Longish update
Was originally going to post this as a reply to the previous post, but it's long.
Brought the wordcount up to 13,000 so far today, only fleshing out a chapter and half of the four summarized ones I wrote in longhand yesterday. At this rate I'll hit 50k on November 16, which *might* be realistic considering my longhand/typeout ratio, and the fact that I effectively didn't write anything on the second. The "outline in longhand, type on laptop" plan is working beautifully.
I found an Excel spreadsheet you can use to track words written, how much you need to write per day, and so on and so forth. Clicky: http://curious-device.net/misc/nanoblank.xls
I've found some interesting new music to write to. "Scala" is a Danish girl's choir that sings choral covers of U2, The Police, and Rammstein. Their version of "Engel" is evil and haunting in a way that an angry German dude just can't quite nail. They have a myspace where you can download their songs, but I'm too lazy to link to it here.
An issue of 'concern' to me is that I may very well hit 50k without actually being anywhere in the novel. I managed about 8k last year, and barely got a start. I'm definitely skimping on description and characterization in favor of plot and moving the action forward, but still feel like nothing has really happened yet. I've only gone on one or two historical infocram tangents, too. I've got the prologue (which is new, and centers on the detective character), two chapters of the veteran hero's POV, and a chapter and a half of the new hero's POV. Still setting the backstages, just getting into the meat of the plots.
This is semi-balanced by the firstly the fact that 50k is more of a novella than a novel, and secondly that I'm using "A Song of Ice and Fire" as one of my inspirations for scope and scale. According to electricstory.com, the first two books of that series combined are 500k, and "A Storm of Swords" is 360k. I'm wondering at what point in the first book the 50k mark is reached, just to give an idea of what it's all going to look like.
I'm just worried I'll hit 50k and lose momentum to keep going and finish it. I'm hoping inertia will have taken over by that point, however.
I re-watched Spider-man 2 today for inspiration and guidance. I admire how well the dialogue is written, how little of it is superfluous. All the dialogue either advances the plot or illustrates character. Most the dialogue I have right now, in contrast, is mindless nattering.
Of course, I'm not going to let myself worry about any, because it's going to be a horrible first draft that needs lots of rewriting and editing. I just hope it's a 'diamond in the rough' situation, rather than a 'silk purse of out of a sow's ear'.
And in unrelated news, a new Fry's is opening in Alpharetta. So they decided to have the same grand opening sale at the Gwinnett location. I got a 300 gig hard drive for only $70, and a blender for $7. The really weird thing is that there are only two Fry's on the east coast, and they're within 30 minutes of each other. I would've thought they would have put their second one a little further away to spread things out, but what do I know.
Brought the wordcount up to 13,000 so far today, only fleshing out a chapter and half of the four summarized ones I wrote in longhand yesterday. At this rate I'll hit 50k on November 16, which *might* be realistic considering my longhand/typeout ratio, and the fact that I effectively didn't write anything on the second. The "outline in longhand, type on laptop" plan is working beautifully.
I found an Excel spreadsheet you can use to track words written, how much you need to write per day, and so on and so forth. Clicky: http://curious-device.net/misc/nanoblank.xls
I've found some interesting new music to write to. "Scala" is a Danish girl's choir that sings choral covers of U2, The Police, and Rammstein. Their version of "Engel" is evil and haunting in a way that an angry German dude just can't quite nail. They have a myspace where you can download their songs, but I'm too lazy to link to it here.
An issue of 'concern' to me is that I may very well hit 50k without actually being anywhere in the novel. I managed about 8k last year, and barely got a start. I'm definitely skimping on description and characterization in favor of plot and moving the action forward, but still feel like nothing has really happened yet. I've only gone on one or two historical infocram tangents, too. I've got the prologue (which is new, and centers on the detective character), two chapters of the veteran hero's POV, and a chapter and a half of the new hero's POV. Still setting the backstages, just getting into the meat of the plots.
This is semi-balanced by the firstly the fact that 50k is more of a novella than a novel, and secondly that I'm using "A Song of Ice and Fire" as one of my inspirations for scope and scale. According to electricstory.com, the first two books of that series combined are 500k, and "A Storm of Swords" is 360k. I'm wondering at what point in the first book the 50k mark is reached, just to give an idea of what it's all going to look like.
I'm just worried I'll hit 50k and lose momentum to keep going and finish it. I'm hoping inertia will have taken over by that point, however.
I re-watched Spider-man 2 today for inspiration and guidance. I admire how well the dialogue is written, how little of it is superfluous. All the dialogue either advances the plot or illustrates character. Most the dialogue I have right now, in contrast, is mindless nattering.
Of course, I'm not going to let myself worry about any, because it's going to be a horrible first draft that needs lots of rewriting and editing. I just hope it's a 'diamond in the rough' situation, rather than a 'silk purse of out of a sow's ear'.
And in unrelated news, a new Fry's is opening in Alpharetta. So they decided to have the same grand opening sale at the Gwinnett location. I got a 300 gig hard drive for only $70, and a blender for $7. The really weird thing is that there are only two Fry's on the east coast, and they're within 30 minutes of each other. I would've thought they would have put their second one a little further away to spread things out, but what do I know.