Even though I’ve been planning my NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) story—a YA and up mixed-genre fictional quintology—since 2005, in my first 10,000 words, I’ve already met some surprises:
I didn’t know that the story was going to have any significant part, let alone begin, in this world, and the addition of a major setting has led to the addition of a large number of new characters, some of whom will appear in only one scene and some of whom will be integrated into the rest of the story.
I didn’t have an approach planned, but my strategy of going back and revising when something written earlier bothers me —although counter to the general cry of “Write on! Never look back!”—seems to be working well for me, as far as comfort goes, if not word production.
At the moment, the element that I’m thinking will require the most smoothing when December rolls around is the narrator’s voice.
Now I’ll see if I can “catch up” on my word count.
