Last night, or rather this morning, at about half past the midnight hour, I validated my NaNoWriMo novel, SHOWMANCES: ALL'S FAIR IN LOVE AND THEATER. All 50,134 words of it.
Sadly, at around 49,000 words, I realized that was the point when my novel should have started.
And here I was, looking forward to a month of editing my 2004 NaNovel and reading books and the like, thinking I was done with SHOWMANCES for the time being.
Do I write out the rest of it, at least a slim skeleton of what the rest should be?
Do I put it aside, and finish edits and rewrites and newrites (it needs a lot of work) on the novel I was working on before November?
Do I try to do it all at once? (Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 2004 NaNo. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday: 2009 NaNo. Sunday: collapse?)
You know what would be cool?
If I didn't have a pesky day job, and could write full-time.
Congrats!! Funnily enough, a friend of mine who just published her first novel said that she only kept one sentence of her first draft in the final book. Sometimes you just need to discover the backstory yourself before the real story begins.
ReplyDeleteThanks! (Maybe I can return to the world of blogging now...)
ReplyDeleteI was about halfway through edits on my 2004 NaNovel when I realized the story would be much better if I totally changed the structure of it... so now I'm reediting the parts I'd edited, adding new chapters, and pretty much changing everything I'd written.
But you can't do any of that until you get that first draft down on paper! Even if 98% of that draft ends up being deleted... :)
I say write at least a good outline of where you want the story to go from here, since it's so fresh in your mind-- it might be hard to come back to *this place* later and try to remember how you felt about it and what your vision was.
ReplyDeleteI saw a forum post that suggested writing a chapter devoted to each of your characters before starting on the storyline-- basically, you wrote a full day *as* your character, to help you really get to know them. Then you'd be much better prepared for writing the rest of the story, having the characters ironed out. So that's kind of what you did, only way better.
PS- you could have a baby and stay home with it. Then you'll have TONS of time for writing. (must end comment now, can't think with this maniacal, hysterical laughter in my head...) =P
Writing a chapter for each character is actually a great way to pass the time in October :) I'll remember that for next year!
ReplyDeleteAnd, come on, Marcy... we all know "SAHM" is short for "sah'm taking a nap now..." I mean, don't babies just sleep all day? How hard could it be...
:P
Oh to just write and not worry about a desk job.....how nice that would be!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on finishing again :) I MUST READ IT! PLEASE! And please also let's starbucks it up sometime. Soon.
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