The Glorious 50k

As you can see (check out my progress icon to the left) I have reached the indomitable 50k. It really doesn't feel like all that much, though. Perhaps that's because, unlike last year, I'm not even halfway through my novel. No matter, though. I WILL press on. This story has so many more places to go, my head is spinning.

Last night was an amazing one--the prose was pathetic, but the plot development was amazing. I was trying to incorporate some conflict as my characters were returning from leave, and then it hit me: a terribly wonderful idea that would give me a few extra chapters of excitement before I had to get Trey, Sheila, and Gio back to the 12th. This idea was borne partially out of my aggravation at a certain sergeant--I don't even know his name yet, and probably never will--who was driving their jeep. I decided that I wanted to get rid of him. And then a dozen other angles of the idea appeared from nowhere, sprawled in front of me, and I snatched them up before they could escape. The idea was far too good to let it get away from me.

I left my dear friends stranded last night, and though I'm antsy to see how the rest of this plot point unfolds, I decided to take a break today. I managed to convince myself that I deserved it after conquering 50k. Not to mention, it is Thanksgiving. I've resigned myself to the fact that I won't reach 75k by the end of the month, and I'll be lucky if I get the entire book done by Christmastime. So that's my goal--finish it before Christmas.

And then what am I going to do? As soon as I write the last word of the first draft (and those words will not be "The End"--finishing, after all, will only be the beginning), I'm closing the document and won't open it again for a month. No, that wasn't a typo--a whole month. After the otherworldly frenzy of writing almost every day for almost two months, I'll definitely need this break for sanity's sake, but there are other reasons as well: 1) I don't want to wear myself out trying to get this story perfect like I've done in the past, 2) I fear my characters' wrath (if you had to go through half of the things that they do, you probably wouldn't be very happy, either), and 3) I need to become fairly unattached to the story so that I'll be able to see its strengths and its weaknesses objectively.

When that month-long sabbatical comes to a close, I'm going to open the document and print it. Then I'll read through the entire thing as quickly as possible to get an overall view of the story. By that point I should have a good idea of what needs to be changed, added, and deleted, and what parts of the story need the most work. After that, my focus will go to research--I'll be searching every nook and cranny for the information I need.

Not all. I must then incorporate that research to make it as glisteningly realistic as possible. For the very last step, I've left the prose. I'm sure you can guess what this step is going to involve. (Hint: A lot. I'm capable of writing decent prose, but first drafts are always terrible for me.)

Now I really should end this post, don't you think? I keep forgetting that the longer these are, the less people are going to want to read them. . . .

Anyway, good luck to all fellow Wrimos. I can't wait to see y'all at the finish line.

Day 17: Getting Ever Closer

So I finally rounded the corner of 40,000 words today. I was supposed to hit that yesterday, though (my goal is 75k--though the book will probably be anywhere from 100k to 120k). I'm really not that worried. I had grand plans for 5k today, but since I didn't go to Honkerbean's, I was continuously being interrupted. Also, I'm of the mind that writing THAT fast is not good for this story. Some parts can be written fairly quickly, but they're generally followed by parts that take more time, and none of those parts lasts 5k (that would be a LONG scene!).

For the rest of the month, I'm going to try and chill a bit. I'm getting too uptight. I'm trying to write a book, not kill myself!

The story is going pretty well. I keep thinking as I write, "This needs research so bad," but I think I'll find that a lot of it isn't too inaccurate. The biggest thing is the medical supplies/machines that were used in the hospitals. I know where I can find info on all that stuff, I just don't want to mess with it rigth now. Worrying about it just slows down my writing. At least I know the basics.

We learned about Aaron today. Well, Trey did, at least. It was one of those take-a-long-time scenes. Sheila didn't cry, but I almost did. *sniff, sniff* And guess what I found out--her dad is a pastor! Wow, I didn't see that one coming. Hmm . . .

The weakest part of the story right now is the Emma/Franz thread. I just don't know what to do with that mess. It would take too much thought, and my brain is fried. That's going to be the challenge for revision. It's vital to the plot, but I'm having trouble incorporating it. Maybe a new inspiration will strike sometime this week . . .

At any rate, I like the way everything else is progressing. Trey and Sheila are on their way to Naples for an R&R leave (rest and recuperation). I'm really excited about the next few scenes. Woohoo!

A Blaring 0

I never planned for there to be a 0 day this month, but it hit today. I'm not really that disappointed, though. I needed the break for sanity's sake, along with the fact that I really needed to gather up my ideas and plans for the last few scenes of Part 1. It's hard to believe that so soon my characters will be out of Sicily! On to the Italian mainland, says I.

I only wrote about 1.6k yesterday, which was disappointing at the least. I feel like I wrote some good stuff, though. I didn't think so yesterday, but when I read over it today, it seemed pretty solid to me. Sheila now knows--thanks to Ed--how Martha (Trey's wife) and Cole (his son) died. *sniffs* I almost cried. So sad!

