NaNoWriMo 2018
Well, having just found the post I wrote in February about NaNoWriMo 2017, I thought it was time to put my thoughts down in writing for 2018.
I've been thinking about this for months now, setting aside November for writing, as I did last year, and deciding on which story to put my 50,000 words into.
And that's where the process sat ... for quite some time!
September is nearly over and that leaves just a month to get my ass into gear and work out what to do. I had tweeted a few weeks ago (September 13th) that:
Then I took a look at my current list of manuscripts that are in various stages of development. I don't want to use NaNo to edit a draft, I want to get new words on the page. This left me with using the words to complete an already started first draft or starting something completely new.
The manuscript I did for last year's NaNoWriMo is at 67k words, and just needs an ending (I struggled to get one worked out). So there's no point going there and I need to step away from it because it'll need a huge edit!
I have a novel I started 3-4 years ago and failed to progress due to my first novel being published and other distractions coming along. That seems like a reasonable candidate. It's presently at 32,000 words, so using the 50k on this would get me a complete manuscript with room to edit. I've already been through it and refreshed myself on what happened, what I thought would happen (I pants'd it) and planned out where I want the story to go. I'm not normally a planner, but I've found it useful in this case, so I have a set of targets to aim for.
I do have another manuscript I started working on, on and off on Wattpad that will actually tie into this novel as a prequel of sorts for one of the minor characters so I could jump over to that whilst the style and flow are there.
I suspect that this will be the way I'll go, but as always, things can change last minute! I do have a list of a couple of dozen other story ideas in my "Ideas book", but I think it's about time to get The Towers of Ishlor finished!
Whatever I end up doing, I hope you have a great NaNoWriMo 2018! Find me on the NaNoWriMo website if you want to add me as a "buddy" (is that what it's for) if you want to chat.
Go get 'em!
I've been thinking about this for months now, setting aside November for writing, as I did last year, and deciding on which story to put my 50,000 words into.
And that's where the process sat ... for quite some time!
September is nearly over and that leaves just a month to get my ass into gear and work out what to do. I had tweeted a few weeks ago (September 13th) that:
"Finally figured out what I'm going to write for #NaNoWriMo this year! Have been wanting to write a space story for a while so have come up with a "plan". I say "plan" loosely, but it's more than I normally start with. #amwritingscifi"Yeah, well that fizzled out fairly quickly. I did start a plan and outlined some of my characters, the ship, the premise of the story, some major plot points, but then it just didn't feel right. I took a step back and didn't like it, at all. This isn't to say it won't be a story in the future, but it just doesn't feel right at the moment.
Then I took a look at my current list of manuscripts that are in various stages of development. I don't want to use NaNo to edit a draft, I want to get new words on the page. This left me with using the words to complete an already started first draft or starting something completely new.
The manuscript I did for last year's NaNoWriMo is at 67k words, and just needs an ending (I struggled to get one worked out). So there's no point going there and I need to step away from it because it'll need a huge edit!
I have a novel I started 3-4 years ago and failed to progress due to my first novel being published and other distractions coming along. That seems like a reasonable candidate. It's presently at 32,000 words, so using the 50k on this would get me a complete manuscript with room to edit. I've already been through it and refreshed myself on what happened, what I thought would happen (I pants'd it) and planned out where I want the story to go. I'm not normally a planner, but I've found it useful in this case, so I have a set of targets to aim for.
I need some adviceNow, I'm looking for advice from other NaNo writers. If I work on this existing manuscript and find that I don't need the full 50k to complete it, say I come to the end after 45k or something, what would you do? Would you just pick up another manuscript and chuck the remaining words at that? Would you start editing (not sure how to track words then as I'd be removing lots)? Pop me a message on Twitter if you have any advice.
I do have another manuscript I started working on, on and off on Wattpad that will actually tie into this novel as a prequel of sorts for one of the minor characters so I could jump over to that whilst the style and flow are there.
I suspect that this will be the way I'll go, but as always, things can change last minute! I do have a list of a couple of dozen other story ideas in my "Ideas book", but I think it's about time to get The Towers of Ishlor finished!
Whatever I end up doing, I hope you have a great NaNoWriMo 2018! Find me on the NaNoWriMo website if you want to add me as a "buddy" (is that what it's for) if you want to chat.
Go get 'em!
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