Disruptors (bad guys) simply slip out of the picture at the end without even a good-bye. This has to be rectified but I’m not sure how yet. I’ll mull it around for a while, but there’s got to be a good battle scene there.

I’m considering having the Disruptors bring in pieces of randomness and chaos and things start to go haywire on earth. But how then will the good guys get rid of them? I’ll think of something, but right now the only way I can think of to get rid of them is to impose order and uniformity over them. And I have no idea of how to do this, yet anyway.

I’m also putting notes at the beginning of each chapter on things to check for the second draft.

My son is stopping by Sunday for an early birthday celebration. So, I’ll have to write more before then, ‘cause Sunday will probably be a wash. If anyone is interested the Nanowrimo site is: nanowrimo.org/ — but don’t stop by for about a week as traffic at the site now is horrendous. But check it out later in the month. When nanowrimo started they only had the November Nanowrimo. Now they have other activities throughout the year. If you’re interested in writing, check it out.      

After writing the names of my characters Gary and Jerry, over and over, I decided they sound too much alike. So Jerry is now Sam. I remember reading the names of your characters shouldn’t sound similar or look the same.

Having just changed over to Windows 7, it took me several tries to find out how to find and replace all the Jerry’s with Sam’s. I’m not sure how long it takes you “nons” (by this I mean non-handicapped people) to learn how to use a new system, but this one seems to be taking forever. All the key commands to do certain functions have changed. The other day I shut down Word before I’d finished by using the wrong key combo. And this is not the time to be learning a new way to do things, but no one asked my opinion.

(For those of you who don’t know, I use a screen reader, so I can’t use the mouse, nor can I “see” the screen. So, all the things you just click on I have to do using the keyboard. Some of the commands are triple key (pressing three keys at the same time), but most of them are only two.)

Anyway I wrote two chapters today. The third chapter was a short one, and introduced the antagonist, a being called a Disruptor. That chapter still needs work, and it left me unsatisfied.

The fourth chapter is told in the male protagonist’s POV (point of view) and in third person. It gave me a chance to describe the female heroine, whose POV was used for the first two chapters. My total is over 7000 words. Still ahead of schedule.    

Already on the second day of writing, I made a significant change. I added a new character; a Jamaican woman to care for the adolescent while he’s staying at his aunt’s to keep him safe. Originally I had him going with his aunt and her partner, but thinking about, it didn’t seem feasible. So, the new character.

This brings up a question: is writing from an outline or by the seat of your pants better? From my perspective, I think aspects of both should be used. At least that’s the way I do it.

Last year I tried Nanowrimo without an outline, and though I got some good scenes, it didn’t work for me. So this year, I’m back to using an outline. But I’m going to let the characters take charge. Like when Mama Cedra (the Jamaican woman) decided to join the story. This is how I used to do it, years ago when I started writing fiction to vent.

Later when I began to write short stories for publication, I tried to stick to only outlining. But a novel is a different animal from a short, and should be treated as such. So, instead of choosing to be a “plotter” or a “pantser” find what’s comfortable for you and go with it.

I did another chapter today, bringing my total up to a bit over 4,400 words. Still a bit ahead of schedule.  

November is National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo). Published novelists and those of us either taking tentative steps into the world of real books or those who just want to test the waters will be busy this month. The goalpost is 50,000 words written in the month of November. You can of course, go over, but you must make this limit to qualify. The prize at the end you might ask. A certificate and the sense of a job well done. Don’t laugh, kingdoms have been traded for less.

So, I have my outline, character analysis and the drive to do it again.

My novel, working title: Under the Bridge, is a UF (Urban Fantasy) novel. It has a bit over 30 chapters and will run over 70,000 words (by my estimation at this point).

I estimate to write about a chapter a day. This will bring me over the word limit and get me just about through the book. But that’s the plan now at the beginning of the month. It may, and probably will, change as the month progresses. On November 1, I wrote the first chapter and put down over 2,300 words. So, the race has begun.