Week 3 Overview NaNoWriMo 2015, Nov. 15-21.
• Trying to find a way to get my characters moving towards the end based on No Plot? No Problem advice
• Considering interviewing the main villain to see his motivations and where to introduce him. (Possibly the brother to another character in the story)
• Decided to dictate some ideas for plot to tie things together. Using split editor in Scrivener to access audio & transcribe
• Finding myself much more tired in the evenings and harder to get inspired to write
• Got stuck with how to proceed with the plot but kept slogging through
• Kind of panicking that I'm about a day and a half behind and haven't been able to get caught up, but I'm writing every spare moment I can
• First time writing 3 separate sessions in 3 separate days!
• Finding that the method I started with (Writing Into the Dark by Dean Wesley Smith) isn't the ideal one for NaNoWriMo (easy to get behind in word counts by cycling)
Weekly Totals: 9,288 words; Grand Total: 32,744
It's time for my week 3 overview of this year's NaNoWriMo, so without further ado let's get started.
(Note: I'm currently hard at work finishing this year's NaNoWriMo novel, Kitty Hero Chronicles, so the updates to the last few entries may be slow getting them out. Just be patient with me, I'm doing the best I can. And thanks for understanding.)
Trying to find a way to get my characters moving towards the end based on No Plot? No Problem advice
The book by NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty, No Plot? No Problem, has been a tremendous resource in motivating me to complete my NaNoWriMo journey and ultimately winning this year's event with 50,501 words.
According to the book (and I'm using the Revised, Updated, and Expanded 2014 version), during week three, if you haven't found out what your characters should be doing by now (a.k.a. plot), some of the advice listed is as follows (Ch. 7, pg. 142):
• Focusing on writing the essential scenes so that you can have a completed novel in the remaining two weeks you have left (including week 3).
• Skipping ahead using in-text notes to keep track of the parts you're skipping over
• Writing only those scenes that move the story forward
Baty says one of the most profound things in the book regarding finishing the actual novel by the end of NaNoWriMo (top of pg. 143) by stating, "Avoid [writing the last five chapters of a story after the month has ended] by bending your story arc now so it's tail end is pointing squarely at 50K."
During week 3 I tried to follow Baty's advice, but I just kept running into plot twists, new characters, etc., as I wrote. I'm not sure if I could have done any better; I could probably have discovered my main character's purpose earlier on, but at what point—if there is one—do you rush things for the sake of word count instead of the discovery of what really matters: pure, fun, unadulterated story?
As I've already mentioned, I'm still hard at work trying to finish my novel, and I can attest to the fact that it has become increasingly hard to maintain my momentum without the aid of an impending deadline. I've actually had to set one for myself in order to move on to other projects by the beginning of 2016. The "Now What" months from NaNoWriMo (January and February) creep up on you fast, and if you're behind it's hard to take advantage of all those resources when there's a giant monkey of a novel on your back.
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