Nanowrimo: Day 21
Nov. 21st, 2010 01:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miko2This year I got a very late start on Nanowrimo, and I didn't keep daily totals of how much I was writing, in part because I knew I'd written very little. But in the last week I've gotten more serious about it, and while I doubt I can reach 50,000 words (especially without "cheating" on my word count -- more on that in a minute), I can at least say that I've completed a couple of chapters on my fanfiction story Girl's School that have bedeviled me for at least a year.
The chapters in question deal with the aftermath of chapter 24, in which a lot of people are badly injured and a few people die. These are dark chapters, and I wasn't sure how to write them. At various times over the past year I've started writing them from a point just after everyone arrives at the hospital, as a flashback during a funeral, from the point where Ranma and Akane are travelling to the hospital in a helicopter, and again as a series of flashbacks after the fact. What I was left with was a massive text file nearly 40,000 words long that did not contain any two complete, consecutive scenes, and contained a number of starts and stops, half-written scenes, and scenes and bits of dialog that had been partially written and rewritten and copied to different places in the document and copied again. It was a mess, but I couldn't delete anything or clean it up until I knew for sure what scenes went where, and which were important, and which were superfluous.
Also, I wasn't sure how to write the hospital scenes, the funeral scenes, and how to set the right emotional tone (which I'm still not sure I've done, but anyway).
So after two weeks of working I have a completed chapter 25 and a nearly completed chapter 26, and I still have multiple scenes written for a coming chapter 27, and some sketched in ideas for a chapter 28. If I can finish those, then I can finally link the story up to the "magical girl" chapters I wrote for Nanowrimo 3 years ago. (Or was it 4?)
This is obviously not how Nanowrimo is supposed to work, but I don't care. As long as I force myself to pound this thing into a readable shape, I'm happy. I've accomplished what I set out to do. In any case, each of my "wins" for the last three years have been by "cheating" in that I've worked on an existing story rather than something completely new. This year I'm deleting an awful lot of stuff as I write, so technically speaking I've only added about 10,000 words to my document this month. But I've decided to cheat even more, and count the finished chapters as written this month, even though they includes bits and pieces that were written previously. There's really no other way for me to know how much I've actually written this month. Anyway, by that count I'm at nearly 20,000 words, still a long ways off from my goal. But at least I'm getting somewhere.
*EDIT* Spent most of the day working on my story. I now have 3 completed chapters, 25-27. Originally I was planning to only need 3 chapters to finish off this entire section of story, but now it looks like it'll be at least 5...
All three chapters totals 28,774 words. And while that includes some stuff that was written previously, I'm counting that as part of my Nanowrimo goal. After all, I had to spend a lot of time stitching sections of scene together and rewriting everything. Even at that, I'm still a long ways behind my goal, but now I'm hopeful that I really can get a coherent 50,000 word document assembled by the end of of the month -- and finish off this entire story section. ^_^
Something cold was pressing against Ranma's cheek. She awoke with a start. Tomari Honda was standing over her, a cold can of ice coffee in her hand.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Ranma," Tomari said. She held the can out. "You look like you could use some caffeine."
"Thanks," Ranma opened the can and downed half of it. She realized suddenly that she was starving. She hadn't eaten in nearly 24 hours.
"Your mother has gone to identify the body, and fill out some paperwork," Tomari said. "Also, there are police officers here who are interviewing people one at a time, and Mr. Honda wants a doctor to check out everyone who was on that hillside. Especially you, I think," she added.
Ranma nodded. Akane, Nabiki and Kaida were asleep in nearby chairs. Miyuki sat in the corner furiously scribbling in a notebook. Other people had come and gone over the last couple of hours.
"What time is it?" Ranma asked.
"Eleven thirty," Tomari replied.
Ranma yawned. "Is that all? It already feels like the longest morning of my entire life. I'm starving."
"There's a caffeteria," Tomari said. "If you need any money, let me know."
Ranma watched Miyuki for a minute. “What's she doing?” she asked.
"Writing," Tomari replied.
"I can see that," Ranma replied irritably. "What's she writing?"
Miyuki glanced up with a guilty expression. “I... I’m working on a story,” she said.
"A story? What kind?"
"A magical girl story, of course," said Tomari.
Ranma frowned. “Seems like a strange time to be writing something like that."
“I have to do something,” Miyuki said. “I have to take my mind off of stuff. I can’t just sit here.”
Ranma nodded. "Tell me about it, then."
Miyuki looked even more nervous. "I... ah... I'm... ah... trying to write down everything that happened to us. Only, you know, more as a story. About the Anything Goes Angels.”
Ranma blinked. “The Anything Goes Angels?”
“The name of our Magical Girl group,” said Miyuki. “I finally came up with a name for them."
Comprehension dawned in Ranma's face. "You're writing a story about all of us as magical girls?"
