Thoughts on Editing.

I started editing my NaNoWriMo novel, One Thirty-Six, on Sunday. It's been going well so far, but it's definitely a much more grueling process than writing. Tearing apart your own work multiple times can get not only boring, but also discouraging.

This evening, I rewrote one of the major turning points of my novel. Most of the reason is that it was too "nice", if you know what I mean. There wasn't enough conflict and it was much too clean. The scene takes place in a Civil War hospital tent and those weren't necessarily nice places to be. It was reeking, there were amputations and surgeries going on...not to mention the rising pile of amputated limbs outside. I went back through and made my character feel more shocked and confused at being in such a situation--after all, he's from the 21st century and thinks it's all a reenactment. Why wouldn't he be confused?

I'm trying to get this novel edited in time for a contest that I'd like to enter, but frankly, I'm not sure I'll be done in time. The deadline is exactly 13 day away and I'm only halfway through Chapter 3. I have 16 more to go and that's assuming I don't add anything.

Even if I don't get to enter the contest, I think it's good that I'm forcing myself to work on this. I have a deadline and I tend to function much better when I have a deadline or a goal I'm working towards. And, if nothing else, I'll have draft #2 of One Thirty-Six when I'm finished, instead of just my raw, rough draft.

Some quotes from today:
"I glanced at my rescuer. He has a beard. I want a beard." --Eli/Elijah Walker, Chapter 3

"I stumbled forward as best I could, dizzy and weak form the loss of blood. Black started to play at the edges of my vision. Someone in the background screamed “Retreat!” Oh, what a lawsuit they’re going to have. Black started to play at the edges of my vision and I drifted into nothingness."--Chapter 3

"     She stared at me, bewildered. “Eye-bee-pro-fin?” she sounded out the word. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never heard of that before.”

     My mouth dropped open in shock, but I quickly closed it again. “You don’t know what ibuprofen is?”

     “No, sir. I am sorry.”

     I’ve been shot and she insists keeping up this act? “Okay, knock the act off. Look, you’re doing a lovely job of keeping in character and everything, but this has gone too far. I want to go to a real hospital, I want real pain medicine that everyone knows about and I want everyone around here to stop acting!” my voice had risen to a shout at this point."--Eli and nurse dialogue, Chapter 3 (my personal favorite part)

NaNoWriMo - Day 16 (This is the month that never ends!)

Total Word Count: 30,018
Words written today: 5,006

I passed the 150 page/30,000 mark today!

Eli has mostly figured the important things out at this point. There isn't a lot of mystery now, but there are a few things that I'm planning to leave hanging until the end.

I need to get some conflict going in the next few scenes. Although I did just add another fist fight. I've really got to stop with these. I don't know why, but that just seems like the easiest way for the villain to be nasty. Kind of silly, when you think about it. I'll come up with something more interesting to do next time.

It's really encouraging to see how much I've grown in my skill as a writer since I last did NaNoWriMo. I'm now at the 30,018 point. I didn't reach this word count two years ago until the 26th. I'm hope 10 days from now, I'll be over the 50,000 mark.

I'm looking forward to the end of the month now. I'm really starting to get tired. Of course, it could be my lack of sleep working as well. Ah, forget sleep. I'll just write. I can do 14 more days of this.

~Katie

NaNoWriMo - Day 15 (Halfway done!)

Total word count: 25,102
Words written today: 2,280

Woo-hoo! Halfway done with the month!

However, I'm not halfway done with my novel. I'm getting close, but there is no way this story is going to end in 25,000 more words.

Eli finally starts figuring some important things out in the chapters I've written. This is moving the story along nicely, although I'm going to have to fix up some things with dialogue to make it flow better. I put in another fist fight, so I have to go back and make sure that's realistic.

I've also decided my story begins much too slowly. There is an exciting (or, it will be exciting after editing) scene in the beginning and then a couple more things, but I feel like I've just been "telling" for the past chapter . Some things do just need to be told I guess.

At the beginning of the month, I wasn't sure if I'd make it to the halfway point. I was pretty sure I'd be burnt out by now. Just the opposite though! Still going strong. I can do 15 more days of this. Hopefully that isn't my tiredness and slightly brain-dead self being over-confident.

~Katie

NaNoWriMo - Day 14

Total word count: 22,822 (I think it's cool how there is an 8 right in the middle...okay, maybe I'm a bit weird.)
Words written today: 2,007

I'll probably be writing more this evening, but since my posts have tended to be a little late, I thought I'd just play it safe and post now.

My story literally wrote itself today. I just word-warred with someone and did 2007 words in 45 minutes. We were both shocked after I counted them up. I was sort of dreading starting to write today, but as soon as I got into it, I had a hard time stopping.

So my writerly tip for today is to just start writing if you want to beat writer's block. I borrowed that from an article a good friend wrote for Kingdom Pen (which everyone should go subscribe to NOW if you're not already). It seems kind of obvious, but seriously, just sit down and start plunking out some words. It might not be the best thing you've ever written, but it gets the juices flowing.

I also decided today that no one will be reading this novel until I edit it. So, that will probably be Christmas time.

This guy looks like a character in my novel. Minus all of the science stuff.

My main character is going to start figuring out some of the mysteries I've planned, so the next chapters should be interesting. I also really want to add a sort of funny scene, but I don't have any idea how I'd do that yet. The character in the picture above and Eli would probably be the two who have the funniest interactions. Maybe something that has to do with...oh, I can't tell you that yet.

Chazak Amats!

