I’ve been updating this log every day since NaNoWriMo began.
Until yesterday.
What can I say? Last week was long and exhausting. When it came time to write (including writing a post) I simply didn’t want to. Probably not the ideal attitude when doing NaNoWriMo, but I needed to be aware of my own mental health.
Simply put, I needed an evening of doing nothing. I thought I could get away with it if I came out swinging today. I was a few hundred words ahead of goal going into yesterday, so was confident I could make up the count.
Come out swinging
I had a good night’s sleep. That doesn’t always happen when I’m working on a project; the mind just never shuts down enough to let me relax into deep sleep
I woke up refreshed and ready to go.
I knew there was some connective tissue (smaller scenes) I needed for earlier in the story. I had to work out how certain characters come together in a natural, believable way. I spent part of the morning doing a bit of exploratory writing. That led to some discovery writing where I better understood one of the new character’s backstory and motivation.
That led to the light bulb moment where I knew what the story progression needed to be. Flying by the seat of my pants can be both rewarding and stress-inducing.
Happy with the new progression
I’ve been successful in writing some of the bigger scenes. They need to all tie together and be cohesive. The new tie-in scenes are going to do that. I can already see how everything builds on the next. I also hope that the story has unexpected elements. I don’t want the story to be too predictable.
I also think I am writing new characters that people will love and hate (depending on whether they are heroic characters or villains). Who knows? We might see those characters again in later stories (I already have ideas).
Adding new stories to my master plan is a bit scary. I already have several books that need to be written. When do I stop adding new projects to the list and finish the ones already there?
I think the answer is never, to be honest.
