Nanowrimo: Week 1, Scrivener and 23k

Day 1 of NanoWriMo is upon us and I'm 23k words in.

No, I didn't write them today. I wrote those words nearly 6 months ago. I'm doing NanoWrimo with a project that has already been started. I used to feel like this was cheating. NanoWriMo is about beginning and finishing an MS in 30 days. But it dawned on me this year (my fourth year trying to do it), that finishing a story isn't the only way to win. Reaching 50k is the easiest and perhaps most popular way of doing it.

Besides, 50k might not even be a whole story for genre writers like myself. My current WIP is Sci-Fi (/ ugh, dystopian, maybe?) and I think it will run about 70-80k. So this headstart will help me reach 2 ways of winning, reaching 50k and actually completing the story I want to tell.

I've never won NanoWriMo before but I really intend to this year. I feel like I've been able to address my common problems so that while writing a novel (especially one that involves world building) can often be like this:

I'm hoping this year, I'll have an experience more like this:

Writing like a Got-Damn Disney Princess

1. World Building
1. Only this past year have I successfully created a well developed world and characters for a story to grow. This took me 5 months for a High Fantasy story--Like I said, I'm not really a high fantasy writer. I found it much easier to create a sci-fi environment
2. Outlining/Plot
1. I can't talk about Scrivener enough. Without it, I wouldn't have been able to write my novel. I wrote 113k words in 5 months. I'm sure I can do 50k in thirty days as long as I have my precious, precious software. I've never been good at outlining but Scrivener makes it incredibly easy.
3. Pacing/Momentum
1. I'm usually very enthusiastic about things from day 1 to like day 14. But the middle of the novel is hard and worse than hard, its daunting. It's the point where you feel like you don't want to keep writing. Like your story is shit. Like the world might as well just end now cus you're an idiot who never should've picked up a pen (or downloaded Scrivener). However, I just read Stephen King's "On Writing" and I've also learned so much about perserverance throughout the past couple of years. I'll probably do another blog post on this but basically "You can always edit if you have something written. But if you don't write, you can't edit." So breeze through the middle--fuck it, put in shit you know you won't ever keep. Whatever gets you to the next scene. Just keep putting one word after another.
4. Dependence
1. Writing, "they" say, is a solitary art. But I'm a social person. Hearing other people's ideas or even the sound of them typing, turns me on (in a way. No lawsuits please). In the past, I've never gone to the write-ins or bothered with writing buddies. But this year I'm going to go the extra mile to really experience this amazing event. I've already completely filled out my profile, complete with picture and even an excerpt.

So those are my four issues and what I am hoping are their solutions. I feel good. But then again, it IS only week one.

Finish Line

Today, I'll be writing the 19th chapter of my book. That's exciting in itself to some extent but what is most exciting for me is that I haven't stopped.

For the people who know me and read my work, I give up on projects frequently. I fail to outline and get stuck. I lose my momentum and stop. I realize the characters suck or the plot is derivative and I toss the manuscript.

But not this time. This time I see the finish line in sight and I'm headed straight toward it.

This is Usain Bolt. I am the him of writing.

I've been averaging about 10k words a month and it feels really good. But what is different this time around?

Well for one thing, I had a clear goal in mind when I began this project: Stomp the Fantasy Stereotypes. 

That goal allowed me to write a detailed outline starting first with the races of the world and then the history and finally places. Most of the outline won't go in the story but at least the place was real and different to me. Then I picked an interaction between two races to create my plot:  The Synn kidnap human women to use as surrogates. And HoSG was born.

It happened just like this, pretty much.

Now, I'm almost 3/4ths of the way finished. I'm not meeting the deadline I aimed for, which was last week, because I grossly underestimated the work that goes into producing something good. (I'll admit my other projects had huge flaws in them that I was too blinded (by the love of the game) to notice).

But I still count this as progress because I haven't stopped. I have no intention of stopping because the book hasn't given me a reason to stop. There is no lag. For once in my life there is no lag.

My high school art teacher once told me the middle of the painting is the hardest. She wasn't lying. I cried into my oil paint. Painting isn't my strong suit, granted, but the same goes for writing. The middle of the book is the worst for me. But I got through it this time and suddenly the end is completely in sight. Here's some more Usain for y'all.

 Prancing right over that muh fucker!

This moment came after tons of bad projects, some completed, some not. This came after over 100 query letter submissions, some acknowledged most not. This came after two full manuscript requests, none accepted.

And every failure has led to some sort of improvement. Improvement is progress. Progress gets you to the finish line.