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 23

Total Word Count: 37,025
Words Written Today: 2,731

Quote: "Are you crazy, Walker?”
            I shrugged again. “Maybe. Those are my terms. Do you agree?” - Dialogue between Charles and Eli, Chapter 11.


Writing this week has been kind of touch-and-go with Thanksgiving being in the middle of the week. I was starting to get really down about my book. It's really frustrating sometimes to just keep writing and writing and feeling like you have no idea what you're doing. And of course, it doesn't help that I like things to work out right the first time. I'm getting over that though. 

Today I went to the library from 3:30-6:00. I did some schoolwork and then started writing. Since I was short of ideas on how to move on, I started writing out what the Inciting Incident, Embracing Destiny, Black Moment and Showdown moments in my novel were. As I started writing all these, ideas for how to keep going came.

This morning I was sure that the only way to keep writing the novel was to end it. It really didn't seem like there was anything else I could do. Thankfully, that is not the case! I came up with a workable idea that should hopefully show some more conflict between the villain and the MC before I bring the story to a close.

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving! And if you went Black Friday shopping and are reading this, I'm glad you didn't get trampled and killed.

Chazak Amats!
Katie

NaNoWriMo - Day 20

Total word count: 32,913
Words written today: 2,895

Quote: "Investigation time. Again." - Eli Walker.

Today is my first day writing since Friday. It went pretty well, considering. I wasn't too far behind, so it was easy to catch up.

I've gotten to a point in my novel where I'm not really sure what's supposed to happen next. I know exactly where I need to end up, and even some events that happen immediately prior, but I'm not there yet. I think I'm probably more than 20,000 words away. That's exciting and kinda of depressing at the same time. It means this will be my longest novel yet, but it also means 20,000 more words. 

As usual, there are lots of things I'm seeing I'll need to go back and change, such as historical facts and what-not. 

This novel is my first time having a guy main character and it's not going as badly as I expected it to. Some of what he does probably isn't very realistic, but I think some of it is. I suppose we'll see what my awesome critiquers think.

I wrote out how one of the "travel mechanisms" in my book works today and I started coming up with ideas for more. Who knows? Maybe I can come up with something else involving mental travel. I think that would be pretty awesome.

At this point, only 9 days left. If I want to get to 50,000, I only have 17,000 more words to write. That's only 1,888 per day. Shouldn't be too bad.

Chazak Amats!
~Katie

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 6 (Any volunteers?)

Total word count: 14, 553

Words written today: 1,805

I said at the beginning of NaNo that I'd be honest in my posts. So, I'm going to be honest. I really don't like my story right now. I'm pretty sure I just rambled for an entire chapter, so I'll be taking that out when I edit. I really need to look at my story outline again and see if I can figure out what's going wrong.

So, I was wondering if anyone would like to volunteer to write my novel for me!

Just kidding. I probably should just suck it up and finish. I mean, I've got 24 more days left. I can survive...right?

The plan for tomorrow (or whenever I have the chance to write again) is this (and in no particular order):
-Read over my outline again to figure out what's wrong
-Eat chocolate and drink coffee for motivation
-Listen to epic music
-Pray about it

I know every author probably thinks this, but I really think that--if I do it right--this novel has potential. So, I'm probably being harder on myself than I should.

I'm just going to keep reminding myself that December is now officially 'National Novel Editing Month'. NaNoEdMo.

Until tomorrow!
~Katie

NaNoWriMo - Day 5

Total Word Count: 12,748

Words written today: 1,688

Today was a busy school day, so I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. At this point, I think Chapter 4 is a lot of quantity, but it doesn't have much quality. Because of that, I'm having a very hard time continuing with this, because I want it to be perfect the first go around. However, that's not realistic.

The good news it that I'm going to be getting to a (hopefully) more exciting part in the story soon. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Chazak,
Katie

(I apologize for a short post. I'm a bit...distracted. Post coming on that either tonight or tomorrow morning. So, stay tuned.)

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

NaNoWriMo - Day 2

Total word count: 6,009

Words written today: 2,758

2 days down, 28 to go! Today was awesome. I came to the library around 9:30, did a little bit of school and then got to some writing. I'm getting to more interesting part (at least, I think) in my story.

At 11, I went to my online Civil War class and we all talked about how expensive the war was.

I wrote pretty consistently this afternoon, with a break for some novel planning with a friend in between. I'm starting to get even more excited about this story than I was before.

Eli (Elijah) Walker, my main character.

 A word picture with the most commonly used words from my book (so far).

The pocketwatch Eli gets from Elijah Walker I.

In addition to my awesome writing, I found two books. One is a science fiction research guide for authors and the other is a Historical Fiction genre guide. I'm really looking forward to reading them. The funny thing is, I was sitting by the shelf they were on all day and didn't see them until about 1:45 PM.

Emily and I also had some interesting discussions about internet history and bodies falling from ceilings, trees, and the sky. The library workers probably think we're very strange now. Oh well.

