It’s Day 25 of NaNo and something strange has happened. The first draft is on the page. No, it is not complete and ready for my beta readers yet, but I reached the end of the storyline right at 61,000 words. [Insert a happy dance here!]
I still have five days of NaNo left, but as I pointed out – I’m not finished. This is simply getting things down on the page and making it from point A to point B. And while much of it is written the way I’d like, there are many places that I will now need to go back and do some work. I can think of spots in the story where I knew what I wanted done, but was tired and didn’t say exactly what I wanted to say. Other times, I was racing ahead with the story, simply getting from here to there. Rather than lose the thought, I wrote something in shorthand and moved on.
An example of this would be when I was trying to get to a rather important emotional moment in the book. The image directly in front of that one is no less important than the coming scene; however, I had the other scene in my head and I needed to get it down before I lost it. What I wrote in haste, “Janice knew she was running out of steam, but kept moving.” What I really see in my head is, “Janice’s pace slowed as the exhaustion, loss of blood, and adrenalin drain, ate through the small reserves of strength she was operating on. She focused on placing one foot in front of the other, her eyes on the road ahead, knowing that if she stopped, she may not be able to start again.”
There are many bits like that one in the book that will require some attention. There are also more than a few spots where I wrote something like, “Mac knew she wouldn’t like that.” Now I have to say how or why Mac knew she wouldn’t like whatever the hell it was. Otherwise, it will sound as though Mac is omniscient. I will also have to look at all those big words and make sure I’ve used them correctly. Of course, I’ll have to look at all the little words while I’m at it. Sometimes, my fingers are so used to typing “know” that they go there even though I’m trying to say “knob.” The worst is not hitting the “t” in “the.” Spell check is fine with the word “he” even out of context.
Over the next five days, the manuscript will probably grow a little and I expect it will finish between 63,000 and 65,000 words. I’m find with that. [See – I wind up with find when I meant fine] When I finish, I’ll post the final chapter schedule so you can see how it came out compared to the original. I may also try to write a better description. I’m simply not good at those darn things.
Thanks for following along. I’ll keep you posted.
