20,000 Milestone!
by Catherine
So I just made it to 20,ooo word in my nano-novel. I thought I’d share what that looks like!
So here it is…
5,000 more words till I’m halfway there
I think that 20,000 words is a good time to relect on my experience so far this month. I have been a pantster, which is strange and new to me because I usually a pretty good planner. But then again, I havent written fiction in a while and this is my first nano.
One observation I have made while being a pantster is that my characters have been developing on their own. I am not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing and I know other writers out there have this same experience. For instance, I was getting a little bit stumped with where my plot was going. I was working through some scene description when my character discovered something about herself while investigating her new surroundings. We were both very surprised at this discovery. So surprised, that she isnt even convinced she was able to do what she did and she brushes it off. That discovery that my character and I made together has opened up a whole new path for my novel to continue on. I could have never planned this new ability of hers, even in my skeletal outline that was floating around my head – never exisitng on paper – I wouldn’t have thought she was going to develop this skill.
I also find myself drawing on contemporary issues – which makes sense but it wasn’t intentional. The environment and sustainability seems to pop up here and there in this novel and that is an issue I feel strongly about. I never thought that this novel could be a platform for those issues – in a creative way.
What discoveries has everyone else made about their writing? Are your characters acting on their free will yet?
“Are your characters acting on their free will yet?”
Absolutely. I actually had my first crisis writing this story because one of my main characters developed into a way that made my original outline seem completely non-viable. I made the hard choice to go with character rather than outline, and everything had fallen into place in a way better way that I would have imagined. It’s cool to read that I’m not the only writer who’s experiencing this through NaNoWriMo. ^_^
That is really interesting, its funny how certain characteristics of the characters can change an initial outline. I am glad everything is falling into place – I think NaNoWriMo has taught me that experimenting with writing and fictional stories is the only way to really understand how they work. As simple as it sounds its taken me a while to understand it, reading about making a believable or relatable character will only get you so far, you really have to create a character and see if they can stand on their own. Good luck with the rest of the month. I hope our characters keep shedding light on our problems for us!
Way to go. That’s an impressive wall of text!