My Goal: To write between 200-600 words on my novella in progress Shroud Of Death on Tuesday nights.
What really happened? After announcing my goal change at the last check in, I added 241 words on Sunday night and added 206 words yesterday. I'm at a scary point, I currently have no idea how to move through the middle and during nanowrimo and various other projects in the past this is generally when I give up. Writing yesterday, I couldn't feel the story at all and can only see a thick impenetrable fog but little by little I'll keep poking it until it shifts. I can't leave another novella dead at the side of the road.
How you all doing?
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The Snake at Blind Frog Ranch
2 days ago
11 comments:
Don't give up! Keep poking away, I know you will be able to finish!
Congrats on your word count.
Shellie
I'm at a similar point. It got better once I deleted a very awkward and useless scene - hopefully you'll be able to power through this, too! I know you can! :D
I'm still working at "editing" my NaNoWriMo novel, which I "finished" in Round One. But I'm still avoiding the other WIP that I started last year in another challenge, and couldn't find an ending.
My plan was to start editing that one, at some point in this challenge, and hope that when I got to my "stopping point," I'd be able to wrap it up.
No worries...LOL
OK, that was really nice, I just typed up a nice comment for you and then I think I accidentally hit something and POOF...
Anyway.... to sum up the comment, I find that there are a couple ways to work through those nasty middles: 1) sit and muscle through them, like, tied yourself to the chair and just write and write, all the nasty yucky stuff you can think of, not caring if it stinks. At some point you will get through the tunnel to the end.
2) if you get stuck, just write the section that you know. Like, I find it helps me when I get stuck to go right to the end, and write that. then I back up and write whatever parts I know. Then it's a matter of connecting the dots. Sometimes it can be hard to make it work, but if you just force yourself to get through the yucky parts, you will. Once the parts are there, you can go back and organize them and often I find that it really is not as bad as it seemed when I was writing it.
Good luck!
Melanie
Thanks all, I think I've sussed out a way to knock out the rest of the 1st draft so I can start repairing it.
I hate when I hit that point. I try to sit down with a pen and paper and think where do I want the characters to end up and how do I get them there. Sometimes it even helps. ;)
I know how you feel - just tore out a whole whack of stuff from the middle of my novel and now I need to rewrite even stronger scenes. Er, where's the magic potion I can drink to wake up and find them already written?
Hmmm... Blogspot just ate my comment. Oh well. I would recommend you go to the nanowrimo site and read the past pep talks. That always inspires me. I like the one by Meg Cabot.
I've been where you've been...well actually, I'm still there. So all I can really do is cheer you on and tell you not to give up. I don't know if it gets easier, but I think it's worth it.
Nano puts us under so much pressure. The beauty of ROW80 is that you can change your goals and "keep poking at it" without feeling like you've failed if you don't do exactly what you think you should. I think you're doing fine and that fog will eventually lift. Just keep poking! :0)
I feel your pain... I still have my fantasy trilogy I worked on during TAFE that I abandoned because I couldn't see what happened next in the story. Like other commenters have said, sometimes the best thing to do is skip that bit for now and write a scene that you do know, and hopefully it will spike ideas for the tricky scenes :)
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