Marshall Maresca, another of the Mighty Agent‘s clients, explains here why he isn’t doing NaNoWriMo this year. His methodology for story creation is notably different than mine—and that renders NaNoWriMo less useful for him.
Two years back, it was NaNoWriMo that got me going on an idea that had been floating around my head for a while. I have a lot of story ideas running around my head at any given moment (I can list five—no, six—relatively quickly. Three story ideas are in universes where I’ve finished novels; three are completely new worlds).
I world-build as I write, trying to remember to take notes as I go so I can pick things back up later. The “pick things up back later” has proven important for me, because Life (which is a four letter word) tends to interfere with any neat writing schedule I set up—I’m in the final stages of professional certification, so sadly writing has to take a back seat to that.
Often, novels that I really DO plan on finishing are left to get dusty. Right now, I have a Changeling sequel and an ONSET sequel and prequel all hovering in the 15,000 to 30,000 word range. I intend to finish all three of those books by the end of next year.
But to pick up where I left off is impossible. I can’t just open the word file, hit Ctrl+End and start writing (OK, I could probably do that on the ONSET prequel, but I was working on it most recently).
I need to get back in the space of the world—setting notes help and I have them, but a lot of my world is made up as I go and needs to stay consistent with things I may not have mentioned in my notes.
The biggest sticker is getting back into the characters’ heads. My portrayals have to be consistent. Writing Changeling, I need to turn the snark factor a bit higher. Writing ONSET, it needs to be turned off for the main character (but his friends and subordinates need to layer it in).
I find the solution to getting my head wrapped back around my world and characters is simple. I start at the beginning of the first book and read forward. To pick up from the current “end point,” I start at the very beginning and read forward.
This is not as time consuming as it may sound as I am a fast reader, but I suspect the process will put a hard cap on how long any series of mine will ever be. I think that no matter how good I get at notes, this will still be my default. Every book I write in a given series will be re-read while writing the latest book. I expect to re-read Changeling’s Fealty at least six times while writing Changeling’s Duty.
It works for me, but it may not work for others. I’m interested in other methods too. What works for you?
Lastly, NaNoWriMo is poorly timed for me this year, so I won’t be participating.
Glynn Stewart
P.S. I’m blaming agently poking for this one.
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