The best thing currently is that I have officially finished the middle part of my novel and started on the ending. It’s a fairly long ending with a lot of things happening, so it will be a while before I am completely finished, but still. It’s relatively simple compared to what I’ve just finished, if only because the actual ending is planned out in detail, and the last 12k has hardly been planned at all.

I’m really looking forward to being done with the story, not because I’ve disliked writing it (quite the opposite, in fact), but because I’m impatient by nature and can’t wait to start on my next story. It’s been sitting for one and a half years (it’s a rewrite of my NaNo novel from 2010) and I’ve finally figured out where I want to go with it. And then there’ll be the second draft of the novel I’m working on now.

Firstly, I have discovered that I have to give another character (let’s call him Bob) much more room. He’s not the main character, nor a minor one – he is important, but not a viewpoint character and not very relevant to the main character before later. The reasons:

1. There is something that the reader must learn fairly early in the story, to learn WHY it’s so important that they do what they do. But it’s also important to the story that the MC herself doesn’t know this information before very late in the story, or she would never have acted the way she does. However, the person who reveals this to her knows Bob, and he can do this just because he has gained some level of trust with Bob. It would therefore make sense for Bob to learn about this much earlier, and it would explain a lot of his actions in the first half of the story. Making Bob a viewpoint character, showing the reader that he learns this, would solve the issue very easily, and would most likely make the reader care more about a certain later part of the story. I think.

2. The main conflict in the book, besides the one between Bob and MC, is much more important to Bob than to MC, who is mostly dragged backwards into it despite her wishes and best efforts. You don’t deny Bob a lot in this world, at least you won’t live to reinforce it. The main twist affects him much more than MC, and it’s his reasons and goals that drive the conflict. He will not be the MC – that is a change I will not make, as it’s my current MC’s story – but the severity of it is best shown through his eyes. He is hit the hardest, he is the one with the strongest emotional investment in the conflict and its solution, and he is the one who knows even when the MC doesn’t. Some things can only be explained through him.

3. It is also important to me to show that even if he seems like a villain in the beginning, he is not really. He isn’t good, but not really bad either. He just has his own reasons for doing things, and they are actually for once very good in this case, and it’s important that the reader knows this if the last part of the story should make sense.

4. It would also make some explanations easier for me, as there are some scenes that are very tricky to write from the MC’s perspective that I can cut. Instead I can write earlier or later scenes that tells the same thing in another – and more natural – way.

5. I can describe my MC from another viewpoint, which isn’t all bad. It will actually be fun.

I am fairly sure where I will introduce his viewpoint properly, and I think it will help the story a great deal. Besides, he’s an awesome character despite – or perhaps because – everything. Like himself.

But that’s for the second draft. I’ll finish the story as it is, then change what needs to be changed in the next round. There are quite a few things to remove, and even more things to add, like a new and very annoying character. Normally I’m a bit cautious about adding too many things to a story, but on the other hand, I feel a story has to have a certain level of complexity. This is after all the first story where I’ve had enough to build on to actually add things… Anyway the second draft is into the future. I’ll have to finish the first draft first, and then I’ll take a break and plot another story from two years back, a story for which I’ve finally found the real conflict and the real story, if you will. It sometimes take a while to find it.

That, and I’m a stat-junkie. I just love seeing the “words left” statistics grow smaller and smaller, and the progress bar… progress.

So now I have found the trusty NaNoWriMo Report Card (originally for 2011, but still) and have decided to start using it again. (On a side note, I really wish nanolyser.org worked outside NaNo) From now and a month onwards I’ll treat it as if NaNo was happening right now, and write at least 1667 words each day. Sort of a NaNoFiMo, I guess, only the wrong month? The goal is to finish my novel before 13th of May. Of course the remainder of my novel might be quite a bit more than 50k, but in that case… I’ll just have to write like crazy. That damn novel WILL be finished.

Would you like to join me? Yay or Nay?

