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Anatomy of a complicated fanfic story
Nov. 4th, 2009 04:51 pmIt's become sort of a ritual for me to use the month of NaNoWriMo to force myself to get some work done on my biggest fanfic story, Girls School.
For some reason, I'm able to focus during November and churn out 50,000-plus words. I wish I could do that every month -- then perhaps all of my various story ideas would finally get written. I had a goal this year of writing at least 500 words a day, and I stopped trying to do that by early to mid January. I've written very little since.
For what it's worth, I've already managed over 5,000 words this month -- over 10,000 if you count what I wrote in the last couple weeks of October as I geared up for the event. I'm on schedule and should add another 50,000 words to my story by December. However, as I've done in the past, I'm jumping ahead just a bit to tell another part of the tale -- meaning I still need to go back to link everything up, and rewrite large parts of what I've already written.
For a story that began as nothing more than an idea, "what if Ranma went to an all-girl's school?", and then became about 3 chapters that I wrote and forgot about for a year or more before rediscovering and deciding to continue, Girls School has morphed into a very long and complicated story that threatens to spiral out of control. I did not start with any ending point in mind, but there are plots set up in the first few chapters that I will naturally need to see through until the end. In the meantime, however, I keep going in other directions. Hopefully it's worth reading. ^_^
Just to help me keep things straight, here's an overview of what I've managed so far and what I'm aiming for:
Chapters 1-19: Published
Chapter 20: Needs some rewriting before publication
Chapters 21-24: written, not yet published
Chapters 25-26: unwritten
Chapters 27-31: written, needs major rewriting
Chapters 32-33: unwritten (estimated 2 chapters)
Chapters 34-42: unwritten/in progress (chapter totals estimated)
Breakdown by story arc and when written, with current word count:
Chapters 1-15: 70,500 words. This is, more or less, everything I had written prior to NaNoWriMo November 2007
Chapters 16-24: 75,000 words. This is everything I wrote in November 2008 (last year). This finishes a major story arc and nearly sets things up for my "magical girl" chapters.
Chapters 25-26: 2,500 words. Mostly unwritten, these are two linking chapters I need to finish before all the magical girl stuff happens.
Chapters 27-30: 36,000 words. This is my Magical Girl Story story part 1, containing the first big adventure. Written during NaNoWriMo 2007.
Chapters 31-33: 18,000 words. Partially written. This is the Magical Girl Story part 2, second adventure. I wrote this in November 2007 but stopped halfway through when NaNoWriMo was over.
Chapters 34-40: 10,500 words. For what it's worth, I'm skipping over my unfinished chapters 25-26 and 32-33, and for the moment I'm working on my Magical Girl Story part 3, the third adventure. This will be a longer arc and would finish up what I had originally planned for the magical girl story arc. I only have some vague ideas of what I might do beyond this point, but that includes....
Chapters 41-42: 5,500 words. These are some half-scenes and notes on another plot that I had in mind, for something I foreshadowed back in the Magical Girl chapters two years ago. I sketched this stuff out in early to mid 2009. To be honest, these two chapters are not likely to happen directly after the Magical Girl stories, but at the moment I have nothing else written this far ahead in the story.
Total written at the moment: about 220,000 words (only half of that published), with some 45,000 words or more expected to be added this month. If I can manage to get everything written up through chapter 42, I'll be over 300,000 words, I guess.
For some reason, I'm able to focus during November and churn out 50,000-plus words. I wish I could do that every month -- then perhaps all of my various story ideas would finally get written. I had a goal this year of writing at least 500 words a day, and I stopped trying to do that by early to mid January. I've written very little since.
For what it's worth, I've already managed over 5,000 words this month -- over 10,000 if you count what I wrote in the last couple weeks of October as I geared up for the event. I'm on schedule and should add another 50,000 words to my story by December. However, as I've done in the past, I'm jumping ahead just a bit to tell another part of the tale -- meaning I still need to go back to link everything up, and rewrite large parts of what I've already written.
For a story that began as nothing more than an idea, "what if Ranma went to an all-girl's school?", and then became about 3 chapters that I wrote and forgot about for a year or more before rediscovering and deciding to continue, Girls School has morphed into a very long and complicated story that threatens to spiral out of control. I did not start with any ending point in mind, but there are plots set up in the first few chapters that I will naturally need to see through until the end. In the meantime, however, I keep going in other directions. Hopefully it's worth reading. ^_^
Just to help me keep things straight, here's an overview of what I've managed so far and what I'm aiming for:
Chapters 1-19: Published
Chapter 20: Needs some rewriting before publication
Chapters 21-24: written, not yet published
Chapters 25-26: unwritten
Chapters 27-31: written, needs major rewriting
Chapters 32-33: unwritten (estimated 2 chapters)
Chapters 34-42: unwritten/in progress (chapter totals estimated)
Breakdown by story arc and when written, with current word count:
Chapters 1-15: 70,500 words. This is, more or less, everything I had written prior to NaNoWriMo November 2007
Chapters 16-24: 75,000 words. This is everything I wrote in November 2008 (last year). This finishes a major story arc and nearly sets things up for my "magical girl" chapters.
Chapters 25-26: 2,500 words. Mostly unwritten, these are two linking chapters I need to finish before all the magical girl stuff happens.
Chapters 27-30: 36,000 words. This is my Magical Girl Story story part 1, containing the first big adventure. Written during NaNoWriMo 2007.
Chapters 31-33: 18,000 words. Partially written. This is the Magical Girl Story part 2, second adventure. I wrote this in November 2007 but stopped halfway through when NaNoWriMo was over.
Chapters 34-40: 10,500 words. For what it's worth, I'm skipping over my unfinished chapters 25-26 and 32-33, and for the moment I'm working on my Magical Girl Story part 3, the third adventure. This will be a longer arc and would finish up what I had originally planned for the magical girl story arc. I only have some vague ideas of what I might do beyond this point, but that includes....
Chapters 41-42: 5,500 words. These are some half-scenes and notes on another plot that I had in mind, for something I foreshadowed back in the Magical Girl chapters two years ago. I sketched this stuff out in early to mid 2009. To be honest, these two chapters are not likely to happen directly after the Magical Girl stories, but at the moment I have nothing else written this far ahead in the story.
Total written at the moment: about 220,000 words (only half of that published), with some 45,000 words or more expected to be added this month. If I can manage to get everything written up through chapter 42, I'll be over 300,000 words, I guess.
