Here's the point where it's either not working for me, or I'm not working for it.
To explain: I have this nice, detailed outline of my novel inserted into my document. As I go through, all I have to do is fill in. It helps keep me on track because I'm not always saying, "Hmm, where am I at here? Shouldn't I change this order around? Oh dear, now I need to start over." Not all my chapters are outlined. I know I'll need to do some big, unpremeditated writing toward the end because there are things that will have to happen and sacrifices that will have to be made that I haven't written down yet.
That's all well and good. But I find it very hard these days to sit down and do the writing. When I do sit down, I feel like a typist and wish the TV was on at the same time. Either this way of writing is boring my novel to death, or I'm being petulant and just won't do the work.
I'm on track in terms of where I want to be at this point: I figure 33,378 words is just over a third of my whole first draft. This pace is fine with me...EXCEPT IT'S NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH and I have to write 16,622 more words in three days to win! Again, this scenario would be okay, except that I hate to not win. I really, really hate it.
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3 comments:
Oh, I admire people who can work from a detailed outline! I absolutely can't. I feel like I've already told the story, so I don't have any motivation to actually write it. I usually end up wandering off and doing something random and pointless, like alphabetizing my spices or sorting my shoes by heel height instead.
I have an outline in my doc too but when I tried to follow it faithfully, I got bored. The one day I wrote the end, before I even did the middle. It was great. I had regained my writing energy. Now I just write whatever part I'm interested in that day. It's somewhat disjointed and looks like a mess, but it's getting done.
I liken my process to building a man out of parts. First I put up the skeleton, then I started throwing random muscles on it. Major muscle groups or smaller auxiliary muscles randomly. I almost have a complete musculature now. But it still can't move because there's no tendons to hold the muscles to the bones. I figure in December, I'll add the connective tissue, cover it with skin and take it for a run.
By the way, I notice an increase in your word count. Good job. Keep it up.
There are certainly pitfalls in the outline strategy. Eric, you seem to have figured out a way around them. I find I can work from the outline, sort of, if I give myself 15-minute writing goals.
But mostly I unpack boxes I never intended to unpack and create wish lists of books and write essays in my journal about what luxury means to me.
This is why I need NaNoWriMo. I can't stand to not win, so I do what I need to do to move my novel forward.
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