Sunday, November 7, 2010

NaNoWriMo 2010...Week 1

Well, folks. Here we are. The end of the first week of National Novel Writing Month 2010. So far, I've managed to keep on track. I've gotten into the habit of not allowing myself to go to bed until I have my daily quota--which has, unfortunately, resulted in some sleep deprivation throughout the week days. Ah, well...that is NaNo.

At this point in the month, I'm at the confusing love-hate, don't-really-know-where-this-is-going, I-feel-rambly juncture in my novel. I've discovered my main character thinks more than she talks, which is an interesting new challenge, because normally I feel like I'm heavy on the dialogue. I'm not at all surprised that one of my MC's siblings came out as the uncensored, mouthy personality within the first three sentences--it seems like all my MCs in all my various novels have at least one sibling with this type of personality.

My current challenge, story-wise, is that I've never written a novel that's split into different parts. I don't know how long I want each part to be. I feel like the first part is going to be too short, but at the same time, I'm worried the first part will be too rambly.

This afternoon, I plan to get ahead on my word count, so I don't have to stress about it so much in Week 2, which is a notoriously painful week for NaNo participants. I'm going to the Columbus region write-in at Panera today. A good three or four hours of focus will help me a lot.