Writing: NaNoWriMo 2022
And so it begins…
American Kingdom: Day 1 Notes
Daily notes: I began writing on the stroke of midnight. This has been the easy part. I knew what was going to happen, more or less. Just over 2,000 words, so I’m ahead of the game already.
That’s going to be tough to maintain. The rest of the novel is very broad brushstrokes and I only have the foggiest idea of how to fill in the gaps.
That’s okay. The characters will tell the story in their own way, aided by a bag of Story Cubes and some rules on storytelling.
This could go off the rails very quickly or it could make for a fabulous ride.
Right now I’m wondering what will happen once the busy couple realise that they are not alone. If I had any class at all, the duet would become a trio. I have an idea how this will play out but the rolling dice may send it another direction.
Now you can understand my nerves.
Molly
In hindsight: Day 8
I originally published this chapter — and all of the first week — as one long piece, just over two thousand words, plus the notes above.
On reviewing my stats, these chapters turn out to be long-ish reads, approaching ten minutes, and who reads something that long?
I’ve divided each chapter into scenes and made each one its own story, along with the associated navigational baggage.
As for the novel itself, so far I haven’t had to resort to the Story Cubes.
It’s reasonably consistent. I haven’t had to go back to already written material and jam in something that sets up material to come. Names may change. Molly is a good name because it’s kind of “spiky”. Ted is ok. Brian, Marion, and Francis are very flat and I may change them but they are supporting characters and I really shouldn’t highlight them too much.
As I speak, a week on, I didn’t keep up the pace. I had to slow down while I thought about the philosophy of the novel. I had a couple of sub-thousand days but I’m (almost) back up to speed, only three hundred words behind where I should be and if I crack 2000 words today, that’ll be good.
As I say, I haven’t had to drag the cubes out. The story is progressing well, hanging together and while each day is kind of a pantsy step into the unknown, I’ve got a reasonably good idea of where I’m heading.
My lantern may not show me the whole road but it shows me the next hundred yards and that’s good enough to get me to my destination, day by day.
Molly
Chapter 1:
The whole book (NaNoWriMo 2022 work in progress):