~Katie

NaNoWriMo - Day 12

Total word count: 20,815
Words written yesterday: 3,815

Things are going well at the moment. My story has sort of started to write itself. I found something interesting to put into my novel the other evening during researching and I think that's helped out a lot.

I've also discovered I have the problem of forgetting to check my chapter lengths. I just keep writing and writing and before long, I have a 6,000 word chapter. So, I've had to go back and cut down on the length.

I have some exciting news as well. I (finally) reached 100 pages/20,000 words!!

~Katie

The Baltimore Plot

I was searching for the layout of Washington DC in 1861 this evening and I found something else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_Plot

"The Baltimore Plot was an alleged conspiracy in late February 1861 to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln en route to his inauguration. Allan Pinkerton, founder of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, played a key role by managing Lincoln's security throughout the journey. Though scholars debate where or not the threat was real, clearly Lincoln and his advisors believed that there was a threat and took actions to ensure his safe passage through Baltimore, Maryland."

I'm thinking of incorporating this into my novel. Perhaps having my main character and the ally figure out something about the plot and try to stop the person behind it. The ally might even be related to the evil conspirator...still need to think about that.

Needless to say, I'm getting WAY more energized about my novel.

If I had more energy, I would be dancing excitedly like this alligator.

~Katie

NaNoWriMo - Day 10

Total word count: 17,000

Words written yesterday: 3,000

This post is a bit late. I didn't have the time to write it up until now and my computer was dead. So, that made it a little tough.

As most of you probably know from my "Destination: Fairlawn" post, we were in the car all day yesterday. I managed to get 3,000 words written, mostly due to the fact that my sister and I managed to blow a fuse on the power adapter. Dad bought a new fuse today, so I should be able to write more tomorrow.

I started using my outline again and my book is going SO much better than the end of last week. I will not be straying from my outline ever, ever again...I hope. We'll have to see what the rest of the month brings.

Tomorrow my plan is to write AT LEAST 5,000 words. I'd like to get to 30,000 tomorrow, but that might be a little unrealistic. Although...it's a really long drive.

I'm not planning on writing today, but if I do, I'll try to blog about it.

Until tomorrow!
~Katie

NaNoWriMo - Day 7 (No, I didn't write today)

As the title says, I did not write today. I was a bad girl.

However, I DID go over my outline. I think I'm unstuck now! The two big planning things I have for this novel are a 1,500 word summary and then a list of the events that need to happen. I read over the list of events and figured out where I was stuck. Tomorrow (if I have a chance to write) should be a good day.

My writing tip for today: Outlines are useful things if you use them.

I thought this was funny. It pretty much described me yesterday. Except I was finished a riveting episode of Robin Hood. 

On a side note, I went to the library today and checked out quite a few books on the Civil War. I got one about the battle of Antietam, the First Battle of Bull Run, Civil War weapons, Soldier's lives in camp during the war and...I think there was something else. I can't remember the name of it though. :P

Chazak,
Katie

NaNoWriMo - Day 4

Total word count: 11,060

Words written today: 1,039

There's really nothing too exciting to report from today. I took it easy after writing 4,000 words yesterday. I was SO exhausted this afternoon that I was considering taking a break. But, then I decided I should just make myself do it, so I did.

Eli got out of the hospital today. He's on crutches and he's kind of grumpy. I guess that's to be expected when it's after midnight, you have a leg wound and the whole town is talking about how you were injured and passed out in front of a crowd. Not to mention you're confused about...well...not to mention you're confused.

I've gotten to what the OYAN curriculum refers to as the 'Middle Cycle' and honestly, I'm not looking forward to it all that much. The middles of my books before have always been boring for me to write and because of that, are probably boring to the reader. I've got some events planned to happen and I think (I hope) enough mystery to make it more interesting. I might have to add some action when I go back to edit.

I'm still ahead of schedule according to the NaNoWriMo site. It says that if I continue at this rate (so, approximately 2,800 a day) I'll be done with the 50,000 by November 18th.

My evil Inner Editor is starting to get really annoying. I'm such a perfectionist sometimes. Maybe I'll duct tape it's mouth shut. Yes, I think I'll go do that now.

~Katie

NaNoWriMo - Day 3

Total word count: 10,021

Words written today: 4,012

I passed the 10k mark today! Actually, I passed it about 5 minutes ago. I spent the entire evening writing and word warring with some good friends. Chapter 3 is the longest chapter now and my book is currently 50 pages long Microsoft Word.

Chapter 3 was a big chapter and very defining for the story as a whole. I laid out some of the mysteries that are going to be a big part of my novel. Oh, Eli also got wounded today. Yes, he's fine. He'll survive...most likely. 

I've not decided yet if I'll write tomorrow. I might be too tired. Then again...I'm having a hard time just letting this story sit on my laptop unwritten for a while. I took the SAT this morning and I'm pretty sure I came up with half the new ideas during the breaks.

Quote from the day:

(to give you a little bit of context, my MC got injured in the Civil War. He's talking to one of the nurses in this bit of dialogue).

"She stopped reading and looked up. “Yes, sir?” 

     “Do you have ibuprofen?”

     “Eye-bu-pro-fin?” she sounded out the word, bemused." --Nurse and Eli (MC), Chapter 3 of One Thirty-Six PM.

I almost forgot! Something else very exciting happened today! I came up with a working title. It's One Thirty-Six PM. Now, I'm not sure if I'll keep it, but at least I have something better than CWHF (yep, that stands for Civil War Historical Fiction. So creative.)

I'm thinking of getting some sleep now. Or maybe watching a movie. Ah well, doesn't matter.

Until tomorrow!

~Katie