27 days left to go and...
...and I haven't written much. In fact,, given that I have 49,231 words left to write after my first chapter, that means I have to write about 1,823 words a day if I want to finish on time.
However, I'm hopeful, and all fired up, especially as I have had some readers, and two of them have left motivating messages.
Stompy has given me lots of advice:
"Something that is useful to do is to have more dialogue. This has three very good effects. Firstly, it pumps up your word count. Don't just say the nurse woke him, tell us what she said, what he said etc.
Secondly, it keeps the flow going and sounds more immediate to a reader, and when you come to pick up on your writing the next day you'll feel more engaged. If you don't know what's going on, just have your characters talk to each other.
Thirdly, and most importantly, is that it helps you develop your characters and then they can get on with the story. If your characters talk to each other, your subconcious will have them say things that you didn't expect. Believe me, this happens, and when it does, they go about doing their own things and you just have to write it down."
This is a very good advice. I must admit that I had thought about the plot and where it might lead, but very little about characters. With Stompy's words in mind, I sat down over lunch and thought about my two main characters: who they were, what they were like, and this has helped me see where the story might go. Fleshing out some of the details has also given me some ideas for sub-plots that might be interesting too.
So, I shall be putting Stompy's advice into practice tonight as I pump out chapter two...
After his first comment, I wrote that I originally thought that it would be comic, and then ended up writing a very serious, melodramatic opening. Stompy told me not to "worry about the beginning, don't worry about it not being a comedy, just write it down. My attempt started as urban fantasy, morphed into High Fantasy, and then went all magical realism on me. It doesn't matter."
Thanks Stompy. This is all very inspiring input.
Whatever the outcome, I already feel energised by NaNoWriMo, and in particular the blog-a-novel community - this is so motivating, how can I not finish?
However, I'm hopeful, and all fired up, especially as I have had some readers, and two of them have left motivating messages.
Stompy has given me lots of advice:
"Something that is useful to do is to have more dialogue. This has three very good effects. Firstly, it pumps up your word count. Don't just say the nurse woke him, tell us what she said, what he said etc.
Secondly, it keeps the flow going and sounds more immediate to a reader, and when you come to pick up on your writing the next day you'll feel more engaged. If you don't know what's going on, just have your characters talk to each other.
Thirdly, and most importantly, is that it helps you develop your characters and then they can get on with the story. If your characters talk to each other, your subconcious will have them say things that you didn't expect. Believe me, this happens, and when it does, they go about doing their own things and you just have to write it down."
This is a very good advice. I must admit that I had thought about the plot and where it might lead, but very little about characters. With Stompy's words in mind, I sat down over lunch and thought about my two main characters: who they were, what they were like, and this has helped me see where the story might go. Fleshing out some of the details has also given me some ideas for sub-plots that might be interesting too.
So, I shall be putting Stompy's advice into practice tonight as I pump out chapter two...
After his first comment, I wrote that I originally thought that it would be comic, and then ended up writing a very serious, melodramatic opening. Stompy told me not to "worry about the beginning, don't worry about it not being a comedy, just write it down. My attempt started as urban fantasy, morphed into High Fantasy, and then went all magical realism on me. It doesn't matter."
Thanks Stompy. This is all very inspiring input.
Whatever the outcome, I already feel energised by NaNoWriMo, and in particular the blog-a-novel community - this is so motivating, how can I not finish?
posted by blog-efl at 10:15 PM
2 Comments:
You're welcome.
I'm sort of touched that you're taking my advice to heart. I've got more, but I'll try and parcel them out. But really, the most important thing is to keep going and not to get discouraged. I did last year, and lost forward motion and then I was lost.
So, animo, y sigue escribiendo al diario. Si no escribes, te pegaré con me espanol tan malo...
Hey! Thanks again for the encouragement! It does help me a lot. I feel guilty that I haven't written as much as I'd planned tonight, but I'm determined to change that. Just wait until tomorrow!
Thanks again
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