Reflecting
I feel like I had an on-again, off-again relationship with this year's novel (novella, really). At times, I really liked it; at others, I felt like I was forcing all of it. I think Leia's Story can be turned into something I'm proud of, with some heavy editing.
The biggest change I made from last year's process is that I turned off the spelling and grammar check for my novel document. It was so FREEING! I was able to write more quickly, without a lot of stopping to respell things. Without the red squiggly, I didn't notice nearly as many misspellings. ;)
Things I learned:
- Writing what you know can be really fun. I've never made so many nerdy jokes in all my life.
- I work a lot better when I have someone to Word War with, even if it's just a fellow NaNoer on the tinychat page.
- John Williams is the man.
- Writing something other than sci-fi was a HUGE challenge. When I wrote myself into a corner, I couldn't just say "and then they switched brains" and be good for another 10K.
- I think I prefer sci-fi. There's just so many more options, and you can do a lot more creating, whether that's races or worlds or tech or laws of the 'verse.
- Not every story is going to take my brain captive and make me fall in love with all the characters. Not every story is going to give me a burning desire to publish. And that's okay.
And now I'm going to set aside Leia's Story for at least a month, and work on Massive Overhaul Number Two of Quest. I'm so excited to be working with Malcolm and Talia again! And Daniel! And Rico!! Oh, Rico... <3 <3 <3
The biggest change I made from last year's process is that I turned off the spelling and grammar check for my novel document. It was so FREEING! I was able to write more quickly, without a lot of stopping to respell things. Without the red squiggly, I didn't notice nearly as many misspellings. ;)
Things I learned:
- Writing what you know can be really fun. I've never made so many nerdy jokes in all my life.
- I work a lot better when I have someone to Word War with, even if it's just a fellow NaNoer on the tinychat page.
- John Williams is the man.
- Writing something other than sci-fi was a HUGE challenge. When I wrote myself into a corner, I couldn't just say "and then they switched brains" and be good for another 10K.
- I think I prefer sci-fi. There's just so many more options, and you can do a lot more creating, whether that's races or worlds or tech or laws of the 'verse.
- Not every story is going to take my brain captive and make me fall in love with all the characters. Not every story is going to give me a burning desire to publish. And that's okay.
And now I'm going to set aside Leia's Story for at least a month, and work on Massive Overhaul Number Two of Quest. I'm so excited to be working with Malcolm and Talia again! And Daniel! And Rico!! Oh, Rico... <3 <3 <3