Tales from 1001 Emails

I came home tonight to 1001 emails in my NaNoWriMo folder. I'm not kidding. 1001. This begs the question: who the hell is writing all of this stuff and when do they have time to read them? I signed up for a few forums to jump into this community, such as it is. Well, come to find out that there is a wild amount of stuff flying around out there, everything from a forum for newbies who are trying to figure out how to update their word count to the "Character and Plot Realism Q & A" forum where one writer wants to know if you geld camels. (I think that term refers to horses, but I'm not an expert.) I'm just hoping that writer isn't working on a romance novel.

In other number news, I'm happy to report that I crossed the 10K mark. As of this writing, I have 12,217 words under my belt. I want to write at least another 3,000 within the next 36 hours to close the gap created by a few lean days. It's still early enough in the game for me to kick up the pace realistically without sweating bullets.

The writing is going surprisingly well. I find myself losing track of time, happily digging deeper into a scene. I'm not quite taking dictation, but it feels as if the story is taking on a life of its own. I spend time preparing, perhaps too much time as I've mentioned previously, but I think it's paying off. I know myself well enough to know that it wasn't possible for me to open a Word document on November 1 and start typing until I'd written a 50,000 word novel. Is that how everyone else does it? I suppose I could have done it that way, but on November 30th, I don't think I would have a Shitty First Draft. I'd just have shit.

Clear thinking is clear writing, as the adage goes. Sorting out the characters and what has turned out to be a more complex structure and plot-driven story than I would have imagined has lead me to develop a different method. Each day I start a new document and at the end of the day, I create an index, which is a simple outline with short descriptions of that day's work and any related questions, facts or holes. My notes are a separate document into which I've been pouring ideas and fleshing out stuff. Sounds like a lot of work, but I think it is keeping this behemoth from getting totally out of control.

I figure that if I want to move on to a Shitty Second Draft, I'll need some kind of roadmap. It's impractical to go back and slog through thousands of words to find stuff and good luck if you want to rearrange sections. Listen to me. I guess this means I'm taking this seriously. I'm dipping into all that email randomly and sporadically. I'm sure I'm missing out on a lot of great advice and answers to questions I want to ask, but that's life. I have to ignore most of the email because it could easily suck up all the time I need to tell my tale. And what a tale it is.