Post-NaNo 2021

I have meant to write this post since the beginning of December, but kept getting distracted by, you know, things. This is just one of three or four projects I've just not done this month. So don't feel special. I'm neglecting everything equally.

So.

Let's talk about my NaNoWriMo novel, the rewriting of Cold Blooded.

In the end, it was not 50,000 words. It clocked in at 36,153. Which might not seem like a lot, but of the past five years, when I have not reached 50K, this one has the most words. Fun Fact: The last time I did reach 50K was 2016, with the first version of Cold Blooded.

Despite knowing there was very little chance of actually reaching 50K in such a short amount of time, I still went all out on the last day and managed to write 5,450 words on November 30th. If I could just write that many every day, I'd be set. At that point, my goal was less to hit the word count goal, and more to just get to the end of the story. So I wrote the entire Third Act in one day. Which, yes, means Act Three (which should be a quarter of the book) is only 5K words long. But that's fine. It's a rough draft.

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Now, stats. You know how much I love stats.

NaNo Week One: A Progress Report

I am really nailing this flashback shit.

My outline has some less than helpful direction, like "reveal some backstory here." Useless. But here I am, just writing along, and somehow seamlessly sliding into the past based on something that's happening in the present.

I am so good at this.

And these were just the good flashbacks. *rubs hands together* *cackles maniacally* Just wait until we get into the Dark Flashbacks™.

Color-Coded For Your Convenience

I'm not going to forget to post in October. I'm going to sneak in at the very end of the month.

So where are we?

Oh right, I'm going to rewrite my vampire novel next month, and I'm woefully unprepared.

I've been trying to fill in some of the plot gaps with… something. And I've realized… not quite a solution, but perhaps a path to a solution. There are some characters that just disappear for big chunks of the book. This realization led me to go on a quest for my colored pencils at one in the morning, but I think I'm onto something.

Turning Backwards?

So, I forgot to write a blog post for a few months. Big surprise there. Honestly, I thought I had just written one, so it couldn't possibly be time for another. Time is meaningless.

How's the writing going, you might ask. A reasonable question. Surely I must have been doing something all this time.

Well, I have decided that I'm more than likely going to work on the second draft of Cold Blooded during NaNoWriMo in November, because maybe a deadline will help me keep going. So all I need to do is finish my outline between now and then, and I'll be all ready to go.

What's that? I have to actually work on my outline to finish it?

Oh. Oh no.

A Look Into the Past

I've had some realizations about flashbacks. Mainly, that yes, I can have them. All the advice I'd read cautioned against flashbacks,  saying that there was surely a better way to show backstory. That you should sneakily ease in that exposition throughout the story. That flashbacks break up the narrative flow, and readers can't wait for them to be over.

But you know what? Fuck that.

I recently read Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. It's mainly about a heist, but it uses flashbacks to reveal the histories of the main characters, and they are so good. You get just enough of the backstory to wonder what happened next, and then it cuts back to the present.

More to Life Than Just Death

Well, I'm back to working on my vampire novel, Cold Blooded, apparently. Sort of. It's mostly like backstory stuff, that will then have an impact on the main plot. Namely, I've written a little Wikipedia-style article about a fictional punk band, as well as working on some songs of said band. 

Am I going to actually need this in the novel? I don't know. Maybe. I have… some thoughts. But if nothing else, it's helping to develop the protagonist's history. And it's easier than figuring out the plot. 

Because, yes, my plot still has holes in it. 

Only Dealing With Draft One Problems

Here we are, post-Camp NaNo.

Did I meet my writing goal? Yes.

Did I lower my writing goal to something I knew I could meet easier? Also yes.

But that's not the point. It's not cheating when you're allowed to change you goal. And the real goal was just to get started on this story. Which I did. I didn't finish it, but that's okay. I figured out some of the hows and whys that are going to make writing the climax easier.

I'm still going to have to do some heavy edits to the beginning, because, like I said last time, there's a lot of important stuff that's missing. So this was by no means going to come out of April a finished product. I think some of that is going to be solved by better figuring out the POV and voice of the story.

Dropping Some Plot Relevant Knowledge

Camp NaNo is… progressing. Very slowly. I'm not writing as often as I would like, but I am writing, so that's an improvement.

I'm maybe… 50 or 60% through the plot. Maybe. Depending on how long the climax and resolution takes. But we're headed in that direction.

Having not yet completed Draft One, I can already tell that I'm going to need to rewrite the beginning. There's a lot of information, like world building and backstory, that I have all figured out, and needs to be in there, that just… isn’t in there. Stuff like what sort of time period this is set in, and who these characters are and why they're doing what they're doing. You know, important stuff. I also spent a lot of time figuring out what kind of a ship they have, and that's just… never mentioned.

Setting Goals

Whoops, I started writing this in February and then forgot about it. What is time, anyway.

I plotted out about half of the short story I mentioned last time before realizing I wasn't quite sure how it ended. Or how it... climaxed. Then, quite suddenly, I realized the secret that had been eluding me (Sunlight! Windows!) and wrote out a chunk of important dialogue while I was supposed to be sleeping. So this thing is still afloat.

Untethered From the Dock

 All right. I've taken a nice little break, and I'm back.

Have I made progress on my vampire novel? Hahahaha! No. 

I have, however, had another idea. Probably more of a short story.

So here's what happened.

I was listening to a song. This song. And I said to myself, there's a story idea in this somewhere. I'm just not sure what it is. And then it occurred to me, after hearing the song, I don't know, 20 more times.