Thursday, November 04, 2010

mixed success and various ramblings

so NaNo got off to a brilliant start. 11000 words in the first day. No, that's not a typo. No, i don't know how i did it, but don't get too excited. Day two added another 4000, though i was starting to get concerned because it really seemed like i was writing myself into a corner. Day 3, i was firmly sandwiched in that corner. there was a guy fixing the drywall in the apartment, so i left to find a quiet writing spot somewhere else. the public library was a bust, too cold, and the tables were too high to type comfortably, and it was too quiet. i used to think i needed total silence to write effectively, but it turns out i just need the right kind of noise.

That kind of noise can, apparently, be found at starbucks. by the time i got there, i had realized the problem with the writing i had done so far. aside from the plot not doing what i wanted, my writing itself was flagging because i was writing in the 3rd person. i keep trying to convince myself that i can do it, but i've never had much success. the short story i wrote for the anthology coming out later this year was in 3rd, and it was a nightmare for me to get right. i think there's a bit of a stigma against 1st person, that it's less sophisticated, less literary, or some crap. frankly, if i'm going for sophisticated and literary, the POV i choose is going to be the least of my problems.

What this meant was re-starting from the beginning, telling the same story, many of the same exact scenes in fact, only in 1st. i got 4000 words in the three hours at starbucks (before my knitting buddies arrived), added another 3000 after i got home that night, and added another 5000 yesterday, so i feel i am firmly back on track. the story is working better, though there are enormous holes, several areas where i just glossed over details i couldn't be bothered to research at the time, and 12000 words in i'm only just starting to get a handle on my MCs voice, but this is NaNo. If i come out at the end of this month with a decent story, i can work with the details come december. or january. or, you know, may. whenever i can stand to look at it again.

so if i'm doing so well, if i'm such a keener, why am i blogging and not writing? two words: no school.
two more words: kim possible. *twitch*

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