52,660 and counting…
After posting this, I’ll be heading directly back to my Novel-in-Progress, Sandbar’s Secret, to pound out another 1200-or so words, as the days which remain for NaNoWriMo 2013 go fleetingly.
It has been an interesting November so far, and I’m eagerly anticipating the months ahead when I can actually return to the story and fix the many “holes” in the plot, develop strong conflicts, and sort out the roles for each of the characters.
As of this writing, it’s been a pretty simple matter to pile up enough words to surpass the 50,000 NaNoWriMo target. But the story is far from finished!
In many of the posts and pep “talks” I’ve enjoyed reading these past few weeks, there has been a common theme that, as we write, we should turn off our “inner editor” and not concern ourselves with re-writes and revisions—just write! Harvest those words and get them stored away!
And then there is usually something that happens after this harvesting: We discover better ways to develop our plot, our characters, and our conflicts. This has been the case for me this time around as I began with an idea for the major plot of the story to be one thing, and one of the main characters as the shady one, perceived to be a villain.
As the words have hit the MacBook’s screen, though, the “big” plot idea has changed greatly, and that vile, pushy bad guy has turned out to be pretty cool and on the main character’s side in trying to solve the “big” mystery that is the whole point of the story.
The point here? My idea for this story has been lurking around for many years, and I’ve always known the event around which the story is centered would be a certain way, at a certain place in time. It has taken only a couple of weeks, however, for much of that to change—mainly because of the concentrated writing during NaNoWriMo.
Having already reached my goal of over 50,000 words, I feel as though I’m only getting started in the business of getting this novel off the ground. As the word count continues to grow, so will everything else about Sandbar’s Secret….CortlandWriter
Related articles
- NaNoWriMo 2013 Warmup (nicecuppatae.com)
- NaNoWriMo Whato? (mariemeyerbooks.wordpress.com)
Down Many Roads... 
Congratulations on meeting the NaNo challenge. Now the fun begins!
Thanks, Jill. You’re right about the fun part, although I’ve had a lot of it already, watching the words pile up. Now, to make something good with all of them… 🙂
Congrats, Mark. Way to kick NaNo’s butt 🙂 Sounds like your well into getting your next novel completed!
Thanks, Dave! As I said, “Sandbar’s Secret” has a long way to go in terms of “fixes” and a good, satisfactory conclusion, but at least I will have a lot of stuff with which to work in the weeks and months ahead. 🙂
And that’s the important part, and one of the great things about NaNo if you can get yourself into it. Gives you lots of raw material to play with later. Should keep you busy 🙂