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.

NaNoWriMo is coming up in a few months, and I need a plan. "But Mel," you might say, "why don’t you just keep working on the vampire novel?" A reasonable question. But the high speed of 50,000 words in 30 days is not conducive to writing that is consistently good. And the vampire novel needs good writing now. I've thrown enough bullshit at it.

So I'll be starting a new project for NaNo. Problem being, I have no idea what that project is going to be. I have started a document into which I dump every possible thought, trope, setting, character, etc. Looking at it right now, I can tell you that there is no cohesive plot emerging. I maybe have a thought about a character, but I don't actually know what they'll be doing. Or where. Or why.

I'm hoping that if I throw enough ideas into this pile, I'll be able to dig out something. So that's what I'm up to this month.

I'll see you next time.