The Real Treasure Was the Novel We Wrote Along the Way

All right, we're back for the post-NaNo wrap-up. I didn't mean to wait quite this long, but here we are. So… oh boy, where do I begin?

I guess I'll start with point of view, because that's what I talked about at the beginning of November. I did keep up the system of alternating between the two siblings (with a couple exceptions, I'll get to that in a bit). It was interesting to decide which point of view a scene should be told from. Some were obvious, because only one or the other was present, but some had both characters present, so it was not so clear. I did find that ending the chapter and switching POV in the middle of those scenes worked pretty well to give both perspective on whatever was going on.

But then there were a couple of scenes that really needed to be from a third POV, so there are also two short chapters that break the alternating pattern. They are from the POV of a character who can see the future. Which brings me to the next thing: tense. Now, I'd say the majority of fiction is written in past tense ("She baked a cake"). There are also books written in present tense ("She bakes a cake"), often Young Adult fiction. But you never really see things written in future tense ("She will bake a cake"). And what better time to try out future tense than in a chapter in the POV of a precognitive character? It was fun. I would definitely never write a whole book like that. But it was a very interesting thing to try. Especially as the future comes to them in a big jumble, and not necessarily in any order. It works fine for a short chapter, but would be infuriating (to both reader and writer) in a longer work.

The End... of NaNo 2022

At this moment, it's about 10:30pm on November 30th. And my NaNoWriMo document is currently sitting at 50,131 words.

That's right friends. After 5 years of not reaching 50k, I've done it.

There's more that I want to say about it. About, I don't know, the process and the things I've learned. I came in here intending to say all that. But I think I'll save that for next time. I wrote 7,500 words today. I can't write any more.

But I wanted to tell you all, I've done it.

I'll see you next time.

True, From a Certain Point of View

Well, it's November. Which means two things. One, I forgot about October. Whoops. Two, it's NaNoWriMo.

So last we… spoke, I had a pile of tropes and character traits and plot elements. Well, now I have a vaguely steampunk treasure-hunting action adventure with a search for a mysterious treasure hidden by a long-gone secret society. I'm actually pretty excited for it.

At this point, I'm not quite 2,000 words in. Barely beginning. But I'm on the second chapter and I already have something I want to talk about: POV.

For the uninitiated, that's Point of View. There's a lot of options for POV. 1st person vs. 3rd person (and yes, also 2nd person, but that's rarely used). Single vs. multi. Omniscient vs. limited vs objective. I'm not going to get into all the details of all the different kinds. Suffice it to say it's a matter of who we are following through the story, and how close we're following them.

Putting Plots in a Pile

I didn't do a lot of writing in August. Writing adjacent, sure.

What I did was read through my vampire novel-in-progress and list out what happened in each chapter and each scene. The purpose of this was to have a nice, easy to skim summary of the plot, because there are some scenes I need to rewrite. See, they were just hastily chucked in there as a means to an end. I needed to get from Point A to Point C and something had to be Point B. Just things like, I need this character to learn this piece of information, and these characters need to be over here for this next thing to happen. But I don't much care for them, so they're going to be changed. And I just wanted a nice overview so I could see how each change would cascade and affect later scenes.

So that was August. I mean, that was a few days in August.

But on to September.

Stories Behind the Story

Camp NaNo: July Edition was just spend working on backstories for various characters for my vampire novel-in-progress.

You know, the sort of music they like, how they got where they are, and that Nazi Germany apparently had something to do with vampire hunting. I'm not sure what yet, and I even said, out loud, "I wonder why that is?" as though I hadn't just written it and caused it to happen.

This Is Just To Say

It's been a while, I know. Sorry about that.

So, Camp NaNo. I ended up not making my word goal. Which was fine. I said, "I'll just extend my timeframe and keep working on this." I did not. This was not fine.

Camp NaNo 2022: April Edition

I decided literally on April 1st what I wanted to write for Camp NaNo. I had toyed with the idea of using the month for revising my novel, or maybe writing a new short story (not that I had any potential plots in mind).

In the end, I chose to go with something I've never done during a NaNoWriMo event: nonfiction.

See, I have this history research project that will require me to write several short summaries of events. I have a good-sized list of potential topics, I just have to sit down and write them. Enter, Camp NaNo.

Surprisingly Good

I know I skipped February. I'm sorry. But I hadn't done any writing, so I had nothing to report. Instead, I was putting off writing in favor of a somewhat time-sensitive sewing project. And I was putting that off in favor of watching Netflix. But I finished the shows I wanted to watch. And then I made a skirt. So now I have nothing left to stop me from writing.

Camp NaNoWriMo is coming up in April. I have no idea what I'm going to do for it. Might write a short story. Might revise my vampire novel. So in preparation for the second possibility, I've started rereading the latest draft of Cold Blooded.

2022 Goals

I haven't done much writing thus far in 2022, and so haven't had much to blog about. So I thought that today I would instead look ahead, and talk about what I'm hoping to do this year.

Revisions
As you're surely aware by now, I have a lot of first drafts lying around. They're never going to go anywhere if I don't polish them up. I have a couple in mind to work on.

• Cold Blooded: An urban fantasy novel about vampires, murder, and ice cream. Its recently written second draft changed some major plot points to move it closer to where it needs to be.
• The House at the Top of the Rock: A horror short story (that might expand into a novella) about a ship's small crew, betrayal, and the dark secrets of a seemingly abandoned island.