"Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies" sounds good right about now.

Almost 35,000 words into my first draft and I'm realizing MAJOR problems. *sigh* I wish I were one of those amazing people who can plot in their heads, write a first draft, and have everything come out crystal clear at the end.

Clearly, however, I am not.

I've been working with Randy Ingermanson's Snowflake Method of plotting, and it's been hugely helpful — in getting me to see the enormous, gaping holes in my plot. I'm not talking about logistical fallacies and events that don't make sense. I'm talking about literal holes in the plot — as in, there isn't one.

The other thing I'm noticing is that my main character isn't doing a whole lot. I mean, she is, she's running around like a crazy person, but she's having things done to her and then reacting to them. Nothing that's taken place so far has been her decision. Which is a problem.

I'm also realizing that I've got a shit-ton of sub plots going on. Maybe more than the book can handle. Maybe more than I can handle! I've got to get a handle on them.

And turn my reactive MC into an action hero.

Still not going to rewrite, though it is practically KILLING me not to. I'm just going to make whatever changes I need to starting on page 137 and move forward. We'll fix it in post, as we used to say in film school.

Under-The-Bed Books

I'm at the point in NaNo when I'm behind, I'm bored with my own story (never a good sign) and I'm pretty much convinced that I'm the worst writer ever.

So I dug out some of my inspirational books to try to get back on track. Here's what's resonating with me today.

Writing a book is exactly like love. You don't hold back. You give it everything you have. If it doesn't work out, you're heartbroken, but you move forward and start again anyway. You have to.

You don't hold some of yourself in reserve. It's all or nothing. There are no guarantees. If one book doesn't work out, you figure out why. How can you do things differently next time? If you hold back from the book, it won't fully reveal itself. You write each book, utterly and completely giving yourself to it. Some will end up under the bed. And some just might end up brilliant.

Heather Sellers, Chapter After Chapter

So, I'm giving myself permission to suck. This might be a learning book. It might be an under-the-bed book. But I'll never know if I don't finish it.

NaNoWriMo 2008

November 2nd: I'm procrastinating.

Must mean NaNoWriMo!

I've signed up sort of unofficially this year; I want to finish my novel. So, despite the fact that I have about 23k words of a first draft, I'm going to try to get 50k more. In one month.

Here's my progress meter. Keep me honest!