This is my first year nano, and my first novel.
My story is about a 17 year old who joins two of her brother's friends on a road trip. They kinda trick her into going and make her help them complete a mysterious list. Little does Eleanor (or the reader) know that the list is Charlie's bucket list, and she is number three (3. Teach someone how to smile) because she is a rather sad soul, and Charlie sees her as the perfect candidate.
Question number one: I am kind of a minimalist when I write, which is why I think I'm getting frustrated with myself. Towards the beginning I made an effort to write more detailed, and now I've kinda given up on it. I know it's inconsistent and I'll fix it when November ends, but should I write more detailed for the rest of nano? Or no? Or is it just a matter of style and 'owning it'?
Question number two: Would it be completely horrible if I varied my chapter styles? (I was somewhat inspired by a dare forum and...) I want to have a section of my novel completely written in notes to and from my three characters. They would be sitting in church and passing them without anything other than what they write. I also want to have another chapter completely in conversations they have on the phone with their families (only hearing what the three MC's say). How would I go about incorporating this into my novel without it being totally choppy? Do you think this could be done successfully?
I guess I'm just really unsure about everything, and hesitating to move forward. Thanks for reading, any advice is welcome and appreciated.
----------
17,044 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 09 03
I just have one thing to say - don't worry about it being choppy. Honestly, I'm all for writing whatever the fuck you want and if readers are open to what you have to say they won't care about nice, neat little transitions, as if your novel was a DBQ or something. >.>
My novel is completely "choppy" because that's what life is - choppy and scary and unpredictable. I mean, I have a fucking fairytale alternating with what the reader THINKS is real-life for my characters but is actually all a dream, and then I have other dreams interspersed within the "big" dream and...yeah. You get my point.
It's hectic, it's crazy, but it's beautiful for that. So I encourage you to honestly do whatever the fuck you want and whatever makes you happy because THAT is what the reader should respect.
----------40,569 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 09 59
I think that struggling against your own internal style will only make for frustration.
If you're a minimalist, then be a minimalist. Work on being the best minimalist you can. Make that work FOR you.
Minimialism can be great, because it leaves more to the reader's imagination. When it's done well, it makes the reader more actively engaged in the process of reading, specifically because you make them fill in the colors and shapes and details. The trick for you will be giving them enough of a framework in the minimal bits you do write that it's easy for the reader to fill the rest in.
As for question number two, this is NaNoWriMo. So what the hell, go for it. If you think that might work for the story, give it a try. The worst that can happen is that it doesn't work, you make yourself a note to fix it later, and you go back to writing the other way. And if that's the worst that can happen, then you should totally try it, because the best that can happen is that it might work really well and bring a lot of special life to the book.
I will say that there is a particular novel form called the "epistolatory novel" which is when a writer conveys the entire story through notes and letters from one character to another. Some people love these to death, others, not so much. The trick with them, of course, is conveying necessary background information without resorting to massive infodumps. You might get around that by presenting your background information narratively in the chapters leading up to the epistolatory section, but on the other hand, readers might also find the switch in style to be very jarring.
Some suggestions: if you're going to use notes and such as part of the story, try to spread them out more evenly through the whole narrative, rather than collecting them all into one spot. For what it's worth, I've noticed a trend in modern novels to incorporate more non-narrative content, stuff that straddles the line between text and visuals. "King Dork" by Frank Portman (http://www.amazon.com/King-Dork-Frank-Portman/dp/0385734506/), which is 100% epic win through and through, and "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon (http://www.amazon.com/Curious-Incident-Dog-Night-Time/dp/1400032717), which is also an amazing book, both do this. However, both of them do so with some regularity, which makes the special bits feel like a normal part of the story rather than like a random extra thing the author stuck in for the hell of it.
----------Lapochka (YA emotional journey / travel adventure):
A young woman searches for her missing father through clues hidden in Soviet-era Russian comic books.
Also check out my writing blog at: http://www.plottopunctuation.com/blog/
24,005 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 10 56
thank you thank you thank you
:)