What do you do when you’re planning your NaNo novel but can’t start writing yet?
Easy: edit something old. I’m in the process of getting an old novella set up properly in Scrivener (by the way, I tried Scrivener last November and bought a full copy as soon as I was done with NaNo, it’s wonderful and forces me to be more organized). During this process I’m becoming keenly aware of the way my writing habits have changed. For example, I use both colons and semicolons a lot more sparingly now than I did just a few years ago. The book I’m looking at is filled with incomplete sentences. They’re not quite fragments, but they’re not necessarily grammatically correct either. Missing pronouns and the like. I wasn’t intentionally trying to be edgy – it was more like stream of consciousness. Reading it now, though, I find it jarring. My job between now and November is to soften those rough edges that scream first draft to me now.
In the meantime, snippets of what I want to write in November keep tugging at my heartstrings. I have to bat them back down and away, and I hate doing that. It’s all for the good, though. 50,000 new words means 50,000 new words.
I can keep notes, though! I don’t want to lose any trains of thought for the novel. By the way, I’m in the camp that says 50k words is too short for a finished conventional novel… but it’s a hell of a good start.
Happy planning, everyone! I support all my fellow NaNo authors, so if there’s anything I can do to help or just to cheer you on, let me know.
Dreaming in Character 
October 19, 2014 at 10:02 pm
Apparently, I sign up for Yuletide, get further behind on bookmarking fills for the Comment Fic community, get submerged in corporate books because we moved our Board Meeting, and then also offer to do some fandom sorting for Yuletide and wonder what in the world I was thinking because I’m not behind on that too.
I’m going to have to just do that tomorrow and get it off my chest because I’m far in enough to not just drop it, but not yet far enough to post it and ask someone else to finish it.
Ugh. :shakes head at self with a trifle disgust at how easy it is to overextend myself unwisely on accident:
Of course, the Board thing wasn’t actually forseeable and IS the reason I’m so behind.
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October 19, 2014 at 10:08 pm
You’re just the busy type. Some people thrive on that! I like multitasking, but I also like having dedicated time for just one thing. Today I managed to carve out a good solid hour for editing and organizing. Tomorrow I’ll figure out my own Yuletide signup, and hopefully won’t volunteer for anything else to take my mind away from the tasks at hand.
I think you volunteer to do the things that excite you, and there’s nothing wrong with that. A lot of your writing commitments are to yourself, and I know from past experience how easy it is to push those into the background when faced with newer and more shiny things. It’s only a problem if you let yourself feel disappointed by it!
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October 19, 2014 at 10:17 pm
You have such a good point there and it is so me. I’m going to start sitting on volunteer temptations and see if it still excites me in a week. :grins:
I do love writing more than the other stuff so it does disappoint me when I make writing hard on myself, but at least I know what I’m going to do for Nano this year. First year I’m not in the swithers.
And thanks again for nomming the poem. Someone’s actually offering it on the sign up! 🙂
I do love hearing about you being inspired again. Dry times are no fun.
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October 19, 2014 at 10:40 pm
My pleasure nominating the poem. I might request it myself. I’m looking at the tag set now.
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October 20, 2014 at 12:10 am
That’s sweet 🙂
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October 20, 2014 at 10:25 pm
😀 Thank you.
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October 20, 2014 at 11:00 pm
You’re welcome
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