Well, here I go again... my eighth turn of the Nano wheel. Sorry, that's an inside joke for Buddhists (turn of the Dharma wheel.) I'll be combining those two endeavors this time. Spinning the wheel, praying for words. I call this project "Disparate Pieces", a mish-mash of some final work on the GodForce Guidebook, my Vision book and a health booklet. yeah, all are non-fiction. Wanna fight about it? I'm a proud Nano Rebel and I'll do as I please this cycle (every cycle, actually.) It's not too late to join: National Novel Writing Month or as I call mine -- National Write Whatever You Want Month (NWWYWM) ;)
3 comments:
Yes, EIGHT times. Even tho my Nano site profile says "almost seven years" that's a bug. The site has a boat-load of bugs this time. It's new software and one of the beta testers said it's a miracle we're up and running. There's quite a few things I don't like and my halo is still missing, she grumbles. JUST WRITE...
Here are the results from my EIGHT turns on the NaNo Wheel:
2004: my first cycle, I joined late and quickly became President of the 15 Day Cheetah Club. We all had WIP (works in progress). I wrote about 12K in 15 days and dumped in part of my AKS WIP to win with 50, 228...
2005: "the Delphi Technique", a new murder mystery. I was an honest Nanoer and wrote about 35K.
2006: Phantasmagoric! I have all this well documented in my Nano Journal -- we attended meetings, I wrote my daily WC. Ended with 50,828 WINNER!
2007: Began with a bang, Zona Rosan writer gals went to Taos and wrote up a storm, but I still fell short with only 32K that year.
2008: was AKS Redux 51,216
2009: "it's about time" 50,054
(published AKS in between 09 and next cycle.)
2010 was all new, my Warrior's Album with 50,404 WINNER
and this cycle, Disperate Pieces, was not intended for winning, just finishing up some WIPs: 33431 (a cosmic joke, if you can get it ;)
Finally, for those who find this, here's a GIFT! Some notes I wrote from Chris Baty and other revision books about what to do POST nano:
1) rest (you determine how long)
2) print your entire 50K words. NO editing yet, just print it "as is."
3) make a date to READ your nano writing (JUST read... all the way through once) still, NO editing.
3) Now, get a friendly edit pen (not red, maybe purple ;)
4) Read again... this time make notes, things you liked, things you hate (not grammar, or punctuation here.) The Goal is to clarify structure. In fact, now is the time to determine is it worth editing? Some nano writing may just be practice. Sometimes you may really like the concept and decide it's worth the many hours of editing it will require to turn it into something worth publishing (or keeping for yourself.)
5) Can you summarize each chapter into one or two sentences? What is the purpose of that chapter? If you don't have chapters, maybe now is the time to make them. which leads to...
6) MOVEable outline. This is where index cards are ideal. Put your summary sentences on individual index cards to you can move them around and decide what order makes most sense. This will lead to chapters and maybe cutting the cards (some chapters or parts may need to go.)
You can continue refining the structure and maybe write some new parts through February, but set a goal of having your structure in place by then. That way you can use Nano ED Mo (National Editing Month) for 50 hours of polishing your prose. With any luck, you might have something to be proud of by April (or maybe you'll just feel foolish ;) j/k Enjoy the process. the RE-Visioning and polishing can be the best part!
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