So I made a declaration that I would make 45,000 for this weekend. Saturday I wrote 984 words. A very small dent in my 5,000 words I needed to cover before Monday. So you can guess what I've been doing all Sunday. 4,771 words just today! I. Am. Amazing!
Getting started has been the hardest part. With the changes that I need to make, I can't move forward until I fill in the gaps. The problem with filling in gaps in a NaNo draft is trying to find them. My scenes are so scattered with attempts and rewrites that it's so hard to navigate. I cannot wait until December 1st when I can take a wrecking ball to this draft and start using that delete button! I have no intention of demolishing this story, I still quite love it, it's just so cluttered that it's hard to maneuver.
I've decided that novel writing and marble sculpting have a lot in common. The big difference, though, is that with novel writing you have to build your stone block first. That's the NaNo draft, a big pile of mess that hopes to be something. Post-NaNo draft is when the sculpting actually happens. The voices have spoken, the image is clear, now all you have to do is chip away all the "not story" until you can see her. Some sanding, some polishing, maybe even a little paint, and she'll be beautiful. But, damn, is it hard to love that clump of rock when you don't know where to attack it next.
Clearly today's near 5,000 words is a sign that I got on a roll. There's still life in this story yet! 5,000 more words before Sunday and we can call this NaNo a wrap! Will any of that 5,000 get touched during the week or will I be doing another weekend sprint? No idea, but I have the feeling that this week won't be seeing too many daily posts.
I'll definitely do a wrap up post, though! I promise!
Getting started has been the hardest part. With the changes that I need to make, I can't move forward until I fill in the gaps. The problem with filling in gaps in a NaNo draft is trying to find them. My scenes are so scattered with attempts and rewrites that it's so hard to navigate. I cannot wait until December 1st when I can take a wrecking ball to this draft and start using that delete button! I have no intention of demolishing this story, I still quite love it, it's just so cluttered that it's hard to maneuver.
I've decided that novel writing and marble sculpting have a lot in common. The big difference, though, is that with novel writing you have to build your stone block first. That's the NaNo draft, a big pile of mess that hopes to be something. Post-NaNo draft is when the sculpting actually happens. The voices have spoken, the image is clear, now all you have to do is chip away all the "not story" until you can see her. Some sanding, some polishing, maybe even a little paint, and she'll be beautiful. But, damn, is it hard to love that clump of rock when you don't know where to attack it next.
Clearly today's near 5,000 words is a sign that I got on a roll. There's still life in this story yet! 5,000 more words before Sunday and we can call this NaNo a wrap! Will any of that 5,000 get touched during the week or will I be doing another weekend sprint? No idea, but I have the feeling that this week won't be seeing too many daily posts.
I'll definitely do a wrap up post, though! I promise!
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