Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Thoughts on NaNoWriMo: Mark 1

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
15,193 / 50,000
(30.4%)

It is the fifteenth of the month.

NaNoWriMo 2006 is halfway over. In theory, were I on track, I'd be at 25k words, instead of 15k - but while I'm behind, that would worry me more if I hadn't gone the first week without any serious progress. As long as I'm able to keep shiny distractions away, the word output itself isn't really what worries me, especially with two more weekends in the month to crunch it out.

What worries me is the story itself. It's not a great story, but I'm fine with that - walking into NaNoWriMo and expecting to write a masterpiece is a recipe for failure.

The problem is that I'm at 1/3 of my word count, but only 1/9 of the way through the plot in the book.

Once upon a time, I had great ideas for stories - but usually those ideas were broad and sweeping. I had the momentous climax mapped out, the dramatic showdown, the key moment... but I could never fill in the rest of the story.

Now I'm running into the opposite problem - the filler isn't pausing to let me progress. The characters run rampant over the story, and I'm trying to decide if I'll have to accept cutting the plot short, trying to cram the entire thing into the rest of the month, or just skipping past long chunks of the tale.

Still, NaNoWriMo is definitely providing an interesting and intense experience. And if my only difficulties so far are having too much story to write, then I don't think I'm entitled to spend time complaining!

4 comments:

tedzsee said...

Does the story have to be 50,000 even?

Kneefers said...

Dude, my advice is to not worry so much about finishing your story within the 50k deadline. Just write as you go, and let the plot flow at whatever speed it wants. Once you reach 50k in 30 days, you've won, even if your story is only halfway through and needs another 50,000 words. The object is basically to write the first 50 thousand, not to make one that's 50k evenly.
Right now I just broke 27 thousand, and I just introduced all the characters.

tedzsee said...

Besides, if you only make it halfway through, you can always add 50,000 more words next Novemember!

Myth said...

Heeey, not too shabby an idea. ;)