I've been in NaNoWriMo mode lately.
Not in the trying to write one book in one month, but just in trying to get the story out there on the screen. The current story I'm working on is something that has been in the back of my mind for years. A large portion of it (ok...the bulk of it) takes place in Montana, and there were years in between my last Montana trip. Knowing that I was headed back out there this summer, I thought now would be the time to get started on it.
However, since it has been percolating for years, there are several scenes that I can see very clearly, only they don't all happen one right after the other. And I'm one of those people that I have to begin at the beginning and write straight through to the ending. I will jot down notes about different scenes, but I most likely won't write out the full scene.
So now I'm writing straight through. And there have been a few short scenes or conversations that I need to work through, but I haven't quite figured out how they should fully go. And at first I struggled with it. I analyzed the dialogue that didn't quite flow, or the structure of the scene...and then I thought...you know what? I may get to the end and decide that it isn't necessary, or something will become clearer to fix it.
I'm just getting from Point A to Point B right now and you know what? This is the reason they call it a first draft. So I moved on. And I'm actually looking forward to finishing and coming back and revising. Maybe it's that I love putting my mind back in Montana, or really loving my characters (despite what I'm doing to them!) and can't wait to get to where it works out. I have no deadline to finish it by the end of July, or even by the end of August, but they say in NaNoWriMo it helps to just get the words out. Layout the groundwork for the story. And then the cleanup can begin.
Okay. Back to it. After all, who wouldn't want to spend time in this place?
Not in the trying to write one book in one month, but just in trying to get the story out there on the screen. The current story I'm working on is something that has been in the back of my mind for years. A large portion of it (ok...the bulk of it) takes place in Montana, and there were years in between my last Montana trip. Knowing that I was headed back out there this summer, I thought now would be the time to get started on it.
However, since it has been percolating for years, there are several scenes that I can see very clearly, only they don't all happen one right after the other. And I'm one of those people that I have to begin at the beginning and write straight through to the ending. I will jot down notes about different scenes, but I most likely won't write out the full scene.
So now I'm writing straight through. And there have been a few short scenes or conversations that I need to work through, but I haven't quite figured out how they should fully go. And at first I struggled with it. I analyzed the dialogue that didn't quite flow, or the structure of the scene...and then I thought...you know what? I may get to the end and decide that it isn't necessary, or something will become clearer to fix it.
I'm just getting from Point A to Point B right now and you know what? This is the reason they call it a first draft. So I moved on. And I'm actually looking forward to finishing and coming back and revising. Maybe it's that I love putting my mind back in Montana, or really loving my characters (despite what I'm doing to them!) and can't wait to get to where it works out. I have no deadline to finish it by the end of July, or even by the end of August, but they say in NaNoWriMo it helps to just get the words out. Layout the groundwork for the story. And then the cleanup can begin.
Okay. Back to it. After all, who wouldn't want to spend time in this place?
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