Control: NaNoWriMo Update 77
I, Daniel Trump, aka Dalton Lewis, am almost done with the first draft of a horror novel. I have written many novels — but I want every one to be that special novel, that great American novel. Is this one it? I don’t know. We will see.
I have no idea if it is good or bad.
Many rewrites are needed before it gets published: of that I am confident.
I will finish the first draft of this novel tonight or tomorrow.
Update: it is done.
I finished a draft of a horror novel for NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. I’m proud of myself for doing this. This is an excellent accomplishment. I have a 50,212 word document. I admit — I had to stretch a bit at the end. I needed to pad a little.
That’s fine. I deepened the themes and established more world-building.
It’s a novel about jealousy and rage and football and love and friendship. It has one main storyline — I used to have lots of characters and storylines but cut that in this case for something simpler and more direct. That’s stronger than a story that goes in a hundred directions and focuses on nothing.
I started out by writing 2,000 words a day rationally and maturely. I missed a couple of days because of drama — a strategy gaming tournament or the like. I then made up for it by writing 4,000 words in a day three times — including the last day. Writing 4,000 words in a day is a ridiculous task which is beyond impossible and destroys the mind — makes it into much. It’s really not recommended. I only did it three or so times during the process of writing this draft of this book.
I throw my everything into these books, and they often get bad reviews. I don’t know what to say or do. I just want to write better fiction. I just want to write unforgettable novels that people love and care about. That is the goal.
I’m trying to have the story track from scene to scene. I want the story to make sense and not simply have a series of unconnected chapters. In previous years there were many characters and storylines that were barely connected if at all. I’m trying to get away from that and have one cohesive story now.
Description. Describing everything is a real priority for me. In previous years I wouldn’t always describe everything and everyone. I just wouldn’t realize that I didn’t have description for every character and every scene. I am upgrading my writing to describe everything now.
I should have more to say about the long and painful process of writing a first draft of a novel in a month. It simply happened.
I killed many of the characters in this one. I grew tired and sick of the stories in which the good guys won easily and defeated the bad guys and nothing bad happened. I was sick of there not being any tragedy or stakes or bad stuff in my stories. I wanted a horror novel in which horrible things happened to our heroes. So I wrote one. People die. They are killed in bizarre and terrible ways by maniacal villains.
Trying to write the greatest novel ever? Yes. Failing? Also yes. I like to attempt to write something ambitious, though. I appreciate my own effort to chase Shakespeare, to write something that aspires to something greater, that wants to become a real work of art.
Thanks, and take care, friends.
