NaNoWriMo week 1

That’s the face NaNoWriMo participants have when they catch up with their word count.

So I have not written here for a couple days. I have still not given up the “novel writing month” thing, although I have considered it. There are days that are more and days that are less productive, due sometimes to inspiration and sometimes to limitations of the body. As usual, I over-used my voice (with Dragon NaturallySpeaking dictation software) and had to shut up for a bit. And as usual, I over-used my wrist.

I am approximately on track with my first novel (Shadow of Yggdrasil). The other three are lagging, though.  I guess my strategy works in the sense that I have kept writing something each day, sometimes more and sometimes less. And at the moment it seems to be paying off, in that I have returned to my main novel with new ideas.

The structure of the novel is kind of fractal, as usual for such beasts. There is the book, there are chapters, and there are scenes. Kind of like a tree with branches and twigs?  Now the problem is that I only know the general shape of the tree and a very few of the branches, and the twigs on the first branch, when I start.

So what happens is that I return and there is a new branch, or new twigs. As if they have grown out by themselves in the meantime. But pulling on a branch does not cause more twigs. My writing is more like gardening than anything else I can think of. It requires time, but if I have the time, I can plant a bunch of little plants and they all grow up over time, given enough attention.

Your writing may vary, so be yourself!