NaNoWriMo: 50,000 words in 30 days = first draft of a novel
Being a perfectionist, I find a nagging worry that the scenes I keep throwing at the page (gotta get those 1666 words/day done) may end up producing -- just a series of scenes. Will they flow, keep the reader engaged from one scene to another, wanting to find out what happens next, all the way to the end? (oh, please, oh, please)
I read to my husband. He loves it. Of course, he has no bias, at all.
I take the, probably stupid, chance of reading to someone out of the family. My question: "Does it sound like a book? One you'd read off the bookstore shelf?"
I even offered to read a scene at my husband's birthday party. Yes, I did. Pity me, please.
Nobody took me up on my offer. My husband has very wise friends.
As a journalist, I'd produce 1666 words in a day, in a finished news piece, easy. Of course, when one has an editor yelling "where is that quote!" you find the way to locate the data, to fit into the sentences, to tell the news, to make the editor happy, to keep your job.
Now, I pick up a pen and notebook, during the 15 minute break in a performance. Or I sit down, open the computer and try to figure out what NEXT should I do to my protagonist, because I now realize there needs to be SOMETHING happen, before I can get her to that next important turning point.
It's harrying. It's exhilarating.
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