Board 8 > NaNoWriMo

(+) Yeah! (+)

It took a while, Ill admit.
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Chapter 17: Beated

Admittedly, it's one of my shorter chapters.
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Chapter 18: Beated

But it's the shortest chapter of them all.

Currently up to 38000 words.
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I'm on what I'm labeling chapter 17. Considering I'm pantsing, though, chapter count is completely fluid and subject to editing.

Yesterday was the first day I dropped below my 5k average. Of course, this is exactly 3 times as much as the expectation from Nano, and the idea that I might finish on the 10th strikes me as intensely peculiar. I can't expect to maintain that, though, considering I did a whole lotta nothin' yesterday, including not taking care of my other affairs. I have a very sparse work schedule right now, but that's largely because I have other matters to attend to, and I can't completely ignore those. My aim is simply to get 3 writing sessions in per day, and spend the rest of my hours dealing with those. But yesterday? Not so much.
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I have five hours between work tomorrow and my evening class so I planned to spend that time researching and writing. Mine is challenging because it needs to engage with research in the evolution of novel-form and it's relationship with character, setting, moral purpose, style, and plot (all the formal elements of a novel). Also needs to be representative of the British Gothic's evolution into the American Gothic.

like in short it's complicated af
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I actually ended up starting on Monday, since I forgot. At 4262 words. I usually get frustrated with the quality of my writing and stop soon after I start, but that didn't happen this time. I'm attributing that to my current story being a drama, rather than a fantasy epic, which is usually what I try to write.
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Chapter 19: Beated

At 39000 words now, which is about half of what I'm aiming for.
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I wrote 1400 words.

Ill take it.
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Chapter 21 beated

40000 words
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I reached 40k last night. Wrote a 3k chapter earlier today.

For anyone looking on at Anagram and I, don't presume these sorts of word outputs are the norm. Most people keeping a measured pace are at 15k today.
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I'm at 200 words. I'm a mess

Tried to include emojis in my original post lmao. Gameraven doesn't like it
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If you're not making any headway, then just tell yourself that it's okay for the story to be a complete steaming heap of garbage and just let stuff happen. The worst that can happen is you throw it away and start over, but it'll at least give you some thoughts on how your novel works (or doesn't work).
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azuarc posted...

If you're not making any headway, then just tell yourself that it's okay for the story to be a complete steaming heap of garbage and just let stuff happen. The worst that can happen is you throw it away and start over, but it'll at least give you some thoughts on how your novel works (or doesn't work).

For me personally, it has just been a timing thing. Extra Life is over now, so I should be back on track soon.
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Chapters 21 and 22: beated
They started as one chapter, but I split it into two because it was too long.
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Hit 50k last night with a trash chapter that's getting cut. Taking it easy so far today. Not worried about pushing 5k since the novel isn't going to be 150k.
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I've written like 10k so far this month

But all of it has been grad school papers

If my friends flake out, I may do some writing today, but I'm not formally going to try for 50k. My goals are just to get the engine going again
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I did poorly yesterday. I'm hoping to crank out some more chapters today.
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oh my god i'm finally making progress
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Chapter 23 beated

45000 words now.
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took today off. I think I'm entitled.
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I know no one is really reading my google doc, so I want to ask for advice. I'm almost at a point in my story where I have to make a choice and I don't know which is better.

It's a slasher story. I'm near the end, and the killer has killed most of the cast. Two girls are left. One is the obvious final girl trope we've followed the whole story, the other is a friend she made trying to survive whom we've followed less but who I like to think is about as sympathetic. I need one of them to die near the end.

I had planned for the first girl to live, but as I write the story I'm less certain. Either death will be an emotional punch, so it's a question of the main character having more a complex family and friendship dynamic and a way closer relationship to the reader (we've followed her for the majority of the story) vs the other girl being about as sympathetic and it being more shocking for the obvious final girl to get killed partway through.

