Having changed the genre of my novel in week 2, I was feeling much more optimistic about my novel than I had been in the beginning.
Visiting my sister in Birmingham was a great opportunity for me to indulge in writing and thinking about my novel all week. You have to understand, this was my idea of heaven and it seemed like a great idea, one that I have often dreamed of.
What actually happened was not quite the same as what I had pictured, well, lusted over morelike. But once I was there, writing no longer felt like a pleasure but chore. I thought up endless scenes in my mind for most of my days there but getting down to actually writing everything I had conjured up in my mind proved to be not so easy.
What was I missing? It was actually the simplest thing and I chided myself for not having seen it sooner.
Layers. I needed more layers, and not just for F but for the novel as a whole.
I imagined a tree and all of the different branches that come out of it. And from all of those there are other branches, and others.
So I drew one. An actual tree with branches and on each branch I wrote the name of each character and how they factored into F's life. It sounds pathetically simple and childish but it was the only tool I had to continue my novel. This way I had a larger vision of what I wanted my novel to be which in turn enabled me to visualise more clearly how the scenes I had thought up would fit into the novel.
The NaNoWriMo advisors suggest participants do not plan their novels but fingertips to computer keys (or pen to paper) and write whatever comes to mind with their novel. Whilst this is a good idea in theory, this did not work for me. Anyone who knows me knows that I plan everything.
I tried not to but I couldn't do it. What can I say? I'm a control freak when it comes to my writing and darn proud of it too!
Expected NaNo Word Count at end of Week 3: 35,000
My Word Count: 35,017
-Catch up on week 1 and week 2 of my NaNo experiences!
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