I have only had it for two days, and already it’s mutating. One of the characters suddenly changed his entire backstory, so now he’s degraded from imperial general and sorcerer to the apprentice of an imperial general and sorcerer. And during 747 words he’s completely hijacked this part of the plot. The family they have to visit turns out to be his family, for starters, and he has become central to what happens after the grand finale of book 1. These last events tie into an idea I had for book 2 or 3, an idea I didn’t think I’d write at all – not because it’s not good, but because it didn’t quite fit. “Didn’t” is the key phrase here.

The most surprising thing is that among a group of really sinister, serious and dark characters, he’s turned out to be extremely chatty, open and funny. Not sinister in the least, and very likeable. I should think that was an immediate disqualifier for the job he’s meant for, but apparently not. I can imagine that he drives M crazy.

Aaaand you know that you have created a somewhat believeable character when you start referring to them as though they actually exist. And when you can’t help but keep writing even if it’s 1 a.m. and you have work tomorrow.

Best thing is that it answers a great deal of plot questions too, so there are less loose threads. So far – the changes might create quite a few more, after all…

Or so I thought.

I now realised that a little, unobtrusive paragraph in my outline file has to cover months. That’s what you get for creating a huge empire, I guess, but I had focused so much on what came after those months that I didn’t even think of it.

Actually it’s not even a paragraph on its own, now that I have taken a closer look at the document. One paragraph is explaining who has to travel from where and why group A actually joins them. The next paragraph is about what happens once they all have reached their destination.

In between there are months of travel. Normally I’d skip it, since travel passages mostly feel like fillers unless something actually happens. The problem is that quite a lot will actually happen. I just haven’t outlined it, since I already know it all.

Here there will be character/letter confusion: Characters B and C will have to learn to deal with each other, and character B must learn something to be able to do what s/he will have to do. Group A and D will have to come to terms with being within shouting distance of each other (or spear-throwing distance), and character E will just have to try to survive in the meantime, and some more. Character F is going to realise that having an X that is Y is not all he thought it would be, and character G will have his hands full keeping character H and B from murdering each other. In addition there is a very annoying person I that they cannot get rid of and who creates problems for them. Character J has his hands full where they are travelling from, and quickly finds out that his job was not a very easy and relaxing one. And then there’s a meeting with family K that I haven’t written into the plot yet, a meeting that must happen for them all to realise why doing Z is so important.

All that in the zero words between two paragraphs. Yeah, I don’t think I’m anywhere close to that climax yet, though I AM significantly closer to the 200k.

Want to know what the worst/best part is? That the second draft will be longer. There are quite a few incidents that will have to be added later, because I changed the plot or added to it afterwards, among them an entire character that turned out to be not so minor as I thought s/he would be. And then there’s all those “write this later” notes that I keep writing into the story when I can’t resolve a problem or can’t be bothered to write a passage right there and then.

I am nearing the end of my current story. It’s not to say that I’m near the end of the end – the end is long and extensive, and there’s at least 20k more to write. At least 20k, but quite possibly a great deal more. My ending is rather… complex. And with the start of the ending, or rather what will make sure that the ending can actually happen. When character A has agreed to do B, of course. And when those other incidents have happened.

But. The biggest breakthrough is for my other novel. My NaNo-novel from 2010 (or rather one of them). I have found the plot, the premise and I think it will actually work. At least my mind can’t really get away from it. I have filled a notebook page with ideas, and during Easter I will make a mind map for the plot while finishing my current story. I like to let the plot sit for a while. It’s kind of like food, where it will eventually get new flavours from the other stuff in the pan. But I think that I have found a good base for the plot now, where conflict will happen naturally, and not feel forced. Not that forced anyway.

Anyway. Back to writing. How are your stories coming along?

And I still like my story. Somehow it feels like something is lacking, strange as it may sound. You constantly hear about how authors usually start loathing their stories around the halfway point, and how everyone goes through a period of self-doubt. I haven’t had that yet for this story.