Does anyone have advice?
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I'm sure someone here will say "ooh, kill the lead and screw with the reader." However, that also risks alienating readers, much the same as romance readers literally demand some form of happy ending. (HEA or HFN)

So really, the question that has to be asked is: who and what are you writing for? If the goal is to get published, I would stick to keeping the main girl. I don't know the horror/thriller genre too well, but that would be the more obvious choice -- and I don't mean in the sense that it's what the reader is expecting. Unless you think having that "ooh" factor is something that will carry the novel and that your MC dying while the side character lives is a nice twist.

Part of it also depends on how you've presented each. Your MC's been in the frame since the beginning. Girl #2 has not. So how long has she been around, and how much face time have they each gotten? How much does the reader know about each? You say "about as sympathetic," but what about their backstories and reader attachment? What about the overall arc of the novel, and if there's any kind of theme that could be satisfied with one of them living/dying? (Do you know what your ending is, or is this purely pantsed?)

I'm hoping you've thought about all that already. If so, then my instincts are to keep your main, because That's How It's Done (tm). But ultimately it's your novel. Do what you think makes the story better and/or more fun to write.

On the note of choices, my second NaNo novel, which was the first I finished, featured a guy who found a fantasy novel that he would enter the world of if he got absorbed enough while reading it. He'd stay there until he fell asleep, and each day, because he liked being an important person in that world better than living his own, he would choose to go back. His attachment grew, until it started to become hard to return. When he reaches the waning pages of the book, he has to choose whether to remain in the novel or to back out of it before the last page is read/experienced.

I had written the novel with the expectation that he would see his importance in the real world, tie up his affairs in Narnia, and go back to his life. But the way I had written the characters and approached the final scene where he has to choose, it didn't work out that way. He ended up remaining, while his mom reads the final pages and sends off her son. Definitely not the ending I envisioned, but I also knew well ahead of time that I was building toward this decision, and that I had left it open in my mind which way to go. When the moment of reckoning arrived, I chose the path I wasn't expecting. Slightly different, because my decision occurs literally in the last 5 pages, but it definitely subverted the norms, and I was generally fine with it. However, I'm the only person who's ever read that novel.
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Thanks for the advice, azuarc. Normally I don't care that much about shock value, but the particular genre makes it a possibility, whereas in like a more standard fantasy story it wouldn't be.

The main girl has been in the book since Chapter 2, more than half of the chapters so far are from her perspective, she has the most interactions with everyone (including the killer), and she has a more detailed backstory.

The other girl has been around since Chapter 3, but appeared only rarely, and only two chapters (of 24 so far) are from her perspective. She has a more interesting backstory (a poor person who ended up living in a wealthy area and couldn't relate to anyone), but no meaningful connections to anyone she doesn't forge during the story.

I'm leaning toward the main girl. I might very well just write two versions of the story where either one lives.
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Chapter 25: beated

50000 words. I don't know how much more I have in this story. This is almost the end of Act 2, and I don't expect Act 3 to be very long. I'm also considering chapter titles, but I don't know how necessary those are in a horror story, or if they'll screw with the scariness.
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Congrats Anagram!

I got pretty much nothing. I gave up when a friend asked me to punch up an essay for him before he then ghosted me on feedback; I pushed aside my project for that. Bah. Super-happy for everyone's progress along tbe way!
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I'd advise against chapter titles, personally.
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azuarc posted...

I'd advise against chapter titles, personally.

Yeah, that's probably for the best. I am still considering chapter titles of the perspective character's name for each chapter, though. I flip between characters.
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Chapter 26 beated
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Chapter 27 beated

I'm slowing down. I don't like this, I need to keep up the pace.
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Chapter 28 beated

I was already mostly done with it when I finished Chapter 27. I did them together. 53000 words so far.
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Chapter 29 beated

54500 words done

Act 2 complete

I'm not sure how long Act 3 will take.
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On fire! Keep on playa.
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Been a much lighter week for me. Barely 10k.
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I'm very behind.
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