How It's Working - Michael Palmer Month

Hmmmm. I want to be honest to the point of pain, if necessary. How's the plan working for me? How's Michael Palmer Month working for me?

The plan may benefit me more in the long term than the short term. My NaNoWriMo word count is suffering, although I like what I've done a hundred times more than the other NaNoWriMo drafts I've written. I feel like I'm spending too much time blogging and too little time getting on with the novel. On the other hand, I'm not likely to ditch this book in the middle of a rough spot, never to be heard from again. And I'm definitely not going to post a "hey-there-I-know-this-was-all-about-noveling-but- I'm-not-really-doing-that-anymore" update. I don't spend a large chunk of time writing the novel every night, but I do sit down to work on it most nights. That's a huge improvement in itself.

Now how's Michael Palmer Month working for me? It'll be easier to judge in hindsight. Right now, I'm pleased. After I went back to redo my outline in more detail a la Palmer, I had less trouble battling doubt in the middle of writing a paragraph. If a question popped up--Hey, what's she doing in this scene anyway? Wasn't she supposed to be at school? Is this summer?--I could find out the answer by looking at the outline and keep plugging away. Sure, sometimes the answer wasn't there and I really had forgotten about a contradiction of plot points, but I was less likely to want to scrap my whole book. I'm writing a little more slowly and a little more meticulously. It's slower than NaNo but I'm happy with what I've done.

With that said, if February rolls around and I haven't finished a full first draft, I'll be a lot less enchanted with the Palmer method.