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Welcome to this week's Novel Support Group (NSG). Anyone can join. If you're new, tell us a bit about who you are and what project you are working on. Feel free to update the NSG Work in Progress thread with your current projects. Although we can report on any number of things, here is a list of suggestions (suggestions welcomed).
What were your goals last week and did you accomplish them?
Describe what you worked on.
Set goals for next week.
Did you learn something during this week?
Here is a list of things that you can do each week as we work on our novels (suggestions welcomed).
Writing on a novel
Characterization
World Building
Relevant research
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Last Week's Goals
I have finally finished cleaning up and combing all of the outlines I had for Book 2 of this series. I think I had like 15 different outlines to combine after I found them all. Now, I have a 6,000 word outline for the book. It was fun going down memory lane for a bit there. Work on Book 3 has already begun. I have everything scanned and most of the scans cleaned up for the resulting OCR. Again, going down memory lane as I remember the events of this series, which I outline something like 15+ years ago.
My goals for next week:
Clean Outlines
Scan book 3 outlines
I will continue finishing up the work on Book 3 and see how far I get.
What did I learn this week?
Sometimes being an outliner takes too much time from writing.
However, I've used up all the easy stuff. Now I'm into more conceptual stuff. This works in making my examples longer, but doesn't carry the same punch as the short examples.
I dug through my index cards and copied the notes from them into the .document, so now I've got lots to work with.
This morning I added something RoxyL just pointed out to me in my latest crit. That example was easy to come up with.
Week 1 - Page 21 of a projected 100 Week 2 - Page 41 of a projected 100
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last week's goals: - This weekend I need to work on my WOTF draft and get it shape for critting by Sunday.
update: I didn't do this. The excuse is that my daytime visitor ended up staying with us for the weekend, which kept me preoccupied. But that's just the excuse. I certainly found plenty of time to play video games. Sigh. I've been procrastinating because I'm afraid of what I'll find in rereading the first draft.
- Reread my manuscript. It's been a couple years, and in my revision I got stuck and maybe got off on the wrong foot. I'd like to reread my old material to see what I can recapture of my story.
update: Did not do this.
- Plot a course for my revision.
update: Did not do this.
this week's goals: I'm going to keep it real simple for now. So: -Work on WOTF story -reread my manuscript
Lessons learned Life is going to get in the way. you just have to pick up and move on.
Posts: 2185 | Registered: Aug 2007
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Finish typing the first chapter. --> Done. In the process, I rewrote the main characters' first meeting to remove inconsistencies.
Finish at least two of the incomplete scenes. --> Not done. Instead, I looked for inconsistencies in the plot, setting, and characterizations in the first four chapters; made changes to fix some of those inconsistencies and noted what still needs fixing; brainstormed and outlined new scenes for later chapters that should improve the pacing; and conducted research for nagging details.
Next Week's Goals
Combine the older two of my three novel binders, and either file or discard any material that is no longer relevant.
Research: Start reading Trees of Pennsylvania and the Northeast from cover to cover.
Research Georgian/Federal homes (again) and decide what the face of the main house looks like. I no longer want to wonder about what kind and color of stone was used for the house, when and in what style was the porch built, what kind of handle is on the front door (which oddly, has bothered me the most), etc.
Work on the story draft every day.
Lessons Learned
Document my research! Two years ago, I memorized much of what I looked up, but I no longer have a clear recall of that information. I had to retrace my steps to figure out a few story details, and that was annoying.
Also, my NaNoWriMo project from 2008, a sloppy history of one the MC's family history, was well worth the time and angst that went into it. The decisions of his ancestors continue to influence the MC's life, and it's nice to be able to pull up a chapter to reference how and why certain decisions were made.
Posts: 1139 | Registered: May 2008
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