Yes, I’m doing it again – participating in Camp NaNoWriMo for the third time. I said I’d go to camp to write a draft of a new book if I got enough planning done, and I did! So we’ll see if I can hit 50,000 words on this draft by July 31. Wish me luck!
How do I begin?
Following the plan suggested in Janice Hardy’s blog, I’ve planned out the eight chapters that will be Act 1 of my novel: the novel’s beginning. Her ideas helped me make sure I’m hitting all the marks as I lead up to the big, complicated structure that is the middle part of the story. I had done a lot of this work before when I sketched out chapters and scenes, so it went pretty quickly. So I finished early, which is good – I think the middle is going to take me extra time to get organized. Starting now!
Progress so far:
Character Arcs
Better late, I guess. I’ve gone through and mapped out the story lines for five characters (all the major ones except for the main character, who’s so thoroughly mapped by now she doesn’t need it). It was a useful exercise, since it tightened my story by eliminating a character who didn’t have much to do and was turning into an unconvincing romantic interest. As a result I’ll have to restructure some of the scenes/chapters I’ve laid out, but that will be happening in the next month as I plan the beginning, middle, and end of my novel. I’m expecting to be able to spend more time on these tasks since classes are now done and final grades will be submitted by the end of this week. So although I missed this deadline by a few days I consider myself still on track.
Part of coming to live more and more deeply inside my story was creating a cover for the book. I am SO not a designer, and I have not the slightest belief that, should I be lucky enough to get published, the final cover design will resemble this in any way. Still, having a picture like this to look at helps me see the story as real. It’s the same reason I have spent hours scouring the webz for images of people who look like my characters: I can look at them while I write about them. So anyway, for your enjoyment and delight, I present the first look at what is sure to be nothing at all like the eventual cover of my book:
What do you think? I have to admit that dropping my name on there was a little bit of an emotional moment for me.
Progress so far:
Scene Sketches
I made it through the whole book, sketching out all the scenes from opening to The End. I’m pretty happy with the shape of the novel so far, but I can already see places where things need to be tightened up and moved around a little. I’m counting this as a completed step, on time, even though it will spill over a little into the next step. I figure I’ve still got more planning done than all my no-pants colleagues have, so I can relax a little if it’s not as completely complete as it might be. I keep telling myself that.
What’s that? Did I hear someone say “compulsive”?
Okay, I accept that, and I’m not ashamed of the compulsive person I am. I embrace my compulsiveness. I think it works for me!
I’m making good progress on my march up to my July NoWriMo. I have decided to make a detour, though, by changing what the next deadline is going to be about. I’m not moving it, just changing the target. Originally it was to complete an “idea bank” wherein I tossed all the ideas I have for setting, dialogue, jokes, tender bits, or other toothsome morsels that I don’t want to forget. Frankly, the way I did the scenes, that’s already there. My scene summaries frequently stretch onto two pages, including everything I can think of to go in there. “Mention Naia’s tattoo.” “Kay as a really lame Doctor Who companion.” I’m sure more ideas will come to me as I plan more things, and even as I write the actual draft in July, but when they do I’ll just drop them into the right place and keep going.
Instead, my next step is going to be something borrowed from Randy Ingermanson’s snowflake method of planning a novel: the character stories. It’s also related to an idea from Liz Michalski who posted on Writer (un)Boxed with a tip about revising, but which I think will work for me here. The idea is to look at the story from the point of view of each character separately. I won’t need to do this for my central character Kay, because the story is already clearly hers. It’s even in her first-person POV! But for at least the next 4 or 5 characters in the inner ring, I’m going to map out the changes and arcs that each one goes through. This will give me a clearer view of each person. That, plus the tightening of the scenes that’s spilling over from today’s deadline, will keep me busy for the next two weeks.
