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behind the scenes of writing, INK Skryf in Afrikaans, my writing, NaNoWriMo, rewriting, writing, writing competitions, writing tips, writing update
Or: a writing update.
As you might know, I started a huge project in July with an early October deadline. Writing an entire book from scratch, rewriting, editing and proofreading it in three months is quite exhausting. But I did it. The premise changed a lot in that time and so did the stories. It’s only 31k, but as everyone who’s ever worked on an anthology of their own short stories knows, it’s a hard number to reach with perfection.
Yeah, I’m sure exhaustion is probably making me think it’s perfect instead of still searching for things that could be wrong. But the deadline has long since come and gone, so there’s no point in worrying about it anymore.
I’ll tell you all about what happened to that anthology and everything else from last night’s INK prestige gala evening (4th November) next Sunday. And I’ll include photos 😉
So, after I finished this project in Afrikaans, I finally got to the point where my mind was humming blissfully in two languages. I decided to finish translating The Adventures of Saphira the Faery Dog – so I did it and published them all on Wattpad. I also finished translating the Tales of the Onyx Labyrinth, which I’ll publish throughout next year on both INK and Wattpad.
In between I did a bit of rewriting on my novel, wrote blog posts and read a couple of good and sometimes irritating novels (check out my Goodreads reviews).
That was October.
If you would like it in word count instead of projects completed:
INK project writing/rewriting/editing: 31K
The Adventures of Saphira the Faery Dog: 15K
Tales of the Onyx Labyrinth: 37K
Rewrites: 10K
Blog posts: 7K
Reviews: 2K
Yeah, I’m sure you get why I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this year.
On a serious note: I saw that a lot of writers are teeming with anticipation for this year’s NaNo. A lot of blog posts and comments are about “winning” NaNo (writing 50K in a month) or even doing a double NaNo (100K). Both are quite do-able. I’ve even seen writers do a triple NaNo (150K) – though that does make me worry about the novel they’re writing.
Why? A double NaNo – if you’re writing YA – is already double the word count of contemporary novels and about 30K over the norm for fantasy (unless it’s series). Which means you’ve written a lot of backstory, character development scenes, world building scenes and even filler scenes that your novel doesn’t really need. But that’s okay – the art of writing is in the rewriting. This is only a first draft.
Only… a lot of writers leave it at that. They were only chasing the word count. Some even get angry when you suggest that some scenes are unnecessary to the story. They’d worked so hard to achieve that giant word count, why am I trying to take that away?
I’m not. I just think that as you write your novel (or whatever your project is) you should think about more than just reaching an arbitrary number. Writing that novel is about breathing life into a story you’ve been dreaming of for a while – so writing it should be about staying true to the story and its characters, not chasing numbers.
As an incentive, think of all the words you’ll have to cut during editing if you wrote a lot of filler scenes, used overused words and too many adjectives. Wouldn’t your time be better spent by writing the best story you can, instead of the longest story you can?
Anyhow, that’s just my two cents from the editing and rewriting cave.
What am I writing in November?
I’m rewriting my novel. Still. Because you have to rewrite what you wrote – a lot.
Exactly.
As I stare at the cute desk tidy a friend had given me for my birthday, I can’t help but cringe at the thought of all the dust and grime gathering in the homes of writers this November.
We all know that NaNoWriMo brings out the scariest parts of writers – leaving dusting and good manners for December. But it’s for a good cause. They’re writing their novels. They’re taking time for their craft. And that’s a hard thing to do.
Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? How are you faring with your writing? Are the dust bunnies chasing you already or have you compelled someone else to clean?
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Great post. You are always so insightful about things and lots of info to go with it. Love that. Your memes too. I hope the break helped.
Thoughts on NaNo for myself.
I guess I am weird. I do NaNo not for the word count but for the daily writing routine, it can help establish in the doing. Also, knowing lots of authors are participating inspires me to try for the word count. It can be fun participating in the different events offered during NaNo too.
I wish I could write that fast but I will not give up trying to have quality while I am shooting for words. The goal for me is every day writing with quality and if I hit that word count WAHOO! Been doing since November 2013. Never made the 50,000-word count YET.
Yes, I want to make the word count of 50.000. However, “I win” if I write every day. Quality will always trump with me over speed. Not saying I am that good but it will be the best I can do in that moment of my life.
The anything writing should be saved for journaling or “morning pages” as suggested by the book “The Artist Way.” IMHO
I don’t think it is a good trade out or “best idea” for a goal to be just write anything because you waste time if none of it is usable, and you lost a month of writing.
The book “The Power of Habit” Charles Duhigg is a great book about creating and recognizing habits good and bad.
Geesh did not start to write a book. Snickers that is writer’s for ya always throwing their words about.
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Good luck, Juneta 🙂 Sounds like you have a great outlook on NaNo.
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BTW, I set out to answer your question: Wouldn’t your time be better spent by writing the best story you can, instead of the longest story you can?
Fail to put in the answer lol and there is no edit choose in the comments so could not fix the comment, so here I am again throwing words at ya.
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Fail to put in direct answer with all that word throwing. The answer is YES!! Agreed!
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😉
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Congratulations on all your writing acheivements 🙂
I’m doing NaNo. Last year I wrote whatever came to mind just to get the word count and ended up with a lot of unnecessary scenes. I’ll need to rewrite most of it, but at least I learned what not to do!
This year I’ve planned scenes and how long chapters should be. I’m up to nearly 10k so far and my story is far more concise.
My fiancees been doing all the cleaning, so I’m lucky in that respect 🙂
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Thanks, Louise 🙂 Good luck!
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So you did a personal NaNo that almost hit 100,000 words. I think many of us are exactly like that. Our lives are about writing, not novel writing. Excellent article!
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Thanks, Jacqui 🙂
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Ah, Ronel … first, congrats on working super-hard on the variety of projects you’ve been doing! So productive – you must be excited.
Second, when I saw your blog title, I thought to myself, “Finally! Exactly what I was thinking!” I am not a writer who gets very far by (mentally) lashing my creative self to a mizzen-mast and demanding it produce X words per day. My creative self tends to stomp off in a huff when I do that …! (Even if I tell it to write just “junk” – it goes on strike!)
But I am totally in favor of taking the opportunity this month to put attention onto one’s writing, in the spirit of NaNoWriMo. I think that’s a great thing.
Thanks for a good post!
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Thanks, Theresa 🙂 I at first thought the only reason I’m not going to do NaNo this year is because I need to focus on rewrites. But as exhaustion crept in, I had to think about what I’ve accomplished thus far. I surprised myself 😉
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Absolutely!
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Congratulations on all the writing projects you got done. I must say I’m probably not writing my NaNo the same way others do as I keep going back to what I’ve written and I edit a lot. I still hope to write the 50,000 words but there will still be a lot of work left for the next years. Haha! See you soon.
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Thanks, Anne 🙂 Write in the way that makes you happy. See you Saturday 🙂
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So glad to have finally met you in person. 🙂 See you in two weeks for more high tea. Yay!
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You too 🙂 See you soon.
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