#NaNoWriMo Day 11 Report

Day 11:

Needed: 18,326 words.
Written: 20,476 words.

OK, being sick is not conducive to writing. Even when the sinus attacks and sore throat and chills are gone, just being tired and worn out after fighting off the virus takes too much out of me to actually write anything worthwhile for a few hours.

So I only got a few hundred words out yesterday, and I spent much of today in my common trap: trying to edit what I've already written. I've managed to avoid this so far, and this project has become my largest writing piece ever. But today I realized that what I had already written was compromising what I wanted to write in some way. Trying to change up some of what I'd already established to give myself more room to stretch down the line did lead to more words written, but deleting a five paragraph opening I never liked put me back.

Kind of a two steps forward, one step back problem.

I seem to have beaten the cold, and tonight turned out to be rather productive (I met the daily minimum goal, at the very least), so hopefully over the next few days I can build up a better lead again. Especially when the weekend gets here. Having today off did not translate to a couple thousand words the way previous weekends have.

But as far as the story problems go, I don't know. Possibly the biggest problem is I want the protag to think and consider every possible action and every possible idea from every angle, rather than going off to actually do something. This also ties in to what I said about what I had written cutting off what I can write. When the protag has already said "No, I can't get in touch with these people because of X," (or when I've written that they can't because of Y) then he's stuck on his own and I need to figure out a way for him to get to the next scene.

I think yesterday I had the protag stuck in a library browsing one website for the entire day, because I couldn't figure out a proper way to get him somewhere else. But now I have him in Tokyo, meeting up with another character. Things should come easier from here.

And I'm moving up some scenes I had set aside for later. The book may come across as shorter, but better to have brisk narrative than slogging, pointless scenes.

(Plus, I know it'll be shorter because a lot of the recursive monologuing I have going on is going to be cut; but I need to save that for a later time, not right now)

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Oh, and I need to stop looking at this story and everything too seriously. I need to lighten up the tone a bit, just for my own benefit.