***
Well, when I decided to do NaNo again in 2013, I had a little seed of an idea that hubby had given me. I wasn't going to do anything with it, but that seed germinated and started to grow in my brain. Finally the tentacles started to reach beyond me and I knew I needed to do it. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to plan it. and I needed more planning time.
The idea he planted was simple - imagine a dystopian novel where the twin rate has grown to the point where virtually everyone is a twin.
See? Imagine the possibilities. I have taken it a slightly different way than his initial idea, that is the premise. I I had had the idea for more than a month before I started writing, I could have probably planned out enough to realize that setting the novel in the future would be problematic. I also would have been able to bitch slap myself into realizing that it's DYSTOPIAN and I could create the world however I wanted it - it wouldn't need to be a natural progression from the reality of this world that I live in. I also may not have unwittingly named most of the characters after my friend's kids.
Yeah - planning time would have made this a much better book.
The writing itself has been pretty easy - hell, I'm at 31,000 words in 17 days. I sit down to type and the words flow. It's the story that isn't developing and that is frustrating the hell out of me much more than I think it should be. I didn't have this problem with The Loracian Stone. That book just flowed. The plot formed itself and the story carried it. I still hope to finish the rewrites and edits on that one so I can self publish it.
This one seems doomed for the recycle bin.
But why do I keep writing if I see it as a garbage piece?
Easy - I see merit to this as a creative writing journey. I have spent a few years where the bulk of my writing ends up as blog posts and very little is written for creative purposes. Don't get me wrong - I LOVE blogging, My blog is a little corner of the world where I am still amazed that people come out to read what I write and to relate to my experiences. I have had amazing things happen because of blogging. But it isn't creative writing.
Creative writing is a wonderful release when I can inject myself into a different character or world and explore it. I truly love the high that comes from that. It's like a runners high for writers (well, at least it is for me).
With this book, Doubles, I loved the concept, but my execution has been really poor and I think I can do better. The funny thing, though, is that I can see homes for many of the scenes I have written in this one. The book I started last year, Resolution Girl, could totally make great use of a sex scene that somehow ended up mashed into this one. So can much of the relationship talk that is in this one.
Some of this book may be salvageable someday. Perhaps I will feel inspired to take the 50,000 words and add some planning time to it to make it into a novel that makes sense, instead of one that hops all over the place and doesn't really seem to have a point.
I will keep writing and see if I can resolve the story in the next 13 days to a point where I can have some closure wit these characters. Maybe the old Chris Baty adage "No plot, no problem" will start to work for me and the story will suddenly have its "a-ha!" moment and choirs will sing and everyone will get a day off work and I will get a street named after me.
It could still happen.
But if it doesn't - I'm okay with that. I still see value in the process of writing it. And I will get there one pomodoro at a time until it is done.
***
and in case you were wondering - here's what my month has looked like writing-wise. As you can see, Keith has officially kicked my ass at the wordcount game...
The chart below shows how well I have done at staying on track. The red days are the days I didn't write at all. The other days are based on how far I came toward the daily goal of 1667 words. Orange means barely, yellow means I tired, green means I met or surpassed.
My Daily Word Count (chart originally from Yzabel)
Day Word Count Goal Word Count Total Word Count
1 1667 25752575
2 3334 34696044
3 5001 401510059
4 6668 222612285
5 8335 30412589
6 10,002 255715146
7 11,669 110616252
8 13,336 016252
9 15,003 016252
10 16,670 100217254
11 18,337 205119305
12 20,004 77220077
13 21,271 169321770
14 23,338 229424064
15 25,005 192125985
16 26,672 370229687
17 28,339 176331473
18 30,006
19 31,673
20 33,340
21 35,007
22 36,674
23 38,341
24 40,008
25 41,675
26 43,342
27 45,009
28 46,676
29 48,343
30
50,000
In case you didn't know this - I actually have a tab up top for NaNoWriMo 2013 that I updated daily with my stats instead of boring everyone who only comes here for running stuff.