On a blog-related note you’ll now find some Amazon links in the right sidebar, containing my favourite writing books. I was reluctant to add any sort of advertisements to my blogs, even though money are tight nowadays, but this is the only ad you’ll ever find here. Nonetheless, I’d be very happy if you click on those links and check them out!

How’s your writings going? Are you plagued by the Halfway Crisis?

Cicilie was here today, and we had a little write-in. I think we can safely say that a write-in with only the two of us is not a good idea. We get caught up in very interesting conversation, and there’s nobody present to butt in and tell us to write.

However, we did a damn good job at writing anyway. We had word wars via write or die (the kind where you connect with each other via the Internet and see the other person’s word count next to yours) and they were super-effective. I think we both set a new records in our writing speed today – for the last one I had 1179 words in 10 minutes, and she had nearly as much. In total I’ve written 3147 words, my characters have mentioned some background information and managed not to get captured, I managed to mostly follow the plot, and I really don’t think I’m anywhere near the end yet.

I estimated that the story would end at around 150k. There is just no way at all I’ll manage to wrap things up in just 16k more. I won’t get too optimistic, but with everything that needs to happen I think I am looking at somewhere around 200k. (Not that it’s a problem, in case anyone wondered!) Now I’m off to write some more, and then I’ll see if I have my copy of Campaign Cartographer still on the old computer (since I’ve lost my serial) and make some maps. Maps are awesome.

Edit: Just found my serial codes. It helps checking the computer search results after it’s completely finished, not right before. I can haz mapmaking software? Yay! (I thought I had escaped my family’s strange and illogical fascination for maps, but evidently not…)

Edit 2, more good things: Apparently nothing is like waiting for a download if you want to get some writing done. Not only did I find the serials for my mapmaking software, I figured out my login info (logging on with the wrong e-mail address generally doesn’t help) and downloaded a version of one part of the software that will actually install on Windows 7, I wrote approximately 4k. My final wordcount for the day is 138k, which means that I have written more than 7k today. Never would have expected that much!

These last two days I have plotted and plotted and plotted, and finally I think I have something I’m satisfied with. It’s not too easy, not too hard, and not too nice with any of the characters. I think most characters’ actions are sufficiently motivated, things follow a logical progression, and the solution to the entire story isn’t too simple. The whole thing ended up at 6 handwritten A4 pages, which is… quite a bit considering that it isn’t too detailed, and only contains what should be the last 30% of the book. We’ll see how that ends up…

The new plot, three double-sided pages.

With the 12k that I wrote last weekend I am quite happy with my progress. Just take a look at this (you may have to click it to get it large enough to read):

Pretty happy about the word count and the page count!

The strange thing is that the fantasy novel that this is sounds more and more like a crime or mystery novel, if you look at the text that is visible behind the Scrivener statistics. Breakthrough? Soon my MC will start calling herself a detective I guess…

It turned out to be a very, very good day, writing-wise. I got 12k. 12k! It’s incredible, especially since it’s not NaNoWriMo. During NaNo it’s easier to have these long, effective writing days just because you’re so into the writing. Nowadays I write so little that I need some time just to get back into it.

Couple that with great people with whom you have a lot to talk about, and it didn’t really look like I would get that much done. I have only written more in one day once before, I think, and that was either 13k or 15k (I can’t remember which, but I remember that it was an odd number).

I’ve also started to realise that this novel will be looooong. 12k and I’ve barely gotten further than where I was when I started today. They have gone and talked to a farmer, learnt a small piece of information, gone back to the city, asked around a bit and learnt a crucial piece of information from another character who came back to the city and finally got the guts to talk. Now I have to figure out where to go next, because I have changed some important aspects of the plot and did not really know where to go before I wrote what I have written today. Some things you have to write out before you can write further. At least for me.

Tonight I’ll sleep well. Not only have I written much more than I thought I would, but my apartment is also clean for once. Tomorrow I’ll help my brother paint the office, and then it’s a trip to the movie theatre with L in the evening. In other words a good day. Perhaps I’ll even finish the plot!