Raven's View

Okay, not a lot of snow, just a few centimetres so far. Although I suppose it was more than they needed at the Grey Cup game yesterday, the final playoff for Canada's pro football league. At any rate, I get my snow tires installed tomorrow, in the midst of a one-day heat wave. It's going up to +10C. Maybe the landlady will have a chance to bag the leaves then, once this melts. She's sold, closing in a few weeks, so not as much maintenance happening anymore. Less, as I got home to discover the washing machine had been removed from the basement.  So when I head to Toronto this week to visit my girlfriend I may be bringing a bag of laundry.   Yes, I am a little ticked - maybe after dinner and a glass of wine I will mellow. Edit - she's ticked too. She'd hired someone to remove an old fridge and stove from the basement. But, instead . . . 

As for status since last week's check-in? Well, some progress made.

• writerly - some work on my NaNoNovel, but not even close to 50k words.But I do continue to fiddle with it - productively at times. I haven't decided whether I bring my laptop to Toronto, though. 
• reading - no books, but I did churn through the Sunday NYT. And I'll bring the Guardian Weekly with me to Toronto.
• games - I'm still working with support re my controller wheel issues. Probably past warranty. I did find this writing related game, Typoman. 
• Netflix - I finished The Office, finally. And I'm still watching The Method.
• health - I babysat at my son's this afternoon, which is always nice. No pubs lately, so no beer. Walking occasionally. I seem to have lost a few pounds - yay. 

In my last post, almost three weeks ago, I had a plan B. I would just write for a couple of hours a day, rather than measuring words. Unfortunately, other than a few hours here and there and some good structuring and outlining, not a lot of words were added. I'll keep working at it, but I suspect I won't really focus until I visit my girlfriend next week. I know, one would think that would be break time, but she needs to sleep later in the mornings so I get up a few hour earlier, have my cereal, brew a mug of coffee, and work at the kitchen table. But this novel will need to keep on going in December. I did manage to comment a few times on other's ROW80 posts, so that counts as writerly too.

I think I need a Plan B. I've completed several (6?) NaNoWriMo's, but this time my writing is sooooo slow. I'm just past 4400 words, and it's Day 5. In past years I've outlined a plot, some Turning Points, and key characters. I'd also have an idea for the twist that started it all off, and the one that wrapped it up. No problem, away I'd go. But the subsequent editing -yikes! Major surgery, and seems to take forever. Depressing. 

I skipped last November. I did more editing of some rough drafts over the last year, as well as more reading and learning about how to write. This year I had a good idea for a story and got positive initial feedback and ideas from friends. I worked on it for all of October, even at my girlfriend's place. She has an MFA, experience as an editor, and is a poet, so we worked out several long-term goals and short-term objectives for my protagonist, as well as my antagonist. Plus a number of arcs - character, romance, technology, dream powers, etc. No scene outlines - we ran out of time. I've been outlining those as I go this time, deciding whether each is a 'Scene' (goal, conflict, disaster) or the following 'Sequel' (reaction, dilemma, decision). And as I write I'm ensuring each one works toward one or more goals, and addressing some of the arcs.   

Yes, it's contrary to the NaNoRules, but sometimes, if something isn't working, you have to change the rules. All this structure, goals, arcs, was something I always added to my rough drafts, after the fact, and resulting in major hacking and slashing all over the story. I'd usually get tired of it all at some point and quit. And the story would often show those patches, not flowing as it should. 

Hence, Plan B. I'll plan/write/edit for at least 2 hours a day, preferably early so I get it over with while I'm fresh. My speed may improve, as I get used to incorporating more structure and elements in this draft, but I'm looking for quality, not quantity. I want to become a better writer, not just a more prolific one. 

I was tempted to wait until Sunday for this, but I'd just poured another glass of wine so why not?? I came back from my week in Toronto on Wednesday evening. I did get some NaNoWords done on the train, but they serve pre-drinks, dinner, wine, apertif - so it was a challenge. Earlier we'd been busy getting my girlfriend's car towed away by a charity, and recovering from a very late Halloween night. And once I got home, I, of course, HAD to play my new video game. So - not as much NaNo progress as I'd hoped, but not as bad as I feared either.