I’m trying to leave a lot of potential to take these one-shot characters and give them names, personalities, real lives, etc. For NaNoWriMo, I’m just trying to get as many individual dreams written as I can for the first arc of the story. I can sort through rubbish and polish the jewels after November.
So far, I don’t seem to be becoming too familiar with these characters written into a story. For one, they don’t act enough their age. That isn’t as important for the first draft. What’s important is to set a beginning, a middle, and an end, and then I can spend all the time I want working on them. Once I finish the story, I should have an idea of how to clean up the first arc, then that will help me fix up the second arc, and the third arc should be relatively easy to get situated from there. (Wishful thinking?)
NaNoWriMo Goals
Another 2,576 words have been written. This is my daily weekday goal, and I met it in one of my two writing sessions today! How about that? That puts today at 4,478 words, and my total is now 7,484 words. My NaNoWriMo progress bar pronounces that as “fifteen percent”, and that sounds mighty fine to my ears.
Other Writings
The chapters I’m writing are short. I know it. That’s what I’m going for right now. I decided to check and see what lengths I hit with some of my other stories, keeping in mind that not a single one has a “complete” chapter written for it.
A fantasy series I’m working on has unfinished chapters ranging from 110 words (just basic ideas) to 3500 words (with six chapters/ideas being over 1,000, and a lot within 350 words).
A story I’m working on which started out in a Pokemon-based world, which has since become an independent, unrelated story, has twelve unfinished chapters ranging from 621 words to 8,220 words, with an average of just under 4,000 words per chapter. It totals over 46,500 words, and scene ideas (averaging about 700 words each) add more than another 7,400, giving a grand total of 53,900 words.
A different fantasy story has a handful of chapters averaging about 360 words each (mostly ideas and portions of scenes written down).
A fairy/pixie story is averaging 450 words per scene, being mostly random ideas put together.
A short story I started is looking at 650 words. That looks like so little now!
And, finally, a witch story I originally planned for a past NaNoWriMo averages at about 2,050 words per chapter, across 14 chapters (totalling over 28,000 words), and also has a few “ideas” files ranging from 400 to 1,600 words long.
So, one story I put a lot of effort into isn’t even at 30,000 words. Another is over 50,000 words, but far from complete. Others I’ve worked on off and on (and lost parts of due to viruses) and have nothing to show for. I have great ideas, and nothing comes from them.
And here I’ve probably not written more than a few worthwhile paragraphs of “Dream Clover”, and I’m already 15% of the way up to 50,000. Once I reach that 50,000, I’ll have a rock with a jewel inside, just waiting to be polished out. (By the way, Studio Ghibli’s animated movie, “Whisper of the Heart”, is heavily recommended for any writer who wants a little inspiration to simply write and not worry about quality in the first draft.)
This post here isn’t even 600 words. Tomorrow is another day to write!
