As we all frantically wrap up our NANO's for this year I was wondering what about your story most surprised you this year?
There are always several surprises I believe in a nano as the sleepless hours spent writing catch up with us and plot twists emerge from exhaustion and or desperation, but what one shocked even you?
For me, it was that I was only going to write half of the story this year. I had planned from the beginning to have two major story lines and to pull them back together during the last 10k words. However one of them clearly required more thought than the other so my decision was to work on the easy one and then after some consideration work on the other. Suddenly as storyline one spirals out of control, it begins to take longer and longer to pull it back to where it can join the other one and around 30,000 words it became clear that I was not going to make it to the joining point until I was over 50,000 words.
As I do not have the time to write much more that 60 k in a month, this meant that the other story line, which is still so nebulous in my mind may have to wait until the next nano. A while year before I can go and find the main character again :(
I just wanted to share with the group and hear how other nanoers were going as we enter the frantic last few days!
Write on my novel writing brethren,
SJQR
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50,010 / 50,000
Nov 27, 2007 - 20 36
I am surprised by how many characters have shown up. I had planned on having only a small select group of 4 but new characters keep popping in. Not only that, they have all been interesting in their own right and have made a simple plot into something much better than I had hoped.
I'm also surprised by how many times I've written myself into a corner only to have my characters save me. I don't know what I would do without them, hehe.
50,577 / 50,000
Nov 27, 2007 - 21 29
Tracy,
I very much like your comment about your characters saving you.
I do find that when this starts I have some rather flat characters as I never plan the way I mean to but then in the madness of writing regardless of mood or motivation, they somehow begin to grow and become more real day by day.
I have just tonight learned more about 2 of my characters than I had in the first 40,000 words combined. It was wonderful!
It is this special magic that keeps me returning to reading or in November writing even knowing I have no time to do so.
Good luck finishing up!
SJQR