Stories & Soliloquies

NaNoWriMo is nearing its end, and so my world is looking like a whole lot of this. See all those lines? That’s dialogue! I’m so proud of myself, as my general tendency is to narrate like crazy, so this is something I’ve been working on. I’ve also been working on showing instead of telling, and I fear I might be overdoing it. I describe what my main character is feeling in great detail on a regular basis. Instead of just getting mad, he feels his cheeks burn and jaw clench – repeatedly.

It’s also looking increasingly like I won’t finish. I’ve taken a lot of days off of writing, and focused more on work. I’ve been reading a lot of student papers and quizzes and they really use my mental energy. I love helping students work out their own ideas, though, so I’m good with it.

Its given me time to let my novel ruminate in my mind. What I have so far is nothing short of a prequel to the novel I meant to write. I’m going to need to cut what I have at least in half if its going to feel like one story.  It feels like what I’ve done is just an extended character study, giving myself a chance to live inside my character for an extended period of time, through big moments and small.  I’ll have to figure out which scenes are important for the reader, and which were just important for me as a writer.

But it’s ok! I’m actually really excited about it. I’ve always been a better editor than writer, and now I’ll have my own work to mold and shape. Usually that’s difficult for me because I’m too close to the words on the page. But this thing is such a behemoth that I’ve actually forgotten parts of it already, so I think I’ll have enough distance to make something out of it. When all is said and done, I might even try and get it printed somewhere so I can have it on my bookshelf, just for fun.

I hope I can declare victory at the end, but it’s not looking too great, and that’s ok too. But I’m feeling this, so that’s good. Even if I don’t succeed at the NaNoWriMo goal, I’m still glad for what it’s given me thus far.