So I finished on November 26, as expected. Only now got around to bragging about it.
The good news is that I ended exactly where the main action of the novel stopped. 50,009 words total. All I need now is to finish the epilogue (one last murder to solve) and that will be that.
Usually I take a break after an NaNoWriMo, but this year was a blast. I’m gearing up for novel #2 while this one sits a bit in the old bean.
Onwards!
Sorry about the radio silence. As you can see by the graphs, though, I have stuck with it. Should I keep it, I should finish November 26. The novel itself should be finished around the same time.
Check out that second graph. I find that a hoot. More or less it’s been a good day followed by a bad.
The last part shows me shuffling my feet. I know mostly how this has to end, but I don’t know how to get there. Not certain if there’s enough story or not.
We shall see.
Well now. 2737 words. I’m on fire. The completion date has jumped to November 24.
Ut oh. Today was my worst day so far. 1421 words! Yikes!
According to the site, I need 1447 words a day to make it, so not that terrible. Still, YIKES!
Good day! 2063 words. I sit at 22516 words, approximately 45% done. (Because I’m anal, it’s actually 45.032%)
I finished Chapter 10 (a short one) and I’m working on Chapter 11. Which makes me one step closer to back on track.
Never fear. Though I haven’t been updating here, I haven’t missed a day in the contest. The count is as follows:
According to NaNo, I reach the 50,000 word mark on November 25.
But is the novel going to be finished by then?
I’m going to let you in on a little inside secret. I’m using a novel writing plan. Specifically, The Lester Dent Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot. Lester Dent being a pulp writer whose claim to fame is coming up with Doc Savage.
Now should you read this short missive to the world, you’ll see just how glorious this thing is. I’ve spent my life looking for some magic bullet solution. So many How To books, it’s not even funny.
This is what clicked.
If you haven’t checked the link, after coming up with a unique story angle, Dent divided his story into four quarters. In his essay, he deals with a 6000 word story, but the length doesn’t matter. Author Michael Moorcock said he used the Master Fiction Plot when writing about Elric of Melniboné, a character that’s up there with Conan the Barbarian in some circles.
With the first quarter he started as soon as possible with his hero in a jam. He introduces the main mystery, the other characters, and has the protagonist (Dent calls him the hero) try to deal with the problem. At the end of the quarter, the hero gets himself into a physical altercation. Then there’s a Big Surprise.
The next three quarters are basically the same. More problems for the hero, the hero struggles, he gets into a fight, twist. End of the third quarter, the hero makes headway, only for the fourth quarter to have things hit him in a bad way. All is dark, but he manages to escape using his own ingenuity. There’s a wrap up and a final twist.
If all this sounds like formula fiction, then, yeah, it is. And what I’ve given is a vastly simplified version.
What matters is how this is done. Because Dent is vague enough in what he’s talking about, you can write a lot of stories with it as a guide.
Let’s move back to me for a second. Dent says in his essay that he’s used his plan for “adventure, detective, western and war-air.” Right?
The story I’m using it for is a horror/comedy/cozy mystery.
I know, these are words that aren’t strung together very often.
When I started, I was going for a chapter a day. 1700 words sounded good. Seven or eight chapters would make a quarter. Easy peasy.
And for a while it was.
Then the chapters got longer. And suddenly here I was, at 20,453 words.
I’d introduced all the other characters.
I had the central problem: not only had his uncle died under mysterious circumstances, but the hero got a letter telling him his uncle’s death wasn’t an accident a week before he died. Which is odd to say the least.
I had my hero struggle to learn what happened, a big twist in the end, and a glorious fight. Quarter done.
Which meant my novel will be 80,000 words. Nine chapters down, that meant 36 chapters total.
I wasn’t sure it could make it that far.
What to do?
Well, I went about where the quarter mark should be. That was at the end of chapter 5.
You know what I found?
Central Problem done. While I had other characters coming, all the important characters had appeared and were (after a fashion) helping the hero. The hero, being inexperienced in investigation, gets himself in a physical conflict: he recreates his Uncle’s accident and almost kills himself in the process. He then gets a Surprising piece of information that makes no sense at the time but will by the time everything is said and done.
All baked into the story without me noticing I was doing it.
So right now I’m a wee bit before the halfway mark. Tomorrow’s chapter, chapter 10, will hit half way chapterwise. To make the whole thing hit 50,000 words, I’ll thinking it will be 40 chapters plus an epilogue to wrap up a few loose ends.
No matter what you think of Lester Dent’s Master Plan, whether it’s formula fiction or not, using its guidance has been a huge help. This is literally the best thing I’ve written. With luck, it’ll work again with my next attempt.
This one (for the curious) is called either And Then There Was Frankenstein or Last of the Frankensteins. Just to show you how wild it is.
It’s going to be great.
Well THAT was a bust.
Only 1907 words today. What was I doing with my time?
I reworked Chapter 6, touched up Chapter 5, and started Chapter 7. By rights that one should have been finished today. It’s the quarter mark point and needs to have something special happen in the end. Let’s see if I can manage.
Just for fun, here are a couple of charts detailing my progress. Look how the second one dips and raises. It’s positively a roller coaster. If I can swing it, the second quarter begins tomorrow.
Now that’s more like it! 2488 words. Had to rewrite Chapter Five and Chapter Six is a little short, but it’s all good! Onwards!
Aw, man, I’m letting down Team Cullen! I only got 1925 words today instead of up in the 2000’s. I feel awful I hope I can do better tomorrow.
(For the curious, 1667 words is the minimum for me to hit each day.)
Okay, I missed updating here yesterday. 2057 words yesterday, then 2183 words today. According to the NaNoWriMo site I’ve been averaging 1988 words a day and will hit 50,000 on the 25th.
Storywise, I’m doing a chapter a day. I’m shooting for 30 chapters, but it’s what the story calls for.
WELLTUN CARES PRESENTS 