Oh, so as I go, so goes NaNo. I figured out the cause of the headaches I’ve had the last couple of days: coffee. More likely, the caffeine within the coffee. Stress + NaNo Novel + three thousand words a day = huge stress headache.
I said I’m having fun, right? Just checking.
I’ve also noticed something else with this novel in progress: having to check things, like your note, like a location in a city eight thousand kilometers away, is more time consuming than I could imagine. Last year was just write, write, write. I had terms for magic, and an idea for my Modern Stempunk Chicago. No big deal; just crank words.
This year, I have a real city. I have things that I need to look up. I have hotel rooms to check. I’m still adding a few notes here and there while writing.
Yeah, it keeps me busy.
This is the thing about setting up your story in a real location. You want to try and get things right. I think I have as much right in the story now as it’s ever going to get, and I’m noticing that there is now more writing than checking. Oh, sure, I know I’m going to have to get into my timeline at one point and recheck something before writing up one chapter, but that’s not going to happen for a week, or more, so I have time to crank out the words.
I had one curious moment last night. I was writing about how the city seemed to grow quiet around one character, and another who was speaking with them was thinking about how the first character came from a city that was much bigger than the one they were in. Well, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t talking out my posterior, because someone would fact check that information at some point in the future, and . . .
Oops. I was wrong. The home city of the character talking about how quiet things had become, it was smaller than the city she was investigating. Much smaller. Maybe by a third.
It’s little things of that nature that will kill you. Sure, I could have checked that in my edit, but I’m not like that. Also, there was the possibility that had I left that incorrect reference in, it would have snowballed had I used it again. And again. And another time . . .
You see the problem: try to get it as right the first time. Do the editing you need, but keep writing. Keep pushing forward.
That’s what I’m doing today. I’ve almost finished Part One of my NaNo Novel 2012, and getting three or four thousand word in today will likely do just that. I’m not quite at the same levels for production I had last year, but I’m doing well. I’m doing a few checks on word count versus the number of chapters in the novel, and I see that I’m coming up short on the count, but I know there are going to be a few chapters that are going to run long, and a couple that could hit eight thousand words each. Once those are in place, I won’t have to worry about making my counts–either for the NaNo Fifty Thousand, or getting the story over the sixty thousand I need.
Right now it’s quiet in the city. Give it time; that’s going to end. Oh, and I have the perfect music today: The Who–Thirty Years of Maximum R&B. The full box set, five hours of music.
That should keep me and my green demons busy for a while.
November 5, 2012 at 6:08 am
I usually allow myself a large coffee every other day but for NaNo I’m sticking to a one-a-day limit –
switch from light roast to dark roast – light has higher caffein content
November 5, 2012 at 7:57 am
I didn’t know light would have more caffeine. I normally drink dark, but I think stress is driving the blood pressure up as well.