NaNo progress is going...slowly
Right. I haven't gotten much done on my NaNo novel. I'm really really far behind. Like, a week behind in my word count. It's bad. But I think I might have reached a break though. Maybe. Because my biggest problem is wanting to get straight to action, to skip the "boring" set up parts that are important and can be really emotional and suspenseful if I do them right.
The first scene in the book starts with Cyrus talking over webcam to her girlfriend Jennifer who is down in Florida on a trip to Disneyland. They discuss this virus that's going around which causes high fever, infection, eventually death, and which appears to have a 100% fatality rate (no one can say for certain because the government is keeping a lot of information under wraps like how the disease is spread). We get a quick mention of the fact that Jennifer's parents don't like Cyrus because they disagree with their daughter being a lesbian, although Jennifer's father is starting to come around (probably because Cyrus will help him fix things with duck tape).
I kind of liked that scene as I was writing which probably means that I'll hate it upon rereading, but that's how it goes. Anyway, after that, I started to rush things. I didn't know where I was going with it, and I still don't. I occasionally slowed down to had relevant description, but I know it isn't any good. I don't know if that has anything to do with the fact that I write in past tense.
Yes. I don't know if the reason that I rush everything has to do with the fact that I most commonly write in past tense. I really don't. I started an "interlude"--mostly because I have no idea what else to do--and I decided I was going to write it in present tense for a change of pace and to distinguish it from the main story. Only I like this. As I'm writing it, I feel like I'm putting more detail into it. I feel like I'm slowing down. And I don't know if that's because the present tense puts me in a different mind set: this is happening to the character rather than this happened to the character.
I'll be honest, I usually write in past tense because that's how most novels are written. I use present tense with short stories a lot because it's more common for that to happen now, and because I like writing short stories in present tense. I've never tried it with a novel before, though.
But who knows? Maybe this is the kind of experimenting I need to be able to reinvested in NaNo and so catch up on my word count.
This entry was originally posted at http://darkauthor26.dreamwidth.org/124860.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
The first scene in the book starts with Cyrus talking over webcam to her girlfriend Jennifer who is down in Florida on a trip to Disneyland. They discuss this virus that's going around which causes high fever, infection, eventually death, and which appears to have a 100% fatality rate (no one can say for certain because the government is keeping a lot of information under wraps like how the disease is spread). We get a quick mention of the fact that Jennifer's parents don't like Cyrus because they disagree with their daughter being a lesbian, although Jennifer's father is starting to come around (probably because Cyrus will help him fix things with duck tape).
I kind of liked that scene as I was writing which probably means that I'll hate it upon rereading, but that's how it goes. Anyway, after that, I started to rush things. I didn't know where I was going with it, and I still don't. I occasionally slowed down to had relevant description, but I know it isn't any good. I don't know if that has anything to do with the fact that I write in past tense.
Yes. I don't know if the reason that I rush everything has to do with the fact that I most commonly write in past tense. I really don't. I started an "interlude"--mostly because I have no idea what else to do--and I decided I was going to write it in present tense for a change of pace and to distinguish it from the main story. Only I like this. As I'm writing it, I feel like I'm putting more detail into it. I feel like I'm slowing down. And I don't know if that's because the present tense puts me in a different mind set: this is happening to the character rather than this happened to the character.
I'll be honest, I usually write in past tense because that's how most novels are written. I use present tense with short stories a lot because it's more common for that to happen now, and because I like writing short stories in present tense. I've never tried it with a novel before, though.
But who knows? Maybe this is the kind of experimenting I need to be able to reinvested in NaNo and so catch up on my word count.
This entry was originally posted at http://darkauthor26.dreamwidth.org/124860.html. Please comment there using OpenID.