Sadly, I have to take the SAT tomorrow morning, so that's going to cut into my writing time. Silly test. At least it won't take too horribly long to complete.

Auf Wiedersehen!
~Katie

NaNoWriMo - Day 1

Total Word count: 3, 251 words

Today was both a good and bad day. I can't exactly judge it against any others since this is only day 1, however.

Wouldn't this be an awesome place to write?

So the bad part. I figured out that I have absolutely no clue how to write a fist fight. Zero, zilch...yeah, you get the picture. The first chapter opens with my main character getting beat up by some other guys. However, I'm not sure if they did too much talking or too little talking. Or for that matter, too much "fist throwing" or too little "fist throwing". I guess that's what my guy critiquers are for (thank you!).

I'm also starting to wonder (yeah, starting to wonder. It's the first day.) if my beginning is exciting enough. In the past I've always had fight scenes to open something off, but this is a little less exciting, at least I think so. Whoops, Eli (that's my main character, in case you were wondering) said to tell you that getting beat up is plenty "exciting".

I think I should try to turn my inner editor off.

The good part about today is that I had 1,500 words done before lunch. If the rest of the month goes like this, the word count feature on the NaNoWriMo site says I should be done with my 50,000 by November 17. We'll see if I can keep it up. :P I did an hour long word war with Julia (thanks so much!) and got up to 2,878 words. After that, I wasn't exactly sure of what to do next, so I went into town to get some bobby pins and decaf coffee (Mom said I shouldn't have caffeine). I ran into another WriMoer at Walmart and we talked for a bit (she had to get coffee too, except she is allowed to have caffeine) before heading back home.

This evening I wrote 350-ish more words and finished the first chapter. It's got to be the longest chapter I've ever written.

Tomorrow is a writing day, so I'm planning to write Chapter 2 and 3, or at least, most of 3.

I'm off to do a bit more planning and maybe watch a few episodes of Robin Hood.

Until tomorrow!
Katie

NaNoWriMo -- Day 0

4 hours, 38 minutes.

I've spent the entire month of October building up to starting my novel tomorrow. To be honest, I'm starting to get a little nervous. If you're friends with me on Facebook, I'm sure you've seen my various posts about being excited. That is very true as well. I don't think my family will be letting me near any sugar this evening, for fear that I may start bouncing uncontrollably.

My goal for this month is to write at least 50,000 words. While looking at my novel however, I've been starting to think it's going to need to be longer, maybe 70,000 words. I've never written anything that long before, so I suppose we'll see how it goes.

I'll be posting some snippets (you can't have the entire thing yet!), as well as how it's been going and just general updates on my crazy endeavor.

If you're reading this and doing NaNoWriMo, please comment below with your blog link and I'll add it to the list.

I should probably go for now. I have some motivational dried fruit and coffee (oh, did I say I like coffee?) that need to buy. Until tomorrow!

Chazak Amats,
Katie

Other's doing NaNoWriMo:
A Writer's Corner in the World - HorseRidingWriter
Hybrid Student - Reagan Ramm
Inkyocelot - Marissa Norris
The Bookwyrm's Den - Nicolae Holley
Thought Doodle - Jared Vincent
A Novelist's Notebook - Sarah Millz

NaNoWriMo 2012--Civil War Historical Fiction

Hello everyone!

This week has been a little crazy, so that's why there has not been a description. I've been furiously working on finishing my outline for National Novel Writing Month (and it's finished!).

NaNoWriMo starts on November 1--next Thursday. During November, I will most likely be posting descriptions from my novel on my blog. Maybe I'll even post some entire scenes that I do.

Here is a (working) synopsis of my book. If any of you have title suggestions, please feel free to comment and let me know! I'm sure it will be better than what the current name is: CWHF (Civil War Historical Fiction).

Ever since their ancestor, Elijah Walker, fought in the Civil War, a taunt has followed the Walker males. “Walkers always walk away with other’s things and life.” In 2011, this taunt haunts 17 year old Eli Walker in the halls of his school. A feud has gone on between the Bishops and the Walker family since the war and Eli can’t figure out why. That is, until a reenactment when he gets mysteriously transported back to the war as his great-great-great-great grandfather. Eli experiences the war the exact way his ancestor did, receiving all the same wounds and meeting the same people. Then he wakes up in a hospital bed. Confused, he asks his wheel-chair bound father to explain what just happened. That’s when he figures out he has a gift—the gift of mental travel. Eli starts to research more about his grandfather and finds the reason the Bishop family hates the Walkers and there’s only one way to stop it—he has to go back and change his ancestor’s actions. As he goes between worlds, his energy quickly starts to wane. With his present family in danger, he has no time to spare. When he travels to the war or back to the present, an unknown amount of time passes. Will he be able to save his family from the murderous Bishops?

4:13:25:59 (Days, hours, minutes, seconds) until NaNoWriMo starts!

~Katie