NaNo and stuff
So, the weekend before NaNo I was so calm, it was scary. Every time I tried to panic myself out of this zen-like state (You have to write 50k! In 24 days! 24 days filled with marking and teaching and then there is the trip to London!), I was like: So what? I've got an outline.
And then I went back and did crafty thinks. (h ere and here, if you are interested. )
I was just so pleased with the damn outline, the fact that I actually have to write the damn thing didn't really register. I had an amazingly good start too and the act of simply writing and not worrying about just how crap the writing is, was unbelievable liberating. When I went home on Thursday, all depressed because I only have managed about 800 words I suddenly realized: You just wrote 800 words, when two weeks ago you would have written nothing!
But then on Friday it hit me: I had no idea, what kind of people my characters were. I knew their name but that was basically it. And the plot - I just wasn't feeling it and neither were my characters. So I spent Friday starring into plot holes until my MC turned around and said: You know, I think you messed up the time line. What about starting a bit earlier and letting us be cheerful and kill people, before we are all depressed and guilty and in mortal danger?
She was right, the novel is way better now (which doesn't say much, the writing is still appalling but it is NaNo after all...) and she even grew something like a personality (yay!). But she also starts to fall in love with the wrong guy... stop it! He is *not* for you, so keep your paws of him, would you!