Category: Nanowrimo

Day 4.5

Hit an impasse where I felt like I needed to flesh out the story world, and hopefully get a sense of where the story could/should go. Spent two hours researching Regency era history and fashion, Napoleonic wars, British empire boundaries, steampunk, Industrial Revolution, analogue computers, lighter-than-air airships, Chinese Qing dynasty history, and Five Element Theory. It’s all good, but I needed some time to let the information distill, so I took the night off. Besides, there was serious distraction provided by the US election results.

Day 5

Wrote 2079 words, now that I have a better idea of how the story world works (or could work). Did some research on Regency era weddings, found some mistakes I made (they were morning ceremonies, solemn, with only family and close friends attending—guess I’ve seen too many Hollywood movies), then continued on with the story. Picked up Maddy at the altar, got her to the wedding breakfast (which is historically accurate!), then a mysterious person gave her an unseen object as she went to leave with her new husband. I have no idea what the object is, but that is something to deal with on another day. Now on to Chapter Four.

Writing sessions today:

20″ – 509 words

30″ – 863 words

35″ – 707 words

Total writing time: 375* 680 minutes (6 hours 15 minutes)

Total word count: 8488 words

*Corrected since the Muse insisted on the wrong number to begin with. I really wish she’d focus more on the story.

Day 3.5

Inputted the writing I did on Day 3 (about half of it was in longhand), and did some searching for potential actors to fulfill key roles in the novel. It’s harder than you would think to find actors that fit the age, physical description, and demeanor that you imagine for your characters. Tom Selleck would be a fantastic Captain Nathaniel Wright (tall, dark, handsome, can be stern and cheeky), if he were younger. And alas 1980’s Magnum PI isn’t quite the right personality needed (drat!).

Day 4

Back into the saddle after taking the weekend off. Wrote 2229 words today, finishing chapter 2 and starting chapter 3. I had in mind a rough idea for the Captain’s (i.e. fiance’s) best friend (Phineas, aka Phin), but was surprised at how he just showed up in the scene and started taking over (his joviality is a fun contrast to the fiance’s reserve). Got our characters from the ball to the church, with Maddy walking down the aisle despite serious misgivings. I left her at the altar (that doesn’t sound quite right), and will pick up with her there tomorrow.

Writing sessions today:

15″ – 333 words

20″ – 521 words

10″ – 244 words

20″ – 510 words

30″ – 631 words

Total writing time: 295 minutes (4 hours 55 minutes)

Total word count: 6409 words

Making progress: 2015 words written over five sessions and in four different locations*. Never let it be said that flexibility is not key.

The story is continuing to move forward, though slower than I had envisioned, but that may be a good thing. My goal was to get Maddy to the ball and have her meet her fiance for the first time. Well, I got Maddy to the ball, but then a new character arrived (that I had not even imagined) to throw some metaphorical fireworks, and only at the end of the writing day did the fiance show up—at a most inopportune time, of course! Writing the excitable and artless mother, and her daughters’ reactions, is a lot of fun.

Three things are helping me write this novel:

1. A goal for each scene (e.g. “Maddy gets to the ball and meets her fiance for the first time”). This provides some direction, but leaves a lotof latitude for new ideas (and characters!) to crop up.
2. A word count goal for each session (e.g. “500 words in 20 minutes” and “2000 words for the day”). Having a number to work towards helps provide motivation (“just 125 more words!”). I thought I had reached 2000, then discovered I was 125 short, so I went back to the last paragraph I had written and continued writing from there. Ended up with 140 words.  <happy dance>
3. Writemonkey. Oh, Writemonkey, I don’t know what I would do without you. Your progress bar at the top of the screen showing me how many words I’ve written (without saying the precise number, you sassy thing) combined with the blinking cursor to show how much time remains, make writing a joy.

Writing sessions today:

20″ – 512 words

20″ – 563 words

15″ – 110 words

35″ – 650 words

10″ – 180 words

Total time writing: 200 minutes (3 hours 20 minutes)

Total word count: 4180 words

 

*I’m reminded of Dr. Seuss: Would you, could you, on a train? Would you, could you, on a plane (well, a bus)? The answer is YES!

