Done

...and in other ways, nearly done. I've finished my 50,000 words that I committed to, but the story itself isn't quite finished. Almost, but not quite. I'm happy to have spent this month exploring this future world. It was a great experience, and I have something to work on if I want, something to go back to and rewrite and reshape. It's been fun, it really has. I think that by the end of November, the story will be there.

New Directions

The story seems to have taken off in its own direction. I'm glad. I'm used to working with far more characters than I started with in this book, and now a few more have come along, it has been interesting to explore them.

There is just over a week left of November, and that means just a few more chapters to go - I've been writing a chapter a day, so things need to be solved and wrapped up. I'm pleased that I've been mostly able to stick to my schedule, it is quite absorbing, so other things have fallen by the wayside. Nice to have told this story though. I'm actually quite looking forward to the rewrites.

Pacing

The story seems to be propelling itself somewhat. I'm still meeting the daily targets, so unless it all stalls, I should get to the finishing post. Having said that, however, tomorrow I'm going to be out for most of the day, so this could mean a slight hiccup. We'll see. I'm enjoying watching the process. Watching myself writing. Weird.

Halfway

Today is halfway through November and I'm halfway there. I must admit that I spent time during October trying and failing to plan the storyline. So when November began, I had very little, but day by day the story itself seems to suggest ways it might go.

I think I've learnt a lot from this month. I've so far been able to be quite disciplined, and I've discovered how easy it is to get distracted.

I think my previous writing experience has allowed me not to get too bogged  down though. As I mentioned before, instead of going back and mentally wringing my hands because I can't remember how I phrased something, I know that it'll get picked up in the rewrites.

Losing the Plot

Not really, more ... losing track. I've had to invent things in the story and so, invent names for them and as I get further along the storyline, I lose track of what I've called it before. In real life, his isn't such a big deal - we all have several names for most things in the house, but in fiction, you have to make it clear and be consistent, so, for example, the vehicle based on bio-interface is called an S-cycle or a slicker, but the fabric computer that just sticks to the palm, well, that's been a whole bunch of things.

Then I have to remind myself it's just a first draft, and it can all be cleaned up later :)

The Eleventh Day

...but not the eleventh hour. Yesterday, novel writing didn't go so well because I was doing an article which ran long. I wrote, but not as much as I'd wanted to, also, the creative juices weren't flowing. It's weird the difference between the two types of writing and the ways one can influence the other.

With the article writing, you have to be flat, flat and dreary, no bounce at all. Third person, but no passive voice (and no 'one' either), and that's not easy. Adjectives and adverbs - out you go, subordinate clauses - goodbye! Oh, and no exclamation marks either, nor question marks, although the one yesterday had override instructions, so there was one question mark in there.

Today though, I've been able to really crack on with the novel. Great stuff. And it has been cold at last, cold, crisp and clear, frost on the ground this morning. Perfect.

Missed a Day

Only missed a day of the writing diary though, not of the writing itself.
Today and yesterday it has gone quite well. Both mornings I went swimming, and it helped me to focus on the story and on the characters. I'm interested to see how the weather affects the writing. Yesterday morning was sunny and cold and I felt quite energised. This week is supposed to be the same.

Another problem I'm having is with the cover. It's fairly simple, yet not so simple that it's doing what I need it to. I only have Office, no Photoshop, although Photoshop used to give me a lot of headaches.

I'll get there, eventually.

Coming up Daisies - for once!

Today I found a new seam of ideas to mine. I've been writing a chapter a day and some days have been heavier going than others.

On the other hand, I have sweet Fanny Adams to write in the diary. "Writing went well". Good-oh. I suppose at some point along the way, I'll be able to look back and see that even when there were lumpy days and bumpy days, there were some that flowed nicely.

One thing I keep needing to remind myself, is that this is a first draft. The continuity bothers me sometimes and I waste time searching for whether someone said something that could contradict what they're saying now, or maybe they've already said the exact same thing. Then I remember that it's all (going to be) in the re-writing.

