NaNo 2016: Day Seven!

Oh wow. It's been a week already? Somehow I'm always amazed at the passage of time. Single days seem to go on forever, by weeks fly by. And this is part of the danger of being a writer.

It's very, very easy to make excuses, to sit back and tell yourself that you'll get to this and this, then and then, there and there. But it doesn't happen, you have to make time. And to those of you who have made it to day seven and have some writing to show for it, great job! Keep going.

By now, your story should have some real substance to it. Are you on chapter three, four, five? Do your characters feel real? Does it feel like your story is moving somewhere? After a week of writing, and nearing 15,000 or so words, your story has a great chunk accomplished. So you should celebrate and feel proud! You're doing it!

I'm nearing 20,000 words on my own project, and it's interesting so far. I've never done horror in long form before, and horror novels are tough in a way that fantasy and sci-fi are not. I'm making sure everything in my story is purely character-driven, which is a great difference from almost every manuscript I've yet written. But things are starting to come together, and I can see patterns in my symbolism, and meaning in what my characters are saying. This is the exciting part, finding meaning. 

Some tips!:

Let your characters make mistakes, it's more interesting.

Show contrast in your dialogue.

Insert something into your story you didn't plan for, a monkey wrench. Yes, it can happen as early as chapter five.

Don't lie to your readers. If you are building toward a plot twist, let it feel organic.

Go ahead and spill some stuff early. I promise you, more exciting things will come to mind.

From my own experience, don't info dump! No matter how much you want to. It's not worth it. Or if you DO info dump, get rid of that in your next draft.

Congrats on week one! Keep going!