NaNoWriMo Year 2

As I mentioned before, last November I took part in National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo) for the second time, and once again was successful in meeting the goal of writing 50,000 words in 30 days. The experience was a little bit different this time around for a few reasons.

First of all, I didn't start off with a massive lead like I did the first year. Part of this was because in Year 1 the 1st of November fell on a Saturday, giving me a full weekend's worth of virtually uninterrupted writing, whereas Year 2 fell on a Sunday. Add onto that the fact that I was sick that whole weekend* -- plus I didn't have the extra incentive of trying to build a buffer to allow for moving like I did in Year 1 -- and I never had the commanding word count lead this time around. Of course, not being thousands of words ahead of everyone else did reduce the amount of death threats I received from fellow participants, so that was a bit of a bonus.

Probably the biggest difference between Year 1 and Year 2 was the type of story I was trying to tell. Not in subject matter, but in structure and complexity. Year 1's effort, Gateway Drug, was, with the exception of an epilogue, told entirely from the perspective of the main character. As such, I was able to to just let the story unfold organically, following Panic** through his misadventures as they occurred to me. However, with Year 2's effort, tentatively (very tentatively) titled Talent on the Rise, I started out with four different sets of characters in four different locations and then had to figure out how I was going to do justice to each of their individual arcs and still bring them all together for the climax without forcing it or resorting to a deus ex machina. So, a few more balls to juggle this time around.

Along those lines, when writing Gateway Drug, I honestly had no idea how it was going to end. The beginning was crystal clear in my head, but until I started writing, I didn't have a clue where Panic was going to wind up. With Talent on the Rise*** however, I had an idea of where I wanted it to start, and how I wanted it to end, but very little idea of how to get from point A to point B.

Then there was the interference from my borderline-OCD which flared up when I was trying to structure the rotating P.O.V.s in the story. After some fits and starts, I finally wound up deciding to have it rotate not just between the four locations, but also between the protagonists and antagonists. So, I'd have a chapter from the P.O.V. from a character from Location 1, followed by a brief interlude with the P.O.V. of an antagonist somehow connected to Location 1; then the next chapter would be the P.O.V. of a character from Location 2, followed by an antagonist interlude; and so on for Locations 3 and 4, at which point it would loop back around to Location 1. This worked out well at first, and actually forced me to flesh out the characterization and motivation of the antagonists, which was a definite bonus. Unfortunately, as some portions of the story zipped towards the climax more quickly than others, and I had to find ways to make one group of characters mark time until the other groups could catch up, it became cumbersome. But I was committed to it at that point, and so persevered until I reached the word goal and stopped, even though the story wasn't even close to done yet.

And yes, that's another difference between Year 1 and 2; in Year 1 I brought the story to an ending, even if it was very cliff-hanger-ish, but with Year 2 I pass the target word count and said "That's enough for now" and took a break . . . a break which is still going, even though I'd planned to resume writing again over Christmas break. I do want to finish the story, if for no other reason than this story has lived in my head in one way, shape, or form since I was in 6th grade, and I really, really, really need to get it out of there. I just hope I can find motivation to do so sometime before next November.


*Being sick that weekend meant I missed out on the Singles Halloween party on Friday and the church's Carnival 31 festivities on Saturday for the first time since2003.
**Yes, the character's name is Panic
***Man, I hate that title; as placeholder titles go, it's okay, but I really want to come up with something else.

Written Word Wednesday - 16,192

I figured that for the month of November I'd use my Written Word Wednesdays to keep you all abreast of my progress of my latest mini-obsession.

I'm keeping a running tally of my word count at the end of each day; figured I'd share it with y'all

I would just use this nifty word count widget to show you my progress

Or maybe even this one

but since the main NaNoWriMo site was not being cooperative the first couple of days due to the large number of people logging on, I couldn't update my numbers until yesterday, so the graphs the website generates aren't all that accurate.

