Two Weeks in and Flying
On Nanowrimo, Structure and Spreadsheets
I'm thinking of moving to a biweekly update but we'll have to see how things go. For the moment everything is progressing rather smoothly. Touch wood it stays that way.
At the beginning of this project, I built myself an editing schedule, a way to keep myself accountable for the day-to-day of this Nanowrimo madness. Without the traditional 1667 words a day to keep me on track, I've had to resort to a far more... interesting method. With a lot of fiddling, a little bit of template editing, and a little more perfectionism than it was probably worth, I put together an excel spreadsheet that is letting me keep up to date with the ins and outs of the project.
While it isn't usually my wheelhouse, this data-driven approach has allowed me to see when I'm falling behind and to correct that error easily enough. This means that I have now successfully completed the overall structure edit, a task I've been struggling with for about 6 months. I know what needs checking, what needs redrafting, what needs editing, and what needs writing. I have successfully found several flawed storylines, resolved several plot holes, and drawn out an admittedly rushed ending.
The satisfaction this has emitted is truly quite spectacular, allowing me to feel like I'm finally getting somewhere. Whether I'll manage my final goal or not is yet to be seen, but I can at least say that at this point it's looking positive.
Nanowrimo is an interesting thing. There's no particular reason why this month is special, nor is there anything particularly unique about this time of the year. However, simply knowing that my attempt to get this done, is happening alongside a whole host of others is oddly comforting. I don't know where I'll land, nor can I put all my eggs in one basket. No doubt the month will end and there will be a few things that need cleaning up. But I can say at least that it has succeeded in getting me to write again, something that I thought impossible.
As a funny little coincidence, this time three years back marks the finishing of the manuscript draft of Ash&Clockwork. So much has spiraled out since then and so much has happened, but there is something unbelievably satisfying that the number 3 has made an appearance. Maybe it's a good omen, maybe not, but I for one like the extra encouragement it has elicited.
I'm excited and nervous for the next two weeks. I don't know where I'm going to end up but I'm looking forward to the ride. Please feel free to offer words of encouragement, lord knows I need them.