After NaNoWriMo

That’s it, NaNoWriMo is over. My wordcount on the 30th of November was 71,434 words (I estimate that the completed first draft will be around 85,000 words) and I only have three chapters left to write. 

I am both elated and exhausted and eager to write the final words of The Orchid Collector. NaNoWriMo has allowed me to do in one month what took me YEARS for my debut novel. 

When I was writing the first draft of As Winter Came and Went, I only picked up my pen when inspiration struck. I could go for weeks, months even without writing a single word. I didn’t even know if I would actually finish it one day or just give up, like I gave up on so many projects. Well, I didn’t give up but there were about five years between writing the first words and publishing the book. 

And now, after thirty days, I am 15,000 words away from the end of my manuscript. And this is so exciting! Of course, this first draft is awful. Parts are incoherent. It will need months of editing. It may need a total rewrite. The style is sloppy in part. Most of the secondary characters are just cardboard. And to be honest, I am a bit fed up with it. But you know what? Once it is finished, making this first draft into a proper novel will be the fun part: I like editing, refining, working with words, trying to create the perfect sentence. 

And even if this manuscript isn’t very good, by taking part in NaNoWriMo, I have proved to myself that I could write every day. That I could take this writing thing seriously. That I could churn out chapter after chapter. And more importantly, I have learnt to not wait for inspiration: I produced about 2,000 words a day, even if I did not feel like it. Because that is what this challenge is about: pushing your limits, and getting the writing done. 

Could I do it the whole year round? No. But I will try to use the momentum this challenge gave me to finish The Orchid Collector and maybe another project. I will try to write the last chapters in the next couple of weeks, and then I will let the manuscript rest for a while. I have already made a list of details, scenes and characters I want to change, but I will wait, to look at it all from a distance. I also have more research to do, historical and otherwise, in order to flesh out the manuscript and make the story more realistic. So yes, lots of work ahead. 

But now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got three more chapters to write!

"When you need a higher wordcount..."

Why use just four words when you could use more than forty? I hope that I will not have to use this ruse to reach my NaNoWriMo goals... 

NaNoWriMo preparations

November is drawing nearer, nearer, and so is the beginning of NaNoWriMo. I’m more and more excited about it and about my new project, The Orchid Collector. I don’t know if I’ll have a finished manuscript by the end of November, but hopefully, I’ll be 50,000 words in and more than half-way through. 

I want to give myself every chance of achieving this, and that means actually preparing this crazy writing marathon. 

I do not usually do a lot of planning when it comes to my novel. I do a rough outline and time line that gives me an idea of where I’m going. Sometimes I do not actually follow this outline, but it doesn’t matter. It’s just a guideline. Like a rough map of my writing journey, that will not stop me from making detours. 

However, I decided to make a much more detailed outline for The Orchid Collector. I’ve divided the story in parts, and chapters, and wrote small paragraphs listing different scenes and plot points within those chapters (12 of them). This does not mean I will precisely follow this outline, but it will probably save me time, as I won’t have to invent scenes as I write them. Thanks to this outline, I know precisely which scene will end the novel, I’ve even made a summary of it. 

I’m using Microsoft OneNote to work on the outlining and planning of my project. I like the fact that the virtual notebooks can be synchronised on different devices. I think it’s an interesting tool to organise ideas. 

Because a novel is nothing without its characters, I’ve also worked on fleshing out the main ones. Rough physical and temperamental characteristics, but also bits and pieces of backstory. There will be two main characters. A third character will gain much importance in the second half of the story, but he does not appear before them. I’m also in the process of making a list of secondary characters with names, ages, motivations, fate in the novel, etc. 

I still have to do some research, especially on Cochinchina in the 18th century. Because setting and atmosphere will be important, I will have the pleasing task of going through photos taken on a trip to Vietnam a couple of years ago, to remember my impressions and the sense of place. 

On the whole, I’m really enjoying all this preparation, and I hope that the actual writing in November will be as pleasant and that I will reach my goal!

NaNoWriMo

I’ve decided that this year I would try to take part in NaNoWriMo. What is NaNoWriMo? This stands for National Novel Writing Month. It starts on the 1st of November and the goal is to write a 50,000 word long novel from scratch in one month. That means an average of 1,667 words per day. 

I’ve been wanting to do it for some time, because it sounds like an exciting challenge. So this year, I’m taking the plunge. 

To play by the rules, the novel you write for NaNoWriMo has to be one on which you have not started yet. You can research, plan and outline it beforehand, but you must not have started to write it before the 1st of November. So that means that, by the end of November, I could find myself with yet another unfinished first draft to add to my collection. 

I was tempted to do this challenge with one of my works in progress. However, I remembered a story idea I’d had some time ago and thought it would be a good opportunity to see what I could make out of it. 

What is this story? Well, it will be set in the 18th century, in the 1770s probably. Part of it will be in England, and another part in Cochinchina. Working title: The Orchid Collector. I still have a lot of research to make. I know who the main characters (two of them) will be, but I still have to work on secondary characters. And several historical points will have to be elucidated. I’m working on the outline now, chapter by chapter, in order to make the actual writing, when it starts, easier. 

I first had this story idea when I was visiting historical greenhouses in Paris and reading the historical facts about the explorers and botanists who travelled all over the world to bring back rare and precious plants. I thought it would be fun to write a piece of fiction about one of those explorers, about this quest for the beauty of the natural world. All the more so since I love orchids (but I’m very, very bad at cultivating them. I’ve got a few sad looking Phalaenopsis that have not flowered in years and struggle to survive). 

I’m quite excited about this challenge. Maybe I’ll even manage to complete this novel!