Day 15 Word Count: 25,092
I’ve done it! I made it to the halfway point (insert Bon Jovi here)! But I have NO idea what’s going to happen in my story.
When a Pantser tries to be a Plotter
I talked about the difference between Plotting and Pantsing in my post about NaNoWriMo prep. I was all set to be a Plotter. The story I had outlined was concise with some interesting personal-political issues spread through it. It had a clear beginning, middle, and end, with some fun supporting characters and a compelling B-plot.
And it was boring as all hell.
Here’s how I slowly came around to admitting I’m a Pantser:
Prep Week
Get the plot laid out, build out a world map, fill out the Save the Cat! worksheet
Week #1
Realized my main character was boring, decided to pivot to the secondary character. Her motivations were largely centered on leaving the setting I had built up, so I’d let her leave and then probably come right back with some important information that would make my original character’s plot more interesting.
Week #2
Welp. I am quickly losing control over this story. Once I got my new character out of her hometown, I couldn’t come up with a good reason to send her back. So I sent her further down the road. And now I’m grasping at straws, desperate to find some sort of plot to pull myself through the second half of the book.
Best Advice for Week 2
A couple things kept me moving this week.
Good Support System
I made a call at the beginning of all of this to get my friends to check in on me throughout the month, and they have been! (Thanks everyone, it means a lot) But I also know a handful of people who are also doing NaNoWriMo, and having folks who know exactly what you’re going through has been amazing. They’ve been a great source of encouragement and a save place to ballyhoo when things are feeling out of control or impossible.
Don’t Get it Right, Get it Written
I took copious notes when I read No Plot, No Problem!, and they have been incredibly helpful. The first piece of advice for this week was “don’t get it right, get it written,” and that mantra has put as many words on the page as my imagination has.
Ultimately, this challenge is a word count challenge, and so even if the plot is incomprehensible or doesn’t wrap up neatly, as long as I hit the word count, I’ll have won. Of course, I intend to figure out how to wrap up the story. And I tell you, the Save the Cat! structure is doing great things for helping me pace out my story. But when I’m doing my writing for the day, I’m focused on getting words on paper.
Coming up for Week 3
My notes from No Plot, No Problem! indicate that this will be the week that fatigue sets in. I definitely found some fatigue last week, so I’m interested to see how my energy/enthusiasm levels play out this week. But the author emphasizes getting into the 30k word range this week, which is easily attainable. He also suggests doing an evaluation to make sure your plot is on track to finish in 50k words. That’s going to be the hard work for me this week.
Anyway, that’s all for this week. I have no idea what’s going to happen in my story. But I’ll let you know where I am next week, when I’ll be staring down the final stretch!
