Today was hard. Last year I got to do this whole NaNoWriMo in a bit of isolation. This year there are friends to see and social occasions to attend. This is not a bad thing! I like playing games and hanging out. BUT it means that the amount of free time available for writing is less. Not only that, but I am more drained. It’s just not possible to prepare food, drive over the other side of town, then come back again and still be as fresh as when I was working earlier today.
Also, I am veering a little too much toward realism and over-planning. Here’s my logic. I want to write the scene where my mysterious preacher man Doré meets the townsfolk. But I need to know what exactly they did first (that’s the gruesome murder part). I want to write his reactions as if he already knows what happened which means I have to know what happened already. But I can’t know who did what to facilitate the murder until I decide on the cast of characters. So, I could just throw together a list and be done with it, but I want all the names and family histories to be complete, grounded and realistic for the time and place of my setting. That would be rural Louisiana in 1924. Well, that means research. Now, there’s no problem with that. I love reading about how things connect and what came before what. The problem is that all the character sketches and the genealogical tables and the accounts of the great-grandfather’s adventures don’t add to my word count because it’s all background info that only I need to know. Gotta keep focused on that word count if I’m gonna finish this year.
By now I should have 5,001 words.
My current count is 5,419 words.
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1 comment:
I am having the same problem this year - I'm getting bogged down in details that no one cares about but me! We must remember that we can always go back and rewrite! The only thing that matters this month is word count!!!!
PS: My word verification word is "skylap". That sounds lovely... let's make up a definition for a "skylap". :)
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