I have been busy outlining my MS for NANO. (Outlining is something I have resisted since I started writing) It's a good thing, because I can't stop and write now or the words don't count for NANO.
Using the scene tracker from the Plot Whisperer, I have filled up a couple of pages. One of the columns is Thematic Significance. If I don't know the theme, I am supposed to write details from the scene in this block. While I did this in several of the blocks, I realized these characters keep secrets. Not every scene has a secret but several of them do. My theme could very well be about secrets, and I would have never seen it without filling out the Scene Tracker.
I was asked to watch the office yesterday for a few hours. I took a book with me. It was Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint by Nancy Kress. I took this book because I have a hard time writing characters thoughts. In one way it's a good thing, I don't write much backstory, but it can be bad when I can't seem to write what the character is doing or thinking during a stint of dialogue.
After I sat and read for a while I wanted to write. (a writer writes, right?) I can't write any of the novel and I only have scraps of paper, so I tried to write a query. I know it is much to early to write a query, but hey practice makes perfect. In trying to sum up my story, it took me several sentences, crossed off etc. No the query is still not perfect, but secrets came out in my description for my query. So now I'm thinking secrets must be some sort of theme for my book. I haven't thought of a title yet, but I am sure Secrets is taken.
How are you doing preparing for NANO? My head is spinning with dialogue, comments and sentences that sound absolutely ingenious in my head. But we'll see what they read like on paper on Nov. 1.
1 comment:
Man, my head's spinning too. This sounds like a fantastic way to attack an outline, though, I'm going to give it a go! At the moment, I'm just getting in everything I can think of, hoping order will emerge. A system would help!
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