Progress so far:
Building a strong structure
I’m working on the next step of my MyNoWriMo plan, which is to sketch out the scenes in my story. I’m using a format for the information I put into each scene sketch based on the one from Janice Hardy’s blog, with modifications. Here’s what I give for each scene, with all but the last being no more than a sentence or two:
There are a few differences from Janice Hardy’s plan:
I’ve got a file with each scene starting on a new page. For my first pass I’m just filling in the bullet list, not the summary, but once the bullets are done I’ll transfer the information from the chapter summaries to each scene summary and begin fleshing them out. I should be on track to finish by my deadline of May 3. So far, so good!
Rough Story Synopsis
I pulled it together: a synopsis of my story in two pages, 10 paragraphs, following the plan in Janice Hardy’s Fiction University blog. In the process I learned a lot more about my story. I kept going back and adding ideas and layers to the rough chapter sketches I made while figuring out my story beats for my last step. I’m sure this will change a lot as I move forward as well – the more I figure out, the more things change. I’m feeling really positive about how well all the parts are fitting together!
I’ve decided to adjust my target dates a little, moving one date up. I think it was just a mistake the way I set it up before, since I allowed myself three weeks to throw together an idea bank and only a week to plan the novel’s beginning. The list below reflects the revised date.
Progress so far:
My eyes are wandering…
I’m plugging my way through my plan for MyNoWriMo in July, working on my synopsis – but oh man, another system has caught my wandering eye, and I may switch to that. I just learned about the Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake Method, and it really appeals to me. I’m tempted to stop what I’m doing and start snowflaking. But this wondering makes me doubt myself. Does it mean I’m just pretending I’m going to write, spending all my time planning and planning to plan and not actually doing any real writing? If I hadn’t finished two books already (one of which is published, but it’s nonfiction so it’s a whole different beast), these doubts might overwhelm me. But I have finished those two books, so I will beat those doubts to death with a blunt quill and move on to deciding which system I will use. Heck, I’ve got a lot of time until July (or at least it seems that way from here *laughs hollowly*), so maybe I’ll work both, in parallel, somehow. So – will I snowflake, or will I road map, or both? This inquiring mind wants to know. I’ll keep my breathless audience posted on my decision.
Shoes, keep going.
Synopses are hard.
I’m working on Step 4 of my pre-MyNoWriMo plan, which is to write a synopsis. I’ve got a paragraph-by-paragraph breakdown of how to do this from Janice Hardy’s Fiction University site, so it should be pretty straightforward, right? Um, not so much.
So far I’ve written the first paragraph three times. I started out with four or five sentences that are essentially back story – things that came before my actual novel begins, setting up how the main character got to where she is when the story starts. Nope, that’s not where I should begin. Then I started with what she’s thinking about and struggling with internally at the start of the story (which, as it turns out, hinges on that back story), so again, nope. The third time is tied more directly to what’s actually happening at the moment. This is closer to where I need to start, but I think it will take several more tries before I get to move on to the second paragraph.
I planned three weeks for this step, so I firmly believe I’ll get it done, and on time. I should be working on the second paragraph any day now! As long as I keep putting one foot in front of the other, I’ll get there.
Major Story Turning Points
I’ve worked on this a lot this week, and I think I have a structure that’s going to work. I actually framed it out in 20 chapters, with a general idea of the action and importance of each chapter, because otherwise I couldn’t really pin down the story beats. So when you see how vague the beats themselves are when summarized, trust me that I have a pretty clear idea of what each beat actually means and how each one leads to the next. So, drum roll, please – here they are!
So, my readers – what do you think? Does it sound interesting? Would you read it?
Progress so far:
The One-Sentence Summary
I’m actually early on this, but I figure it’s going to be subject to change as I move forward, and I’m already working on Step 3 while I revise this, so I’m calling it. Here’s the official one-sentence pitch line for my story:
AFTER FOREVER is about a woman whose life was torn apart by the forces of dark magic and has been on the run ever since, but now the magic is invading our reality and she has to face it down to save the world.
So — whaddya think? I think it’s a work in progress and I hope I can make it better, but this is what I’m working from right now. Seriously, I’d love to hear any reactions from any of my readers (a small but mighty group, I’m sure), so comment away.
Now, it’s on to the part that has thrown me so many times before: the major beats.
Progress so far:
Word Wacker 