A wonderfully horrible thought occurred to me just a couple days ago--one that, if it happens somewhere between the 1/2 and 2/3 mark, will bring out Sheila's backstory. Since people who are reading this blog may someday read my novel, I don't want to spoil anything, but it involves the *sob* death of a character whom I didn't meet until just last week and whom I was really starting to like. Ah well . . . it's for the good of the story.

One interesting development that has come up through the writing process is finding out that Emma is not really a spy. It's just much more believable that way. Of course, Franz still can--and will--use her to wreak havoc, but she's not a spy. She's mostly just a very lonely person who is very, very homesick. Poor girl.

Well, I think I might try to get some research done tonight. That, or I might start working on my writing which I am so terribly behind on! I still have about three scenes to go 'til Sicily is out of the picture. That's probably around . . . hmm . . . maybe 7k. Yikes! Maybe I can somehow split that up between tomorrow and Wednesday. . . .

Good Days and Bad Days

So, Friday was a bad day. I got a measly 1.5k written. Actually, as I told my CleanPlace friends, it wasn't even that--more like 1.48k. Pretty bad. But there's good news--today I completely made it up by writing just over 3.5k and breaking 25k! I went into Honkerbean's this afternoon prepared to die in the battle between my right brain and left brain, but emerged victorious with a beautiful 2.5k, which I supplemented with another 1k this evening. W00t!

Today was, once again, a good day in terms of covering good story ground. Trey and Sheila operated together for the first time. Their dialogue came out beautifully. I'll probably have to do some work on character delineations--i.e., the different way that everyone has of speaking--during the revision process, but it's not too bad. I have found out a few things--Sheila's not as quiet as I thought she'd be, nor is Julie. I love it when my characters surprise me.

Sheila mentioned Trey's wife today. I wasn't expecting that to come up so soon, but no backstory was spilled. For the moment, at least, it works. It added a good bit of tension that tightened up their nearly disasterous conversation. Oh! And we met a Sicilian waiter today named Carlo. He's a nice guy. He has family in New York, in fact, and speaks broken americano. LOL

Well, I'd like to get to bed fairly early tonight, so I'm signing off. I have one last thing to say, however: I'm so glad I decided to write this story for NaNo this year. I went through two other story ideas before finally deciding to attempt this one, which has been floating around in my head for nearly two years. And I love it!

The Inciting Incident

Those of you who know about the plot skeleton should know what I mean by "inciting incident." For the rest of y'all, here's a crash course in plotting with a skeleton:

Skull: Protagonist
Eyes: Two needs of the protagonist (1 obvious, 1 hidden)
Neck: Inciting incident (this is where I am! Yipee!)
Ribcage: Obstacles (must end with the bleakest moment)
Thighbone: Help for the protagonist
Kneecap: Crossroads (the protagonist makes a decision)
Legbone: Lesson or epiphany
Foot: The goal achieved

In other words, I still have a long way to go, but I think I'm doing pretty well--I got to the inciting incident neither too early nor too late.

Yesterday's writing and that of the day before (Wednesday and Thursday) were full of some of the best prose that I've ever written at such a quick pace. Even though both days were full and I had a bunch of other things going on, I somehow still found time to write and got some great stuff done. In fact, I think I just might edit some of yesterday's writing for typos and post it on here. Probably the funnest scene to write was when Sheila dropped the bomb on Trey--she told him that *gasp* she was a doctor! Ha! That was interesting. I think I'll post part of that one sometime.

Today, Trey's getting promoted, though he doesn't know it yet. Whenever I stop writing it's like pausing a movie--everybody freezes. My poor characters. Imagine living life like that, always getting frozen and un-frozen! It would get pretty irritating after a while.

Well, I should get to writing. I'm going to watch Saving Private Ryan tonight and I want to be in a good place with my word count. Farewell 'til I write again!

Enter Franz

I got to introduce Franz today. Let me tell you, this guy is creepy. And I mean creepy. It's not like he comes across as being purely evil--that's just the thing. He's so complex--one moment you're seeing his good side, patting an orphaned waif on the shoulder with with what appears to be true affection, and then he's taking delight in a gruesome execution. It scared me. When I was writing up a profile for him a couple weeks ago, I saw some of this utter creepiness, but it didn't really get to me until today. *shudders*

I'm really quite happy with how he's turned out, though, because he's the perfect foil for Trey. While Franz's duty is ultimately to destroy lives, Trey's is to heal and restore. That seems pretty powerful to me, and the comparison just sort of came about on its own. Creativity is so unpredictable. It doesn't allow itself to be forced, only guided, and then half the time it ends up guiding you. That's just the magic of it all.

I learned some more about Trey today. I'd been sort of waffling on his spiritual status--I was pretty sure that he was a Christian, though he's struggled with his faith ever since Martha and Cole died. Today, though, that was affirmed. He hasn't stopped believing, but he's grieved and a little confused. Why would God allow his wife and son to die? It's the classic question, and when a wounded lieutenant asks Trey why God protected him while his friends died in battle, I heartily agree with Trey's response: "It's a hard thing to ponder. But I've learned that there's never an answer. Those things are hidden from us. The only thing we can do is trust that God knows what He's doing." Yes, Trey knows what he believes. He just hasn't learned to let go and move on.