Had a good day. Finished chapter one over the course of four writing sessions (15-35 minutes each). I was surprised by how the plot has already turned from the vague idea/plan I had (from Madalene coming out swinging at the intended groom to looking at the marriage as an opportunity to achieve her dream), and that there are three sisters (I was thinking there were five, but this could change again).

There are some things to go back and add (more/better clothing descriptions since the clothing will help with having Madalene doing something while arguing with her mother and show her interests, and have Madalene know about the ball but just finding out that her intended will be there), but the foundation is set.

Off to a decent start. Can’t wait to find out how Maddy and the groom interact!

Writing sessions today:

15″ – 253 words

15″ – 318 words

20″ – 444 words

35″ – 797 words

Total time writing: 100 minutes

Total word count: 2165 words

 

Day 0:

The idea for this novel started from:

• I’ve been wanting to write a steampunk novel for awhile (2 years?).
• I had an image of a young woman in goggles and grease, grinning.
• A Random Title Generator came up with “The Vacant Ships”.
• The current Plotto contest through Tin House Publishing had a prompt: “{A}, proceeding about his business and caught in a crowd, is confronted suddenly by a strange person, {BX}, who thrusts a mysterious object, {X}, into his hand and, without a word, disappears.”
• Then I had a thought: What if Jane Austen met Steampunk?

What followed was some light research (aka Wikipedia) into Regency and Victorian eras, steampunk, and Pride and Prejudice (one of my favorite novels). So combining those, the idea turned into: a young woman is faced with an arranged marriage (due to family financial difficulties) to a dashing captain (with whom she doesn’t get along), when what she really wants to do is to fly with the air corps (she likes getting greasy). All of this wrapped in an adventure/mystery/romance package of Steampunky goodness.

Yeah, not a lot of details—no names, no character backgrounds, no charts, no family histories, no worldbuilding. Just a very rough idea.

Day 1:

After much procrastination (setting up Nanowrimo account, writing thoughts and worries into a journal, writing blog post announcing the start of all this, researching Regency era names, getting more tea), I sat down and wrote 353 words in fifteen minutes about Madalene Swinhope and her confrontation with her mother about being married off without her having any say in the matter.

It took awhile to get started because starting is the hardest part when you have nothing already written to work from. Where do I begin? What is happening? Where is it happening? What action are the characters taking? Is the language too stilted or just about right for Regency-ish writing? How do I convey Madalene’s outrage and frustration? Wait, what exactly is Madalene’s personality? Is she the oldest sister? If not, who is? What is that person like? Does that person enter in this scene? What are the characters’ points of view (i.e. what is their reasoning for their opinions)? When should I introduce the nominal groom? How close is this/should this be to Pride and Prejudice?

Letting the mind play with ideas like a child plays with a blocks (puts some together, then rearranges them or knocks them down to start over) is great—it invites the Muse to visit. Getting caught up in the mechanics of writing (how to portray something, fussing about language) is not so great—it allows the Editor to muck about and shove Muse to the side because These Things Are Important, which results in no new words getting written. We wants the words!

Overall, while I didn’t get the goal of 1,667 words written, I am off to a decent start (you have to start somewhere).

Total time writing: 15 minutes

Total word count: 353 words

 

 

Welcome to November, aka National Novel Writing Month (aka Nanowrimo—”na-no-RYE-mo”). The goal: over the next 30 days to write a 50,000 word novel from scratch.

Yup, from absolutely nothin’.

While I’ve completed six novels courtesy of Nanowrimo, this year I’ll be blogging it as I write. Naked writing/blogging, if you will. Why? To create a record of the experience that isn’t just a spreadsheet, and to show that writing a novel in 30 days is not that hard and doesn’t have to take up all of one’s life.

A novel will be a change for me because lately I’ve been writing short stories and the occasional novella (which was supposed to be a short story and, um, went longer). The last novel I wrote was during Nanowrimo 2014, and I spent 20 writing days on that from start to finish, and the only drama was in the story itself. With any luck, this year will be similar.

Follow along with me (“andipedia”), and join in the Nano fun!