NANOWRIMO: Midway! (About 500 words)
Oct. 3rd, 2018 02:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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writercises Original Posting Nov. 15, 2017
Too long, no time to read? Go write! But take a moment to think about what you’ve done, and how you can do even better on the last half of the Nanowrimo marathon.
Still with me? Okay... we’re at Midway!
Or thereabouts, at least? Not the famous islands from World War II, although I suppose if you want to use that battle as an inspiration, you could. No, we are roughly at the halfway point in November, November 15! Now, you might be chugging along, turning out 2000 words or better every day, so you are sitting on something like 30,000 words or better, and you can see the light on the Nanowrimo goalposts from here? Just 20,000 or less to go, and you’ve still got 15 days to finish that sprint.
Or, you might be like me, with a conference trip that impacted production or something else from real life that slowed down the works, so you are behind. But don’t give up! Keep cranking, and see how far you can get in the remaining time.
In fact, this is a good point to stop, take a deep breath, and take a look at what you have learned so far. Are the words flowing, the characters easy to portray, the settings nice and detailed, the events and plot intricate and suspenseful and all those good things? How about your process, your thinking about the work? Have you noticed tendencies in your own thinking, or the way you tackle the writing, that slow you down, guide you into blind alleys and force you to backtrack, or otherwise mix it up? What could you do to avoid that?
You might remember that James Scott Bell in "Write Your Novel from the Middle: A New Approach for Plotters, Pantsers and Everyone in Between" focuses on the midpoint, the mirror moment, as the key to plot. Specifically, that’s when your character stops and looks at what’s going on — in a character-based story, they raise the poignant question, who am I? While in a plot-based story, they are more likely to focus on what are the odds against me. But in either case, that midpoint is where the character looks at what has been going on and decides where to go from here.
And that’s where you and I are! Right now, looking in a mirror (or a terminal, something reflective, anyway — personally, I like the glorious display of the sunrise, but that’s just me — and thinking about what we’ve already done on Nanowrimo, and what we can still do! So, tighten your resolve, and get ready to roll! The best is yet to come!
Incidentally, as Amanda points out over here
https://madgeniusclub.com/2017/11/14/to-nano-or-not-to-nano-2/
You can do Nano lots of different ways. Yes, the basic challenge is to start a new story and push ahead 50,000 words or more during November. But... you should feel free to embroider that. Maybe you want to try a new genre, or try writing while standing on your head? Whatever, go for it! This is the month when writers cut loose and try some things, and they even talk about it! So, as Mork would say, Nano, Nano...
Write!
Too long, no time to read? Go write! But take a moment to think about what you’ve done, and how you can do even better on the last half of the Nanowrimo marathon.
Still with me? Okay... we’re at Midway!
Or thereabouts, at least? Not the famous islands from World War II, although I suppose if you want to use that battle as an inspiration, you could. No, we are roughly at the halfway point in November, November 15! Now, you might be chugging along, turning out 2000 words or better every day, so you are sitting on something like 30,000 words or better, and you can see the light on the Nanowrimo goalposts from here? Just 20,000 or less to go, and you’ve still got 15 days to finish that sprint.
Or, you might be like me, with a conference trip that impacted production or something else from real life that slowed down the works, so you are behind. But don’t give up! Keep cranking, and see how far you can get in the remaining time.
In fact, this is a good point to stop, take a deep breath, and take a look at what you have learned so far. Are the words flowing, the characters easy to portray, the settings nice and detailed, the events and plot intricate and suspenseful and all those good things? How about your process, your thinking about the work? Have you noticed tendencies in your own thinking, or the way you tackle the writing, that slow you down, guide you into blind alleys and force you to backtrack, or otherwise mix it up? What could you do to avoid that?
You might remember that James Scott Bell in "Write Your Novel from the Middle: A New Approach for Plotters, Pantsers and Everyone in Between" focuses on the midpoint, the mirror moment, as the key to plot. Specifically, that’s when your character stops and looks at what’s going on — in a character-based story, they raise the poignant question, who am I? While in a plot-based story, they are more likely to focus on what are the odds against me. But in either case, that midpoint is where the character looks at what has been going on and decides where to go from here.
And that’s where you and I are! Right now, looking in a mirror (or a terminal, something reflective, anyway — personally, I like the glorious display of the sunrise, but that’s just me — and thinking about what we’ve already done on Nanowrimo, and what we can still do! So, tighten your resolve, and get ready to roll! The best is yet to come!
Incidentally, as Amanda points out over here
https://madgeniusclub.com/2017/11/14/to-nano-or-not-to-nano-2/
You can do Nano lots of different ways. Yes, the basic challenge is to start a new story and push ahead 50,000 words or more during November. But... you should feel free to embroider that. Maybe you want to try a new genre, or try writing while standing on your head? Whatever, go for it! This is the month when writers cut loose and try some things, and they even talk about it! So, as Mork would say, Nano, Nano...
Write!