I just finished writing what I think is my climactic scene. (I’ll wait till more work is done to be totally sure that’s what it is.)

1,257 words tonight. Not quite NaNo productivity, but pretty good– especially considering I (1st-draft) finished a key scene.

The whole scene about 2,400 words, so I put together more than half of it tonight.

I kept expecting Jay to sit up and scold me to bed, me being sick and all, but I was flying so fast I was thankful he didn’t

Then, just as I punched the word-count, Elisha woke up. So here I am, thinking God for the clarity I got to finally write this scene.

~

I’ve recently been so intimidated about how much I have to learn, and how enormous this particular project is, that it’s been hard to create— for weeks I’ve only been editing– and I really do have quite a bit of material I haven’t written yet.

(And, in case you read my last post and wonder, my climax is nothing like the movie’s– only the experience somehow fired me to take a crack at this, and I’m glad I did.)

Well, I’m hoping that my latest “organizing” work has functioned as time-saving rather than writing-avoidance.

Actually, I’m quite tickled. (There’s another word I wonder if anyone else uses.)

I’ve gone through my story, and while I haven’t outlined subplots or motivations (beyond a shadow), I have gotten from beginning to end.

As a result I now have four categories (and assignments) for my manuscript/writing-time:

• Started (Finish.)
• Finished (Edit.)
• Changed (Revise.)
• Need (Write.)

There are 6-15 “headlines” under each.

In everything I do, this has always been my challenge: finding the next-step. Looking at the mess that is my bedroom and saying, “What do I do now?”

I now have two pieces of paper hanging from the shelf next to my writing desk, one with all the headlines in order, and one with them grouped as writing prompts within their category.

I’m looking forward to my next noveling corner. :oD

I find that putting things on paper helps me focus my efforts. Chrisd, whom I met during NaNo has been nudging me to think more about my novel, and we’ve been exchanging plot points and revealing spoilers in an effort to create a pair of coherent narratives.

My initial plan for working with my NaNo novel, and, come to that, my original idea for the novel have all evolved to my current place which actually involves my first edit, even before the story is completely written down.

Three months ago I would have called this unwise, but today, as I told Chris, it seems merely practical. I’ve never worked with a 95-page (single-spaced!) manuscript before, and since I’ve already cut seven pages (written early in the month before my vision had evolved very far), I decided to learn now what is worth keeping.

The image I presented to Chris was that of wanting to unpack before I started buying things for my new house.

In this way I won’t waste time writing transitions or making elements fit that are no longer important.

Did I mention here my husband read the manuscript last weekend?

He gave me some good things to think about, like the need to add some description to slow things down a little.

I was hauling all through November and it reads that way, so now I need to marble my stake a little.

Though, to pull that meat analogy just a bit further, I’m not sure how much I will add. I’ve always preferred moose to beef– there seems to be less waste. Moose is much more accessible too. You just go to the freezer and pull as much as you want– zero mulling over whether one can afford good cuts of meat.

Okay, enough with the Alaskan metaphors.

My other organizing project is to re-frame an outline with my new vision of conflict etc. I think this will help with the editing project and staying focussed on where I want to go.

*This concludes my self-serving announcement. I now retun you to the regularly scheduled program of whatever else I feel like writing.*

My current problem with organizing my story is that I have two villains. And they are by no means equal. There is this hope, once the protagonist vanquishes the larger foe, that the lesser one will hold no more terror.

What is a Lizard compared with a stallion?

But this would then mean the terrifically poetic ending I have found for the lesser would be something like overkill.

~ ~ ~

I think there is a tendency in some genres to consider lesser foes as nothing, once larger obstacles (or evils) have been overcome… but this isn’t very true-to-life, is it?

Unless one was very confused or dishonest to begin with, a mere revelation or lucky streak at the climax isn’t going to remove previously insurmountable difficulties.

Writing is good for me. I’m beginning to know what to do with this.

~ ~ ~

(And on a side note, I may be posting less than in the last month or two– I’ve been doing nearly daily posts– as I knuckle down to ironing this project. I have a real opportunity coming up in September, and I think I’d be a poor steward if I didn’t do what I can to make the most of it.)

Just put me in Bloglines or something, if you’re afraid of wasting your time. I thought I was going to swear off blogging in November too– and it’s obvious that didn’t happen.

I let my NaNo sit all of December. I made my word count (50,000+) all right, but the exercise burnt me out a little and the whole story’s still not on paper. (For perspective, I’d like to add that most books today are 75,000-100,000, with some fantasy stretching to 200,000 words, according to people who seem to know more than me).

So here it’s January now, and my month off is over. I was just not in a hurry to open the Lindorm folder again. Don’t know why.

So I finally started by doing my favorite thing which was writing a new beginning/opener (beginnings are my favorite thing to write for some reason), and I got about three pages over the course of the (up and down) evening. Very exciting for me.

Then I went back and skimmed some of the stuff that I wrote in November. I was trying to remember how I’d pulled off the “romance” bits of the fairy tale, especially since I’ve not really been a romance reader. I laughed so hard. Probably embarrassed laughter. I could only barely imagine someone I know reading this.

Not because it was “That bad” (It was pretty good for a first draft, actually) I just loved having control over everything people said and did– and it cracked me up. Mostly the talking part. My characters probably talk way too much, but that would be because I find what they say entertaining.

And for now, at least, this experiment is for my own entertainment. It is fulfilling that function quite well.

Three pages at the beginning, allowing me to hint at what I knew what coming because I’d already written it– that was very cool. I’m loving this again.

The hard part now is to stick to filling in (and making interesting) the places I skipped during November, rather than re-reading and tweaking what I’ve already written. This story-stuff is such fun!