We’re over half way through November and that means we’re over half way through National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). So, I thought I’d answer some more questions that I imagine you might have about this stage of the challenge.
Usually by this point of the process I’m starting to hate my novel . I’m normally contemplating killing off all my characters using a Hollyoaks-style coach crash and reaching my word count by writing ‘all work and no play makes Rhiannon a dull girl‘ repetitively before smashing through a door crying “here’s Rhiannon!” Ok, maybe not the last part, but you get the idea. Bizarrely, that hasn’t happened yet.
Why haven’t you turned into Jack Torrance then?
I haven’t let myself get frustrated. I am sticking to my approach of writing only the minimum word count needed (1,667 words) each day. Not exactly – as that would involve a lot of half-written sentences – but as close to that number as I can get.
What’s you word count?
33,450 words.
How is the plot progressing?
The plot is shifting along at a pace. There is still quite a lot of action to fit into the last 17,000 words.
Why not aim for 100,000 words then?
That would affect the number of words that I’d have to write each day and I don’t want to become overwhelmed.
More importantly, keeping to around 50,000 words reminds me that this is a rough draft. It will be added to and refined at a later date. Now is the time for getting the ‘feel’ of the novel written down. I know that my characters aren’t going to jump off the page as spectacularly as I want them to. There will be small holes in the plot and missing back story. I haven’t decided on the exact setting for certain scenes, making them sound a bit vague. All this can be looked at in the edit.
If I worry about it now, I’ll slow down and over think it. When I’m not over thinking it, my characters are deciding what happens and they are making some interesting decisions right now.
For example Agatha, my main character, was going to let her husband think he’d stopped her from meeting up with an old friend when she planned to go behind his back and meet them anyway. When it came to writing this scene, Agatha decided she didn’t want to hurt her husband so she offered to meet the old friend with him in tow. However, following a shocking revelation, she then told him she didn’t want to meet the friend after all whilst actually arranging to meet behind her husband’s back. It’s a subtle shift but it has worked better. Agatha made that decision and she was right.
What’s the quality of your writing like?
Awful. I hate it. But it’s a rough draft, so that’s ok.
So, what’s next?
Being over half way is a reason to celebrate but also a reason to make sure the plot is moving at the speed it needs to. It’s all very well writing a great middle but I also want to write ‘The End’ before I submit my 50,000 words or more on 30 November. I now need to make sure that all the plot threads are knitted together to set Agatha up for her big finale. I’ll touch on how this is coming along next time.
Any final bit of advice for others doing NaNoWriMo?
Stephen King, author of The Shining and creator of the character of Jack Torrance, says in his book On Writing:
“I’m convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing”.
I’m convinced that fear is at the root of all unwritten novels, so continue to write fearlessly.