So here we are, one week in...
NaNoWriMo started for me in a blur of Halloween debris, along with a house full of guests. Judging by the ‘hungover’ comments on social media, I wasn’t the only one starting the challenge with lower than ideal sleep levels.
Thanks to my chapter by chapter planning I got off to a flying start and managed an impressive 5000 words over the first weekend. The scenes flowed and I ignored my terrible punctuation.
By Monday, I was back to work and back to reality, so only managed a few hundred words. However I did get to read the start of my novel to the writing class I attend. Something about reading the beginning made the whole thing real and it was good to see my fellow students wanting to see what was going to happen next. They also identified a couple of sneaky historical plot holes which sent me straight home grumbling and needing to fix them.
Writing without editing has not been easy. It’s not so much the correcting I’m struggling with, but the need to go back and insert paragraphs into the chapters I’ve already written as the story unfurls. At least the word count is going up, even if the document is growing from the middle as well as the end.
Frustratingly, I’ve hit upon a problem. My carefully chosen Young Adult novel has morphed into something else. Even worse, what it’s become is more exciting and charged than my original concept could ever be. I’m left with a choice between letting it flow and pulling it back. Losing the Young Adult genre could result in an inability to tie it into the other novels I’m writing and therefore making it difficult for me to create an author brand. But the newer version is beautiful and every time I leave it I can’t wait to get back and see what happens next.
It’s fair to say me and my story have fallen in and out of love more times than a long-term soap opera couple. I’ve spun from utter despair to ‘oh my goodness I’ve actually got something’ highs. What’s been wonderful for me is the knowledge that so many people are going through the same thing; 1,400 in London alone according to my local NaNoWriMo facebook page.
I can’t say I stayed completely away from Twitter and the television but I’m proud to say I ended my seventh day on 14,500 words, and the 36,500 I’ve got left seems infinitely more achievable than it did on November 1st.
How’s everyone else getting on?
Yes, if it wasn't for the bad feedback days we'd never improve. I think your being rather hard on yourself saying it may not be publishable. I think you need to be true to your art, I'm not sure trying to fit in works. Maybe a bad example, but I've recently entered a number of short story competitions, where you are writing to a theme. I've not had any success, but I felt that the stories I submitted were rather forced to fit the requirements. I think some of my better work has been when I've 'done my own thing.'
Ah yes Malcolm, but it makes the good feedback far more welcome when you suffer the bad feedback days too!
I'm currently following the track the novel wants to go but think I've turned my back on the chances of it being publishable. Is it better to be true to your art or to fit into the industry?
The joys of a writing class! Sometimes you come home with that warm feeling and sometimes it's why did I bother. But overall I think it's a great sounding board. Otherwise you are just writing in a vacuum.
I would just go with the direction of your novel, don't worry to much about genre. Tell the story and worry about the genre afterwards. it can always be a "crossover novel.' which I think means it spans more than one genre. On the plus side you may appal to a wider audience.
Good luck, and keep up the good work.