The Final Countdown! - NaNo Update, Day 22

Word Count: 47,172
Page Count: 104
Plot Progression: Something wicked this way comes . . .

Wow. I've come a long way since the lethargy of my last update. A bit of plot tweaking, the unexpected early appearance of a secondary character, and an incident in the cellar that gave my narrator heart palpitations have really kicked the plot into a new gear.

I'm hoping to hit the Big 50 some time tomorrow, but I don't think I'll be abandoning the story as quickly as I supposed I would last week. New developments are coming in from all sides, and I'm starting to think the climax could be bigger and better (if slightly different) to anything I expected before.

The narrative style is starting to calm down nicely, and I've finally nudged my narrator into a position where the main part of the "chase" segment of the story can take place, as well as all the development and revelations that will result in for everyone else. For all the story's wonky, I'm very proud of these characters; they were more complex than many of my past ones before I even started, but just working with them has brought out whole new dynamics I never knew about before.

I seriously need to work on accents, though. I can't work out whose is whose. That, or they've all suddenly developed a huge talent for ventriloquism.

Never mind. I'll work it out once I'm done with the lynch mobs, large-scale conspiracies and my narrator trying to declassify the Art of Talking To People.

~ Charley R

Something Plotting This Way Comes . . . - NaNoWriMo Update, Day Eight

This NaNoWriMo is going far better than I expected it to. Well, in most respects.

Pages: 39
Wordcount: 18,155
Plot progression: A little slower than I expected, but elements are coming together more effectively and with greater promise than expected.

I'm aiming to hit 20,000 words before the weekend, preferably, but these past few days have been somewhat hectic with my Oxford English aptitude test, and my slightly panicky rush to send off my marked work to the university. Still, all that is done and behind me to my satisfaction, and thus I'm hoping some open space will allow me to plough on ahead before anything else creeps up on me.

The novel itself, I am fairly pleased with. My loose plot format is pulling together well, and many elements are coming together that I did not forsee, which hold plenty of promise for later stages of the book. 

My main issue thus far is coming from the narrative. I haven't written in first person for eons, and the journal format is creating confusion over dates and timings that I am having trouble keeping track of. My other weaknesses are showing, too. I've never been terribly strong on dialogue, but coupled with a weaker-than-is-preferable grip on the narrator's personality, some rather nasty inconsistencies are coming through. 

Upon finishing, I also intend to go back and ruthlessly hack at the early chapters. I'm sure my introductory passages could be a lot sleeker, and I could get into the beginning of the proper plot much faster than I have done. Other events will also need re-ordering, certainly, in lieu of this.

All in all, though, it's going well - as I write more, I'm hoping to get a better handle on my narrator, and solve some of the problems I mentioned earlier. I may tweak some aspects of his character later, for the sake of kicking the plot forward a bit, as his shy, introverted nature somewhat inhibits that at times, but overall I'm very pleased with him, and with most of my supporting characters, who have begun to enter the mix.

And, finally, I'm drawing up to the opening of the really exciting bit of the plot now. And thus far, it's looking bigger, better and messier than ever I dreamed it would.

Hold onto your hats, readers. It's gonna be a bumpy ride . . .

~ Charley R