All too often as I write a chapter I reach a point when I get fatigued and discouraged with the chapter in question. Or I start thinking the chapter needs to be re-written in a way that will also require re-writing all the previous chapters.
This kind of thing is fatal to forward progress. So today instead of finishing the first chapter, I wrote a second chapter all the way through (I love short chapters) and began a third. I also went back to the first, inspired, and wrote some more so now the end is in sight.
So I've decided that's how I'm going to do this year's Nano--- each new day, start a new chapter. I can finish the unfinished ones at the end of a writing session. After all, when you reach that certain point in the chapter you know the rest of what is going to happen in it, and you can wrap it up at any time.
Word Wastage Department:
Some days I just can't think of words of my own to start with. So each chapter is starting with a more-or-less relevant Bible quote. In Esperanto of course. Which requires me to repeat the quote at the END of the chapter with a translation. Well, actually, 2 translations, one is DRV (Douay-Rheims Version, a Catholic translation) and the other is KJV (King James Version, the traditional Protestant translation.)
Also at the chapter-beginnings, I give a few clues to understanding the Esperanto version--- give the meaning of a few key words. It's like each chapter begins with a word game, and the reader can see how much he can figure out on his own, or cheat and turn to the chapter-end.
For those of you who are my friends on Facebook (or are willing to become my friends), the explanation behind the foreign-language Bible quotes I've been posting is that they are the Esperanto Bible verses I've been using in my chapters.
yWriter update:
Yes, I'm using the free writing software yWriter to write this novel. It works very well, it's available for PC and Mac, and, did I mention it's free? The advantage of it is that you can move chapters and scenes around, and it does word counts for you at the bottom of the page, both total count and today's count. I'd very much recommend it to all NaNoers (Nanites? no, that's something else altogether.)
3 comments:
That's a good way to deal with bogged down chapters. :)
Hey, whatever works, right?! Now it's back to my own naNo project :)
I believe my chapter one won't have to be as long as I thought it would be, because of what happened in chapter two.
Chapter one still sucks, though, but I think I'll worry about getting the suckiness out later.
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