I'm still working on my NaNoWriMo novel, but not as much as I had hoped to. We've had a lot of excitement at work that has taken more of my attention than usual. Things should be settling down now though, so I won't have that excuse to throw around any more. I've only grown my word count up to about 58,000 since the end of November. For three months of work, even three super busy months, that's disappointing.
Now, I'm going to do something that most writing advice seems to frown upon. I'm going to start editing and rewriting before my first draft is completely finished. But I believe I have a good reason to do so. I had an epiphany last week about a problem with the story that I couldn't quite put my finger on. I'd set the story up such that a vital element, the base idea that the novel was supposed to be built on, wouldn't ever happen. At the beginning, I just didn't want it to seem too easy, but now that I'm so far along, I see that the obstacles I put in place will actually keep it from happening at all. So I need some fundamental changes at the start, and I don't really see the point of finishing the first draft before these changes are put in.
A lot of what I've already written can still be used, but obviously a lot will also need to change. As I worked on the revisions last night and started to realize how much would need to be reworked, I was surprised to find that I wasn't sad. It was exciting instead. The story no longer felt stale and pointless. It's going to get back on track. Yea! Hopefully, the new energy I have for the story will translate into speedier progress as well.
While we are on the subject of writing, I'm proud that I have three short stories sent out right now; one with some encouraging feedback so far. It would be great to have a publication to report here soon!
1 comment:
Yippee!!! You're on a writing upswing. :)
We should do the writing thing next week.
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