Daisy Chains

I've been tying together bits and pieces, an idea here, a description there. It doesn't come as easily as Horse, because I have so many characters in that world and a lot of their interaction is based on humour. With A Mourning Moon (and coincidentally, tonight is the night of the Mourning Moon), I'm having to create so much more within the world.

Tomorrow, I'm going to go into more detail about the turtles.

Wilt

Only five days in and wilting. I'd reached the end of an idea run and wasn't sure where to go next. This coupled with the fact that I'd done a fair bit of writing on the new Horse-sur-mer novel today had me wondering whether I was going to get enough done to be happy with it.
I also felt the characters had spent too much time talking and not doing anything in particular. I usually find a break from it, especially a walk, gets the ideas flowing. Today, it was something far more banal, I tidied the kitchen, but even so, when I'd done it, I knew where I wanted the story to go next.

Taller Flowers

Other things got in the way of my writing today - but important things, taller flowers that made me feel small. In spite of that I made my word count and I felt happy with what I'd written.

When you're creating a different world, it's sometimes difficult to remember that outside of your own head, the only way people know what's going on in that world, is what you write. Sounds obvious, yet I often find myself looking to see whether I've actually shown some detail that is perfectly clear to me...inside my head, yet there it isn't, on the page.

Yesterday evening was my writers' group and I was reading. This made me go to my other world, the town of Horse-sur-mer. In Mourning Moon, which is speculative fiction, things are made up - of course - but they have to kind of work together. In Horse-sur-mer, things are made up and they don't have to work in the same way because there's a magical element.

Thank goodness there are other (and better) writers for the serious stuff.

Stem

Last week, or maybe the week before - yes, it was the week before, I volunteered at Writers' Fest and I went to a couple of the sessions because I had tickets. Those talks were phenomenal, especially Sarah Waters and Emma Donoghue in conversation.

Sarah Waters, who in my estimation is a flawless writer, said that she keeps a writing diary and that she found it was interesting to look back at the end of the writing journey - in her case the journey of a new novel - and follow the process.

Now, I can see that, I just don't have too much hope for mine, I mean, Sarah Waters is a brilliant person as well as a brilliant writer. Her conversation was interesting, erudite. I can't imagine looking back on mine and gaining any new insight, but no matter, I'm doing it anyway.

The stem, the plot, is what has exercised me today. I know where my characters are going, but I have to get them there. I always write a lot of dialogue, it's more than anything else, how I reveal plot, but I wonder if maybe I get too wrapped up in their conversations, let them ramble on too long.
Dunno.
To a large extent, I have to let them do just that, it'll all get tidied up in the rewrite. Then the rewrite of the rewrite and so on ad infinitum.

Petals

Day two. I'm getting to know my characters, Jax and Dizzy. When I truncated what I had into a short story, I had to get rid of Cassandra, who has some mysterious connection to Dizzy. Now I've been able to reintroduce her, so I'm happy. I love characters and dialogue. It's what I love in what I read and it's what I love in what I write.

Something that happened by coincidence really is that A Mourning Moon is set around this time of year. This is the time of the mourning moon, although looking up at the sky last night, the moon seemed to be especially luminous, that platinum tinged with gold colour, the moonlight backlighting a cloud that drifted across it.

But...there's plenty of rain. We need it. The summer was dry and hot and went on well past the autumnal equinox.

Cuttings

The first day of National November Writes Month and I'm beginning my novel  'A Mourning Moon'. 

I've had the idea for this on the back burner for a long time, I've even worked some of those ideas into a short story.....but it never was a short story, it's wider, deeper, more extensive than that.

It takes place in a post climate - change Lower Mainland, but I don't in any way see it as dystopian. I don't necessarily see it as utopian either, and yet.....to some extent I do. 

I want to unpack that. A utopian world is one where everything is perfect, everything works, but that doesn't make for a good story, because something has to keep the reader reading. My world has problems, there is tension that needs resolution. So it's not utopian, but still, it's a world I'd be happy to live in. 

So, on day one, I'm looking back at my notes, my ideas, my storyline, and I'm making a start.