This is probably the weirdest National Novel Writing Month I’ve participated in yet. Aside from totally out-of-the-ordinary events happening almost every day from November 1st onward, I’ve been writing using a peculiar process for my first draft, and I’m not at all sure where it’s taking me.
I started with a vague idea of setting and a small, under-developed cast of characters. With those in mind, I started writing scenes. I’m writing them in whatever order they spring to mind, and though they are written in third-person past-tense, they sometimes resemble background notes more than scenes. As the story grows, I seem to have two plotlines developing side-by-side, the events of one happening in the “now” of story-time (i.e. 1931 or 1934, I haven’t decided which, and no, I don’t know why those two specific years are the options) and one happening in the past (about 1925). These two plotlines involve different but closely related characters. It’s all very surprising.
Beyond that, I’m frequently running into the problem of still having absolutely zero idea where my main plot is going. The subplot has figured itself out and wrapped itself up fairly nicely, but the main plot, the “now” plot, is completely without direction. I know there are some good guys, some bad guys, and some ambiguous guys, but that’s about it.
In an article called SOLVED: The Outlining vs. Organic Writing Debate, Larry Brooks says,
To outline or not to outline… that’s the wrong question.
The issue isn’t about outlining. The issue is simply the degree of foundational story architecture awareness that a writer brings to their process.
I think there are two layers to this writing truth. The first is a basic awareness, a general grasp on story structure that is indispensable to every writer. The second is an understanding of the main conflict for the specific work-in-progress.
Since I started writing, I’ve grown exponentially in my understanding of story architecture. I’ve read a lot of books since then (and the number of books I read each year is still growing), fiction as well as non-fiction books, many about writing and story structure. I’ve also explored a number of different outlining methods, and though none of those methods were ultimately successful for me, but I learned more about story architecture through each one. Essentially, I am burning story architecture into my subconcious, so that I’m subtly aware of it now that I’m making my first expedition into writing without an outline.
Not that it’s going totally smoothly, which brings me to the second necessary element when writing organically. It’s important, at least to me, that I go in with some sort of plan, especially an understand of the main conflict. I can see already that a big portion of what I’ve written will be dumped in revision. I know that all stories have scenes cut, but switching main plots mid-stream is frustration I’d prefer to avoid. I think if I’d mapped out the basic story trajectory in my head, working out the major conflict before starting to write, I could have avoided that. Instead, I just have to hope I can connect those doomed scenes to the main plot somehow, but most likely those will be lost words chalked up to “exploration”.
Which is how I’m trying to view this draft: “exploratory”. I expect I’ll do better in the future when I’ve taken the time to do the necessary bare-minimum planning. But hey, in a way that’s what NaNoWriMo is for—experimenting and having fun. I’ve learned a lot already, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the rest of Week Two plays out.
Follow my NaNoWriMo progress.
