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Life is like a grapefruit

Learning to fly

I started my novel today. It’s part of the NaNoWriMo project to write 50,000 words in a month that I have mentioned previously.

In the few hours since I began, I have managed to write 372 words. Given that I should be writing 1,667 a day, and that I’m aiming for 2,000 a day to give myself some room, it’s a poor showing. Here’s what happened:

I had a plan for the novel, or at least for the idea at the core of the novel. I managed to get a framework for three acts together, although I still don’t really know how the third act will pan out; that’s part of the fun of the NaNoWriMo philosophy though. However, when I put finger to keyboard, I realised that I needed to do more research. I had to look into the things I was writing about due to my in-built need for accuracy, something others may refer to as pedantry. I could not bear the thought of writing something, even in a fictional framework, that was inaccurate when refering to things outside of the fantasy world of the novel.

I lost an hour or so to research, but I now do have a great pile of photos and web pages. I’m using Scrivener for Mac OS X for my writing which is a great application that allows me to keep my research alongside my manuscript. And yes, I lost an hour to the research that led me to that software too.

However, back to the writing. I wrote about a 350 words of my planned story, and then another character appeared. I realised I needed him to offset the chap who was going to be my main character, but then it became clear that he’d be a far more sympathetic main character.

At this point, I should have realised that I didn’t need a plan and should just go with the flow, but I didn’t. So I replanned with the new main character instead. I know now what I should be doing, and yes, my usual all-knowing oracle already gave me this advice and I failed to follow it, so tomorrow should be a better effort.

I might write a little more tonight, just to see if I can break 500 words.

Posted on 2008/11/01 in personal | Tagged NaNoWriMo | Leave a comment

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