Tangles

My new subplots and tightening of the timeline, while positive changes, now have me totally confused about which day is which and who was interviewed when. I was going to start another book, but I just can't bring myself to do that before I finish this one. At least a first draft. Writing in circles doesn't appeal to me either. I think I need to stop, print out what I have and get it in order. I will be retyping it in order to keep track of the plot. Then I can continue.

Depending on how long that takes, I may be done with NaNoWriMo for this year. I am more interested in finishing HM and doing it right than in doing it quickly. Even if quickly would have been nice.

Chugging Along

I am making progress on HM. 25 pages so far. While I'm not going any directions I hadn't planned on, I find myself inserting moments between Sloan and the people around him that give more depth to what their relationships are. One I like in particular is between Sloan and his daughter, Shannon. He's remembering a moment with his wife when Shannon was 2 (she's 12 now). Shannon comes in and sees him with tears in his eyes. It's a nice scene--if I do say so myself.

My one concern is that I am moving the plot along very quickly and may end without reaching the page count I was shooting for. Before I get a lot of comments, I realize that the book will be as long as it needs to be. I tend to write sparsely and have to go back and flesh out. Plus it will need to be checked for continuity problems because of the changes I implemented halfway through, which may end up increasing the word count. But I will have to decide if I want to start the second HM book or maybe start D&D or JB (jewelry book--I hate coming up with titles).

Any suggestions? Any that sounded more or less interesting to you? I would guess that the "industry experts" would say to start the second HM because starting one series is hard enough without throwing a second or third. But is it silly to write the second book in a series when you haven't sold the first? I guess I'll just decide when, and if, I get to that point.

Workshop

I didn't want to spend a whole day at a workshop when I could have been writing. Deb talked me into going, though, and I'm glad I did. Although I am now way behind on NaNo goals.

The presenters hit all the ways writers can add tension to their work. All the pieces of writing can be used. Character, setting, pacing, plot all can be places to add tension. The exercises were fun. I got to try to make a fountain pen scary. I'm not sure I succeeded, but it was fun trying.

I will be thinking about what I learned as I churn out pages of HM. The trick will be to not self-edit as I'm working.

NaNoWriMo

Last year, I had a lot of success starting HM during NaNoWriMo. I hope to be able to use November to finish HM this year. Of course, reading that, I realize how long it's taken me to write my first novel. I hope the second one is faster.

To really do NaNoWriMo, the writer agrees to write 50,000 words in the month of November. That breaks down to 1,666.6666666666 words a day, or about 6-7 pages. I can type about 5 pages an hour. That means if I write for 2 hours a day, I should be able to finish early. "Should" being the operative word.

I will weigh in a few times a week to see where I am. Fingers crossed.