"Yeah."
Ranma considered this a moment. "Is Nabiki in it?"
"Yes, of course."
"Her name is Pretty Angel Lime," Ranma said.
Miyuki's mouth dropped open.
The chapters in question deal with the aftermath of chapter 24, in which a lot of people are badly injured and a few people die. These are dark chapters, and I wasn't sure how to write them. At various times over the past year I've started writing them from a point just after everyone arrives at the hospital, as a flashback during a funeral, from the point where Ranma and Akane are travelling to the hospital in a helicopter, and again as a series of flashbacks after the fact. What I was left with was a massive text file nearly 40,000 words long that did not contain any two complete, consecutive scenes, and contained a number of starts and stops, half-written scenes, and scenes and bits of dialog that had been partially written and rewritten and copied to different places in the document and copied again. It was a mess, but I couldn't delete anything or clean it up until I knew for sure what scenes went where, and which were important, and which were superfluous.
Also, I wasn't sure how to write the hospital scenes, the funeral scenes, and how to set the right emotional tone (which I'm still not sure I've done, but anyway).
So after two weeks of working I have a completed chapter 25 and a nearly completed chapter 26, and I still have multiple scenes written for a coming chapter 27, and some sketched in ideas for a chapter 28. If I can finish those, then I can finally link the story up to the "magical girl" chapters I wrote for Nanowrimo 3 years ago. (Or was it 4?)
This is obviously not how Nanowrimo is supposed to work, but I don't care. As long as I force myself to pound this thing into a readable shape, I'm happy. I've accomplished what I set out to do. In any case, each of my "wins" for the last three years have been by "cheating" in that I've worked on an existing story rather than something completely new. This year I'm deleting an awful lot of stuff as I write, so technically speaking I've only added about 10,000 words to my document this month. But I've decided to cheat even more, and count the finished chapters as written this month, even though they includes bits and pieces that were written previously. There's really no other way for me to know how much I've actually written this month. Anyway, by that count I'm at nearly 20,000 words, still a long ways off from my goal. But at least I'm getting somewhere.
*EDIT* Spent most of the day working on my story. I now have 3 completed chapters, 25-27. Originally I was planning to only need 3 chapters to finish off this entire section of story, but now it looks like it'll be at least 5...
All three chapters totals 28,774 words. And while that includes some stuff that was written previously, I'm counting that as part of my Nanowrimo goal. After all, I had to spend a lot of time stitching sections of scene together and rewriting everything. Even at that, I'm still a long ways behind my goal, but now I'm hopeful that I really can get a coherent 50,000 word document assembled by the end of of the month -- and finish off this entire story section. ^_^
Something cold was pressing against Ranma's cheek. She awoke with a start. Tomari Honda was standing over her, a cold can of ice coffee in her hand.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Ranma," Tomari said. She held the can out. "You look like you could use some caffeine."
"Thanks," Ranma opened the can and downed half of it. She realized suddenly that she was starving. She hadn't eaten in nearly 24 hours.
"Your mother has gone to identify the body, and fill out some paperwork," Tomari said. "Also, there are police officers here who are interviewing people one at a time, and Mr. Honda wants a doctor to check out everyone who was on that hillside. Especially you, I think," she added.
Ranma nodded. Akane, Nabiki and Kaida were asleep in nearby chairs. Miyuki sat in the corner furiously scribbling in a notebook. Other people had come and gone over the last couple of hours.
"What time is it?" Ranma asked.
"Eleven thirty," Tomari replied.
Ranma yawned. "Is that all? It already feels like the longest morning of my entire life. I'm starving."
"There's a caffeteria," Tomari said. "If you need any money, let me know."
Ranma watched Miyuki for a minute. “What's she doing?” she asked.
"Writing," Tomari replied.
"I can see that," Ranma replied irritably. "What's she writing?"
Miyuki glanced up with a guilty expression. “I... I’m working on a story,” she said.
"A story? What kind?"
"A magical girl story, of course," said Tomari.
Ranma frowned. “Seems like a strange time to be writing something like that."
“I have to do something,” Miyuki said. “I have to take my mind off of stuff. I can’t just sit here.”
Ranma nodded. "Tell me about it, then."
Miyuki looked even more nervous. "I... ah... I'm... ah... trying to write down everything that happened to us. Only, you know, more as a story. About the Anything Goes Angels.”
Ranma blinked. “The Anything Goes Angels?”
“The name of our Magical Girl group,” said Miyuki. “I finally came up with a name for them."
Comprehension dawned in Ranma's face. "You're writing a story about all of us as magical girls?"
"Yeah."
Ranma considered this a moment. "Is Nabiki in it?"
"Yes, of course."
"Her name is Pretty Angel Lime," Ranma said.
Miyuki's mouth dropped open.
