Hearing Matt Forbeck’s goal of writing 12 books in 12 months is both scary and inspiring. Basically, Matt is shooting to do a NaNoWriMo-length novel of 50,000 words every month in 2012. It’s made me sit down and start calculating what it would take to hit a million words in 2012. The number is surprisingly small – 1000000 – four NaNoWriMo projects (200,000), minus the shorts I’ve already written for MPF (just north of another 52,000) = about 750,000. Divide by the number of writing days I’ll have in 2012 (313) and I come up with 2,400 words a day. Wolfram Alpha puts it at 2396.16. But what’s 3.84 words among friends?
This morning, I started counting up the universes that I’ve got planned out and am currently writing in, or that I have stories that I plan on coming back to – recurring universes, as it were. So far, here they are:
Sparks and Spells (that’s a tentative name) – the alt history fantasy/manapunk pre-WWI universe – Battle of Wildspitze and Finding the Fire. (This is the universe that Scott Roche and I are sharing / writing in.) New stories coming from both of us soon.
You’ve got a first draft coming together. And that’s great! But please, please don’t think that it’s a finished book. You’ve made batter. But is it a waffle? A pancake? A Chocolate Cake? Tempura? Maybe it’s bread dough, and it needs to be kneaded, allowed to rise, kneaded again, put in a greased bread pan, and left in an oven to come out and be slathered in soft butter and raspberry huckleberry jam just like mom makes. (Yeah, my mom makes homemade raspberry huckleberry jam. You may now be jealous.)
Competition. You’re competing with yourself, yeah, sure. But it’s much more fun to compete with other people! And beat them! Maybe.
Anyway, if you’re stuck, throw down a gauntlet and challenge someone else to a word war (or sprint). Time it, and see how many words you can write than your competitors!
And have fun. Remember, this is just a first draft.
Better late than never. Had a five-hour write in today, which is a totally new thing for me. I’ve never done write-ins before. Took a rather sizable break in there, where I started reading some more Darths and Droids… anyway…
Everyone has conflicts. You have ‘em. I have ‘em. Your bus driver, boss, kid, significant other, and even your lunch lady has ‘em. So if you’re wondering what to do with a scene, or something feels lifeless, take out a card and decide on a good conflict for one of your characters. Remember, you’re still in act 1, and this is where you’re laying the groundwork for everything to come.
You’re 10% into your novel. Or at least you’re at 10% of your time. Here’s where your main character makes a decision to have a story! Red pill or blue pill?
Day 2 of NaNo, and already some people are starting to freak out. Don’t do that. Trust your instincts, know that you do have something to say, sit down, and start moving those fingers over the keys.
There is always something in the box. Trust that there is always something in the box.
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