January writing updates!

Looking at my last blog post kinda makes me smile. Ahh if only all the days between January 5 and now had actually been "official" writing days....who knows how much extra text I could have written?

Just for funsies, let's go on a time-line of adventure for my novel.

January 5 - I actually did start writing again! Starting experimenting with my female protagonist and it was super fun. ALSO!!! I wish I reported it sooner, but I totally got my NaNo Winner's shirt in the mail!!! CHECK ME OUT :D

January 9 - After more research and watching other writing Youtube vids, I still decided to keep my one, original male protagonist. I am a novice writer, who am I kidding? TWO MC?? I somehow convinced myself I'm totally not talented enough to pull that off.

Later in the day, I printed out my novel outline (which I have been refining and adding two over the last 6 weeks). I was proud of it! And so, nervously, I gave it to my fiance to read. We had gone out to our regular restaurant and had a good 15 minutes before our food to come. He started to read and I sat there in silence, twiddling my thumbs.

After he was done, he looked up and smiled. He liked the story and thought the overall plot was excited. I felt a "but" coming on, but he didn't say anything. So I asked, "did you see any problems or have any questions about the story?" He wrinkled his eyebrows and admitted there were a couple things confusing him.

What he said had a profound impact on my story. In a way, I had built the culture in my world about women and men having specific roles in society. Within a world that was dying and the human population is dangerously low. My fiance said that everyone would be more concerned with survival and share an equal role, an equal job to do. That. made. so much. sense.

In an effort to make an "interesting fantasy world," I totally made a culture that was unbelievable and severely limited the possibilities of my storytelling. After his comments, I went back to world-building to fix those mistakes.

January 12 - My outline had been fixed, filled with new events and character reactions to fit the new culture I've created. Those changes paved the way, naturally, to having my two MCs have a role in each chapter. I actually hit two birds with one stone!

January...err...yesterday and today - Started a brand new scrivener project with my new outline and started fresh with writing. This time, instead of setting up the whole project at once, I'll make small goals for myself. First I will work on Chapters 1 -9 (Act 1). When that is complete, I'll set up the next act in Scrivener to continue. I thought that would be fun - it's like tricking myself into thinking the project is new somehow and growing, so I don't get bored with it.

Today I've almost finished my new Chapter one - it starts out introducing my female MC named "Shiri" and ends with a scene from my male MC Jason. Thus they will each have facetime in each chapter from this point forward!

It makes me realize that NaNoWriMo is an amazing kick in the butt to start writing, but unless you are a seasoned pro, it definitely takes a lot longer than one month (or a couple) to successfully write a first draft. And now, I'm perfectly happy to accept that I can take all the time I need. There's no real rush.