writing

editing again

We had a very productive weekend. In between movie going and cleaning and making fried rice the boy and I sat down and figured out how to address all the problems in the novel. I now have a list of additions and edits to make and I’m very very happy about it.

It’s a substantial amount of work but most of it is rewriting and I don’t expect to add much more than 5k or so to the total wordcount. 10k is absolute tops, since I want to keep the whole thing under 100k. Some changes are ideas I’m vaguely annoyed at myself for not coming up with earlier, others are bits to add clarification of character or theme or whatnots.

I feel like I have direction with it again, and that makes me happy. I was feeling pretty stagnant and depressed about it for all of January, so this is a welcome change.

Today I am henna-ing my hair and rereading the current version of the manuscript so I can jot down additional notes. Tomorrow I’ll start on actual editing.

And hopefully Tessa will have found a new napping spot by then.

I did make her move after she started closing my tabs and muting my iTunes with her paws, though my typing didn’t seem to bother her. Such a helpful kitten she is.

By erin, ago

vikings make everything better

I reached the 50k mark for my NaNovel on Saturday. It’s the earliest I’ve ever hit 50k in six years of NaNoing, so that’s something of an accomplishment. I’m at 53k now and I still have quite a bit to go before this draft is anywhere near done, but that’s ok.

I think one of the things I like about NaNoWriMo is that not only does it give you a deadline, which is magical, but it gives you bragging rights and fun icons. It is like getting a gold star in kindergarten, it is simple but extremely happy-making. I cannot even say how much I adore the Viking theme of this year’s winner icons. They are extra special triumphant.

I enjoyed this NaNo more than some previous years. Maybe I just hit upon the fact that I am especially loquacious when writing in first person (though only part of the novel is in first person, those parts did go very fast) or maybe I’ve just had a lot of practice, but I didn’t hit the “I hate my novel” phase this time around, as I usually do somewhere in week three. I had plenty of phases where I wasn’t sure where everything was going (I’m still not sure where everything is going, actually) but nothing that made me want to give up entirely.

I am going to keep writing, I want to see how much I can get done before the end of November since there are still several days left. I am, in a general sense, getting better at finishing what I start and I think for the writing side of that NaNoWriMo has been invaluable. I suppose I have Chris Baty to thank for that, so thank you Chris. You are a Viking in the best of literary Viking ways.

By erin, ago

writing your own myths

I am just over 40k for NaNoWriMo. I should be able to get to 45k by the end of the week and 50k at some point over the weekend, which is kind of excellent.

Not so excellent, depending on how you look at it, is the fact that I am pretty sure I am not even halfway through the novel. It seems to want to be a lot more complicated than I had anticipated, and characters I’d thought were secondary are insisting on quite a bit more attention than I had intended giving them. And there are several plot loops that are making their presence known that I having figured out yet.

It seems to be pretty sure of itself at this point, so I am just going to follow it along and see where it wants to go. After five (sheesh!) years of NaNoing I am pretty familiar with how I write and what works and what doesn’t, so while I won’t say that it’s easier I think it’s less frustrating. I don’t know who is drawing the doors in back alleys in New Orleans, and that’s ok. I’m not sure who Eleanor’s grandfather was, exactly, and that’s ok. I am curious to see where it goes more than I am nervous about not knowing. It will figure itself out, and mostly I just need to stay out of its way.

It has ended up being something of a Persephone story, and a bit of a Wonderland story with a great many Alices. Only one Persephone, though.

By erin, ago

halfway there

So I have hit the halfway mark for NaNoWriMo. Lookit the nice little progress meter:

26132 / 50000 words. 52% done!

And I’m not entirely sure where it is going. I had grandiose aspirations of doing 75k this month but I really don’t think I’m up for it. I might see how far I can get beyond 50k since I’m on pace to hit it early, but I haven’t decided yet.

Not that I’m feeling bad about it. I rather like it so far. I’m learning interesting things about my writing style, having done this so many times. I am not an outliner, I am not even much of a planner. I think I like the surprises that come with not planning, with not knowing what’s going to happen next.

I seem to start with location, and then find different ways to explore it. Approaching it from different angles, telling bits of its story through different characters. My location for this one is, at least, in very good shape. And I have a thread of something or other flowing through it that is plotish if not fully grown plot yet. There are holes in it, of course, but there’s still a good long way to go.

Am guessing that it’ll end up much like the circus did, a 100k or so draft that can be reshaped into something tighter and more coherent. I do have a tendency to ramble off in different directions but I usually learn something or find something to bring back with me.

I think that’s my favorite part about the rough draft stage, that so much of it is exploration and I never know what might turn up on the next page.

By erin, ago

on anniversaries & apples

taken at macks apples, londonderry, nh, 10.13.08

Yesterday was my 2nd wedding anniversary. We went to New Hampshire to go apple picking and bought a cotton candy pumpkin and I took a lot of photos, some of which came out remarkably well. I am endeavoring to be a better photographer. After apple picking (Mutzu apples, which are fantastic) we went out for dinner at the Indian restaurant we’d been meaning to try for ages and it was wonderful. They had naan stuffed with basil that was possibly the best thing ever.

Today I finished the last of my edits on the novel and sent it off all pretty and shiny to be read by a few wise, bookish people to get some outside opinions on it. It is odd to be free of it, if only temporarily. I have been working more or less nonstop on it for the last week or so, since the boy read it and gave me some very good suggestions on things to add and adjust.

I have things to do, of course. I have the troublesome sevens to paint for the tarot deck. I have NaNoWriMo coming up in two weeks and I use a little bit more planning for it, though I never like to plan too much for NaNo. I like to see where November wants to take me without a map.

I should clean the studio, and I would like to add some more things to my Etsy store. I finished The Graveyard Book, which was not entirely what I was expecting but fit my mood nicely and made me want to play in graveyards (which I can easily manage around here). I should start The Catcher in the Rye, or possibly re-read Einstein’s Dreams.

And there are apples to eat, as well.

By erin, ago

on editing

I’ve been editing-o-rama this week, and it’s going much more smoothly than I had expected.

I cut out a lot more without even having to think about it so the draft is hovering around the 90k mark at the moment. I kept everything in files in case I want to add things back, but I’m liking it on the shorter side. Haven’t read it all end-to-end yet, but it seems like a good length.

I’m actually kind of baffled that I set a schedule that I stuck to. I think it helps to have the impending wonderment that is NaNoWriMo to keep me motivated to just finish this up already, but I’m actually kind of ahead of schedule. Baffling.

Maybe I just work better in the autumn, or the cooler weather and earlier sunsets make my brain function in a less lazy way.

Regardless, I am on a very good track to have a finished, polished draft by mid-October to give to a handful of trusted readers, leaving me free to work on something else entirely for November. Oh, to work on something else entirely after over two years! I cannot even say how exciting that is. Just to explore someplace different for awhile (all my writing seems to be very place-based, maybe that’s a blog for another day) will be such a nice change.

Editing has been easier than I had expected, too. I tend to edit as I go a lot, and I’ve edited large chunks of the book already, so a lot of it is smoothing out the edges and making the details coherent and just making it pretty. And in re-reading sections that I haven’t read in quite some time I’m finding I just like reading it as a reader, which is probably a very good sign.

I tend to get to a point while working on a painting where it just feels finished. I can detail it a bit more and add a few touches (or spatters, usually) but the painting itself is there already. I wasn’t really expecting it, but the book is starting to feel like that. That it’s there and I’m just playing with shading and flourishes.

Yeah, so writing is good this week. Even with mercury retrograde.

By erin, ago