The Truth About My NaNoWriMo Manuscript

I’m a little more than halfway through the first draft of my new manuscript, Shifter, which I’m writing as part of NaNoWriMo‘s writing month on steroids. The first 30,000 words were easy. I had a lot of ideas, I had some great characters to find and explore, I had a lot of back story to investigate. In two hours every morning I would scribble down a lot of words. I also knew most of the plot, so I was able to push the characters forward while still putting brick walls in their faces.

However…. the truth about what I’m writing is that I would not call it a manuscript. I would call it a stack of plot points, character studies and back story loosely tied together in a hap hazard fashion that depended on the mood I was in on the morning I wrote. In other words, it’s a big pile of s….

And, by that I mean: scenarios. “What would happen if she was like this?” “What about if her best friend was a dude?” “What if her love interest had a girlfriend?”

Then, night before last, I realized I needed to talk it out with someone. So, of course, I called Mike. Because I knew where the story was and I knew where it was going. But I kept having this nagging doubt that I had enough for another 20,000 words forward. I also felt that there were some big holes in the first 30,000 words. For example, Where are the bad guys? What is the urgency?

Then there was my other big nagging doubt… Are the stakes high enough? Because, of course, I’m a BIG STAKES kinda girl. I mean, THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT IS GOING TO END IF…. At least, that is what Bravyn is based on. But, Shifter is a smaller story. It’s not about the whole world falling apart, it’s about Shae’s world falling apart. And, it falls apart because her boyfriend, the love of her life, disappears.

Mike assured me that those were high enough stakes. Go figure.

So, after what amounted to a thirty minute phone call I had much more clarity on my novel. Thanks, Mike.

I spent my Saturday writing time not adding word count but actually outlining the story in broad sequence sweeps. I’m not going to spend the time right now to put my scenarios into the sequences, but at least now it’s really easy to see mentally where the holes are and what parts I have to build up.

Today, the 2,400 words I’m writing are not pushing through to the end, they’re actually going back to the first Act and building up the love story.

One thing I’m really learning through NaNoWriMo is what works for me in terms of writing process. I’m very much a novice novelist. This is my third manuscript. So, I still have to figure out thing like do I outline or write first? If I don’t outline first, when do I outline? If I don’t write first, how do I outline? With all three of my manuscripts I have tried slightly different tactics. The first two, these different tactics took me years to move through. With NaNoWriMo, I get the opportunity to push through the first draft in three weeks. What I’m getting from my NaNoWriMo manuscript is not just a new first draft, but more clarity about my individual creative process.

Advertisement