The Bad-Writing Fairy

I think the bad-writing fairy visited me today, because today my writing stinks. I don't know why; it could be because my allergies are acting up, making me feel half-dead. It could just be my perception - I've had times before when I sat down and wrote and thought what I was writing was horrible, only to find later that that part was nearly indistinguishable from the rest of the story - but either way, it feels like everything I write today is terrible.

Despite this, I've written nearly 3000 words on Nothing So Pure today. I just keep telling myself that it's better to get the story out, even if it stinks, and that I can fix it in the rewrite. But I'm going to dread rereading this chapter after the novel is done.

Further Along

I passed 30k on Nothing So Pure today. I'm at 31k now; I'm just about a quarter of the way through the book. This amazes me.

The phase outline is helping me a lot. I often get more words per day than I used to, but more importantly, the words are coming easier. And I'm past the comfort of the beginning and into the dreaded middle... and I'm doing all right.

My enthusiasm has dwindled a tiny bit, but not by much. With every other book I've written, my enthusiasm has dropped off sharply at this point, causing me to hate the story that I previously loved. This one is going very well so far, and I'm grateful for it.

As for the Nano novel, I'm still doing worldbuilding and character creation, and have taken the first tentative steps into plotting. I plan to start the outline sometime in early September.

Yes, the writing is going well.

Another 4k

I ended up with 4000 words on Nothing So Pure yesterday, and got another 4000 today. I like the phase outline a lot so far. There's enough detail in it that I don't have to wonder what's supposed to happen next, or try to stretch for something to fill the space between one important event and the next one. I already have a rough idea of what needs to fill that space, and because I worked it out beforehand, it's important and necessary instead of just filler. And there's still enough room for me to play around and be creative. A lot of stuff that I never wrote in the outline makes it into the story, and not everything from the outline makes it in. I know that for a lot of people this type of outline would be too much structure, but so far it's just right for me.

I'll see how it takes me through the middle, though. Especially the beginning of the middle. That will be the real test.

The latest class still isn't up, so I feel vaguely guilty for starting the story. But this is technically the beginning of the writing section of the course; I read this week's lesson in the 2YN book. And even if it weren't, we have permission to work ahead in the book. I guess I just got trained in elementary school that working ahead is Very Bad.

I'm getting to know my main character a lot better. From all the planning I did, I knew who she was, but now I know how she moves through the world. And speaking of the world... this is a weird world I'm writing in. The more I write, the more I see it. But I like it a lot. I just hope it comes across as believable.

Nothing So Pure

I started Nothing So Pure (my 2YN novel) today. This week's class, the first in the writing portion of the class, isn't up on the site yet, but I read it in the 2YN book this morning.

I've been working on this idea since January; it's been in my head since last December. It's hard to start actually putting the story down on paper. I've had an ideal version of it in my head for so long, and by making the story real, I kill the ideal. No story is ever as perfect on paper as it is in the writer's mind. For the story to be written, the ideal has to die. It's necessary, but I still grieve for all the perfect visions of my stories.

Still, it's going well. I have a little over 4000 words done, and I've done nine phases from my outline. Nine phases should equal 2700 words, which means I'm getting extra words, which is good, since normally my word count runs low. And I'm enjoying it. My writing doesn't look very good to me right now, but I think that's based more on my perceotions than on any objective idea of its quality.

Genre

Genre is a funny thing.

At first it seems simple enough. Fantasy books have magic in them; science fiction books are set in the future (with the exception of sf books that involve aliens visiting modern or ancient Earth). Romance novels are about a love story. Mysteries are - surprise - about a mystery. And so on. But it gets more complicated than that. A fantasy novel is generally expected to be written in a certain style. The same goes for a science fiction novel. And if you're writing, say, science fiction, that not only implies that your novel is set sometime in the future (except in the cases mentioned above), but that you will most likely have spaceships or other planets or aliens or lots of futuristic technology. I think romance has the most freedom in this regard - there are a lot of different flavors of romance novel, with the common thread being only that they're always primarily about a love story - but from what I understand, romance has stringent rules in other areas, so I suppose it all evens out.

I was thinking about this the other day because neither of my current projects fit comfortably within their genre. In the case of the 2YN novel, I'm still not entirely sure what genre it is. It's set in the future, which makes it sort of science fiction, and it involves the supernatural, which makes it sort of fantasy. But it doesn't have any of the things that would make someone say without question, "Yes, it belongs in such-and-such genre." Does its setting make it science fiction? Do its supernatural elements make it fantasy? Or is it neither? And I'm having similar genre issues with my Nano novel.

So is there a place in the world for either of these stories? I don't know. I hope so. But either way, it won't keep me from writing them.

This Travel Scene Is In My Way

I thought I had figured out how to start the 2YN novel so that I wouldn't have to immediately move into a scene of boring travel. But I was looking through the 2YN book today - not reading ahead, just seeing whether the actual writing really does start this coming week - and came across a line that said something like, "If your opening requires a flashback in the next few pages to explain it, you've started in the wrong place." Which basically means the new opening won't work. I had thought the flashback was kind of iffy, and now I've got confirmation.

So it's back to the old opening, and I still have to figure out what to do with the travel scene. I don't think it can be eliminated, but I want to devote as little time to it as possible, without detracting from the power of the opening. This may not be a fix-it-in-the-outline thing. In fact, this may be a fix-it-in-the-rewrite thing. But I'll see if I can figure out how to fix it in the next couple of days... along with seeing what I can do about the cluster of chapters whose purpose is to reveal everyone's backstory.

That means I'll have to spend more time thinking about my book. Poor me; what a hardship that will be. (That was sarcasm.)

Waiting

I finished the outline last week. Yay! The only problem is, I can't start writing the novel until mid-August, because that's when the outlining portion of the class ends and the writing portion begins. But there's only a week and a half left. I can't wait to start this book, and yet at the same time, I'm very nervous about doing so. It works so well in my mind; I'm afraid to put it down onto paper, where it will inevitably turn out more flawed than the story I see in my head.

In the meantime, I've been preparing for NaNoWriMo. Yes, it's three months away. But a few days before I finished the outline, an idea came to me - or, more accurately, hit me over the head and abducted me. I had planned to start planning in September, but apparently that's not how it's going to work. In any case, it's good to have the planning time now, before I'm preoccupied with writing the 2YN novel.

I seem to have picked up on some sort of NaNoWriMo planning vibe, too. When I returned to the site's forums shortly after I got my idea, people were just hanging out there, not talking much about preparations for this November. But a few days after I showed up, other people started returning, and more people started talking about their novels for this November. And a NaNoWriMo preparation board opened up on Forward Motion a couple of days ago. I must have just picked up on it a few days earlier than the others. That explains my idea coming to me, at any rate - I guess it's going around.