Well, I think I'd better get to bed now, but here are today's closing stats: I got to 15k today, after compensating a few extra hundred words that should have been written yesterday. Oh well. Yesterday was a hard day--surgery with Trey was a long, tedious task, but we got through it. Tomorrow will be a more interesting day yet. If I have time to write, then I'll get to the inciting incident that I've been working toward.

Plod ever onward, Wrimos!

Day 5 is Calling!

Last night I hit 10k, and the plot is picking up quite well now. During the editing process, I'll probably end up adding some conflict in the first few chapters, but for the most part, the story seems to have progressed well. Trey's grief over his wife and son's death is clearly exposed, he and the others on are Sicilian soil (bivouacking on top of a trampled vinyard, to be specific), tension between him and Sheila is established as of last night's work, and today the 12th Field Hospital will receive its first casualties. I'm excited to get started today, though I share Trey's anxiety--today his skills will be tested the highest they've ever been.

Despite all the plotting that I did beforehand, this has been a journey of discovery. Sometime during the past couple days, I found out that Aaron, Sheila's fiancé, was planning to be a doctor before his untimely death. That sheds some light on her drive to become one herself. Now I can perceive more complex reasons behind her medical degree--along with her fear of being helpless to save others as she was helpless to save him, she wanted to pursue his dream. It only makes sense. I'm surprised I didn't see that element before. Perhaps I just needed to get to know Sheila better.

I also met Jack O'Toole, another surgeon in Trey's platoon. He has a tendency to be cynical and pessimistic, but beyond that, I don't know much about him. I'm hoping to learn more as the story continues.

That said, there's still hardly a drop of backstory so far. We know that Trey's wife and son are dead, but not how they died. Maureen spilled a bit of Sheila's story, but she only got far enough to say that Sheila was going to get married at one time. The fact that Aaron (his name hasn't even been mentioned yet) is dead is implied at the end of Sheila's first POV scene, and most readers should pick up on that. I'm not quite sure when the full stories will surface, along with some other key threads of the plot, but I'm assuming they'll come in at the right time.

When I started on Thursday, I felt completely unprepared--I only had about twenty scene cards done and hadn't researched much beyond Operation Husky. Now I'm glad that I started writing at this point. Plotting as I go allows a little more room to breathe, and it's a bit more of an adventure. I'm still glad that I have many of the key conflicts and threads figured out, though. It's nice to be able to work toward those things.

Well, I should get to writing. Time's a-wastin'!

5k on Day 2

Well, Day 2 of NaNo is slipping away, and I'm happy to say that I have 5,000 words to show for it! Things have been going pretty smoothly, though I'm not sure what to think about what I've written thus far. It's neither good nor bad on the grand scale, I suppose--just average. The biggest problem I have with speed writing is that I end up using the same words over and over again. It drives me nuts. I'm slowly making a list of words, though, that I want to use sometime during the month, words that I came across when I was doing research and of which I had to look up the meaning. So far I have "desultory" and "empirical." I also want to use "imbue" somewhere. These are special words that I'll only be able to use once in the whole story. You see one of these words a single time and, well, let's just say that you're bound to notice when it's used a second time, and ready to slaughter the author (me) when you see it a third time.

When I stopped at the conclusion of chapter 2 this evening, I left my characters seasick aboard LSTs. LST stands for "landing ship tank" (it's a kind of ship), but people called it "large slow target" instead. As soon as I read that, I knew it had to go in my novel. A sailor told gullible Maureen that's what it was . . . and she was a little confused until a certain pointy-nosed nurse told her otherwise. I thought it was pretty funny myself, but, then again, I wasn't the one who was seasick.

Trey, Ed, Sheila, Julie, and Maureen are all on their way to Sicily, along with an entire fleet of military personnel and the pointy-nosed nurse who I just discovered today and whose name I still don't know. They left Bizerte at about 1400 hours (2:00 p.m.) and will probably arrive at the southwestern shore of Sicily tomorrow (let's pretend for a moment that tomorrow is Tuesday, July 14, 1943) around the same time. Sicily is only sixty miles north of Tunisia, but I guess ships, and maybe LSTs in general, are slow (hence "large slow target").

Meanwhile, I'm hoping to get more research done. The book I bought as my core research--The Day of Battle--is a great read. I'm loving it. Already I've learned far more about the people, places, and events of Operation Husky than I ever imagined. Probably the most outstanding observation I've made is that General Patton really needed to learn some manners. Even if he didn't, he at least could have curbed his profanity. And as for the slapping incidents-- Well, we'll talk about that later.

Day 2 is closing in glory. I can only hope that tomorrow will be the same. When I'm at Honkerbean's, I might just get to write 3k. That would put me at 8k. All in all, it's 50k or BUST this month!