Just a few days away from the 31 days of writing the first draft of a novel. About 19% of the people who begin NaNoWriMo accomplish this original goal, although a much higher percentage get much further along in the projects than otherwise, I suspect.
Time will tell if I am part of the 19%
In these days, I have been hard at work outlining this story (a new experience, since I had very little idea of how to do this, in regards to my first book-length story). And have found that Larry Brooks' StoryFix site and his "Story Engineering" book to be tremendously helpful. Many thanks to Larry.
This process is about:
Finetuning the characters -- particularly the heroine. Alexa aspires to be bold, but she's shy. So, how to make her really likable for readers? That would be story arc, and a good deal of work to accomplish in a smooth, believable manner.
Identifying the Theme(s) -- something that could be allowed to just appear on their own. But I'd like my stories to connect to the reader's heart -- or gut -- as well as give them a good time and giggle along the way. A theme that resonates and develops and reaches the mountaintop: THAT's what I'm talkin' about.
Delivering the action -- at just the right moment in the novel's structure. The more I study and hearken back onto good books and movies I've known, the more I see that certain turns of plot at certain points in the story are crucial for the reader's visceral experience. They are markers along the way that show the story is heading in a direction that will make sense.
An aside note: I just ordered a new computer! My current Macintosh is seven years old, is run by a pre-Intel chip (i.e. speaks "Japanese" when every other computer speaks "French" or "English"), and is no longer supported by most Internet browsers. I love using things for a very long time (my Toyota is at 243,000 miles), but sometimes it's just time. So, a MacBook Air is on its way to me -- hopefully to last another seven years.
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