One week down, three more to go! How are you?
I'm feeling pretty good, thanks. In my other life I've got a proper job so scheduling time to write is a lot easier than I was expecting. The tricky part now is juggling the four weeks training with Nano, but I seem to be off to a fairly good start so I'm confident I'll be able to.
Word count so far:
8361, as of 7pm, November 6th. I haven't written anything yet today but I'll rectify that once I've finished this. It's a much better start than last year. I was on less than 3000 at this point.
When/Where have you found yourself writing the most this week?
I've never been the adventurous type with my writing location so I've been in front of my PC getting slowly dwarfed by the stack of compact discs I should put away. I've only been writing in the evenings, but I haven't had any free time during the days. This Saturday I've nothing planned so I'm hoping to join the writing marathon, for some of the day at least. Apart from being really strict about the lure of the TV (I've only watched the breakfast news all week) it's pretty much my normal routine.
From your introductory blog, you suggested your novel might veer away from psychological horror and move towards more of a drama. Any early indications of which way it’s going to go?
I think it's heading towards being more of a drama – still pretty horrible but without a lot of the trashier elements I usually throw in. The subject matter is dark enough on its own without me adding the buckets of blood and other stuff that's good for a monster story, and I like so much. There might still be a few fantasy scenes where I indulge that side of myself but they aren't until much farther into the story if I decide to include them. I'm seeing how it goes.
Talk to us about your main character, Maria Shaw, a teenage girl dealing with her evil father and uncaring mother:
Maria is quite a compartmentalized character, something she's instinctively learned to do growing up. At school she's quiet and kind of nerdy, at home she's obedient and with her friends she's fairly normal – at least by the standards of her peer group. She's naturally intelligent so, to begin with, she finds it fairly easy to keep them all separate. She's also, as you might expect, furious with her life situation, particularly her parents and that has given her a certain level of bitterness and cynicism – which she doesn't really share with anyone, except as standard teenage parent issues. There is also a degree of sympathy and pity for her mother – Eleanor isn't so much uncaring as too broken to function. Graham Shaw might not have fangs and magic powers but I still think he's one of the worst monsters I've ever come up with.
Did you get round to ironing out a plan before NaNoWriMo began? If so, has this helped your novel’s early progression?
I did, just. I spent the end of Halloween and the first hours of NaNo writing it up. I've approached it the way I've approached my last few stories, which seems to be quite successful for me. I have a bare bones chronology stuck on the end of the dresser, right next to where I sit. It has the exact dates for all the key events in Maria's life, I even found out which day of the week the dates I chose fell on. I'll probably not use all of them, and the dates are pretty much purely for my reference. For me, its useful to have that overview somewhere I'll keep seeing it. I also have an outline of the book that loosely details the pace of the fresh events in Maria's life and the points where I reveal her history. It isn't as binding as the chronology, there are a few things that have already shifted. The two things together are immensely helpful for keeping me on track. I also keep a bullet-point list of what I've written, just so I have a quick reference if I need to skip back and check an earlier detail.
This week’s biggest challenge:
Keeping up the word-count, whilst not taking my eye off the ball at the new job.
Hopes for next week:
I'm hoping that, by this time next week, I'll have passed the first key story point and be getting into the guts of the story. I'm happy with the start and feeling fairly confident. Hopefully, I haven't just tempted fate.
NaNo in a nutshell (week one):
My strongest start ever. It's good, so far.
For more on NaNoWriMo and to follow our other writers, please take a look here.
Thanks a lot :) I've used the bullet points for years now, after abandoning far too many stories because I couldn't find sections I knew I'd written but couldn't remember at what point. This is only the second time I've used a timeline but it was an enormous help on my last project and - so far - its helping just as much. I'm glad you like the sound of my characters. If nothing else I'm managing to sell the idea in my head the way I want to. Just the writing to get right now...
The new job is good so far, but I'm still in training so there's plenty of time for the wheels to fall off!
Christopher, how interesting - you created a timeline! You have no idea how many headaches that will save you (or maybe you do). The bullet-point summary-so-far is also a brilliant idea that will save you a lot of searching and timewasting. I'm liking the sound of your MC's parents - especially broken Eleanor. If you can create a monster we also feel for, that' can make a terrific story.
And good luck with the new job!