I'm totally screwed! almost 7 k words in and I have been slapped in the face with the realization that I am telling my story from the wrong character's POV. my narrator is too passive, and she will only learn the dark secrets by my other major character TELLING her. Yikes, talk about a rookie mistake!
So now my choice is, keep going with the fist protagonist, and get to 50k (and hope for the best) or scrap it all and start from scratch, which, by the way, would be very difficult because, while i know his story, I don't have a clue how to get there right now.
The third possibility would be to keep the 7000 words I've already written but change POV's from here on in, but that seems to make the word count more important than the story.....
Any comments?
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52,262 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 03 12
My two cents worth: continue onward! It sounds like you know whose POV you need to write in, so I say continue on in your new character's POV. You can go back and "edit" your first 7k AFTER NaNoWriMo's over. Don't break this incredible rhythm that you've got going. Wow! 7K words!!
And I see this as incredibly exciting. Nope, this is in no way making word count more important. I see it as continuing on with the writing process. At least for me, it takes some exploration (i.e., getting stuff down on paper) before I know exactly sure what direction, what point of view, what plot line, etc. I need to take. I think it's great that you figured this out in your first 7K words!
Onward ..... :-)
p.s. - the opposite of progress, is ... uh, I guess ... retrogress?
51,945 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 04 51
I.never delete anything until the first draft is completed, not even when I'm convinced it is complete garbage. I do this the rest of the year too. Writing a first draft is finding out what works and what doesn't, but I've found that I can never be sure of that until I've got the whole story down. What if you discover that your passive character has something important to say after all?
----------2008: Lapis Lazuli (historical fiction) - WON! (57K)
2009: Vicit Vim Virtus (historical fiction) - WON! (51K)
49,864 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 06 53
Thank you both for your input. I decided at midnight to swing both ways! lol. I'm going to start all over while keeping what I have (which will become the last third of the novel, where she will indeed have something to say)
BTW, I would not have deleted, merely moved her to an outside file. I have lots of outside files of rejected dross!
;-)
Trying now to regain momentum.
Onward! Good luck!
255 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 00 39
You don't have to tell the story from just one point of view anyway! Make the switch to another POV if you want. You can go back and change it if you want. Or keep it, or throw it out, but do it after the word count.
----------Julia
46,118 / 50,000
Nov 18, 2009 - 21 50
The opposite of PRO is CON.
;-)
51,774 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2009 - 07 54
I can't resist. it's an old saw but:
If pro means for and con means against, how can we expect progress from Congress?
----------Oral tradition is like Chinese whispers, so what you end up with probably bears little resemblence to the original tale.
50,888 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2009 - 11 47
*chortles at pro and con gress*
Siouxxie...you wrote that on the 3rd of Nov...and look at you now!
A cool 40K plus!
i wonder what you decided to do...
Prue
----------49,864 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2009 - 13 59
Prue, I decided to move those 7000 words to the end of the book (thinking she'd be "Part 3") and start fresh. So 33000 of my words have zero to do with that character, who, I'm fairly certain will not even make an appearance in this story. Her role as catalyst for a tragedy might be asisgned to another character, or perhaps I just have to let the plot steer me in the right direction.
Once I changed focus, the story just came alive (and now I have to keep feeding it! arrrggghhhh!)
Thanks for asking!