Day 1: 8,016
Day 2: 10,086 (+ 2,070)
Day 3: 12,409 (+ 2,323)
Day 4: 15,038 (+ 2,629)

As of this moment (part way through day 5), my current word count is 16,192 words, thanks to a lunch-time write-in with my two co-workers who were largely responsible for talking me into this in the first place. This puts mes well ahead of the recommended pace to complete the novel on time; in fact, I have almost double the amount of words for today (8,335), and I still have a write-in at the main library to go to this evening.

On a related note, fellow NaNoWriMoer Bubblegum Tate is starting up a club for everyone out there who loathes and despises me for being so far ahead of the game and making their efforts look feeble in comparison; feel free to drop him a line if you want to join*

The recommend daily word count is 1,667; if you were to write that much every day for the whole month, you would wind up with 50,010 words, a whopping ten words over the goal. Right now I'm shooting for at least 2,000 words a day; that amount of over-achievement, coupled with my blockbuster first day of writing, should give me enough of a cushion to carry me through times of much distraction.

Speaking of distractions, there's one other stressor coming up this November which I forgot to mention earlier; since our lease is up at the end of the month I will be moving from Benjiman Street to Wicker Way, into the spare bedroom at Cap'n Shack-Fu's house. So, packing and moving and cleaning will all be going on while I'm attempting to write a novel . . . yes, I'm sick in the head.

Now, while others are impressed with my word output, for me it's not the biggest achievement so far; after all, those of you who know me well know that I am an incredibly wordy bastage. No, for me my biggest achievement was the moment where I realized that a segment of dialogue-driven exposition from Chapter 1 would work much better in Chapter2 -- and I did nothing about it other than make a mental note for revision purposes. But outside of that, I left it alone; didn't cut and past, didn't juggle text, didn't hem and haw over how to replace it in one place and blend it in in another. No, just kept going full-steam ahead. Since it's that sort of situation I've been most worried about, I consider my ability to fight off the editing temptation a moral victory of sorts; the fact that both Tate and co-worker Dr. Pester have fallen into the trap themselves probably adds fuel to their "Stop making us look bad, you wordy bastage!" club's hatred.

Going through this process, I can't help comparing it to when I wrote In a Cabin in the Woods. Probably the biggest difference I've found between the two experiences is that, with NaNoWriMo, when I step away from the laptop, I pretty much step away from the writing process as a whole. Oh, sure, from time to time I'll have a random thought about where I want my story to go next as I'm driving to work, or am on the elliptical machine at the gym, but I just don't have the non-stop, obsessive compulsion regarding this particular work that I did with In a Cabin. I'm sure part of it is because the deadline for Cabin was a much more practical one; had to have it all written out and finished and (mostly) coherent so that Flunky could get it for Christmas. Whereas with NaNoWriMo, the deadline is much more arbitrary, and as long as I hit the magic 50,000 word mark it's considered a "success," whether I've technically finished my story or not.

Don't get me wrong: I want to finish my story. Right now I'm thinking that even if I hit 50,000 words before the end of the month (which I seem pretty likely to do), I'll probably go ahead and keep plugging away at it without editing or revision through the rest of the month, or until I finish the story, whichever comes first. But just knowing that I don't have to have a completely finished product in place by a certain date has helped keep the obsession at bay.

Of course, the other big factor is that with In a Cabin I had five different stories clamoring for my attention, and I honestly wasn't sure what was going to happen in four of them until I actually got them written. So, I was driven partially out of a fear that I was going to run out of time to tell these mysterious stories, and partially out of a desire to see where the heck they were heading. Right now I just have the one story to focus on, and I kinda sorta have it plotted out for a little bit longer; I'd say I'll probably be at the 20-25,000 word mark range before I have to make a serious decision about what direction to take the story in.

*No, PigPen, the club isn't for those who loathe and despise me on general principle, so you'll have to stick with your own club for now.