Today was a mixed bag of a day.
I woke up, feeling a bit iffy but also stoked to have a full day to write. Obviously, I had to run some errands, clean and meet with some folks (because how else do you procrastinate) but I still had a decent chunk of the day to write.
Enter: Midday.
I decided (because I was cooking for myself) that I would have three fish cakes and a packet of MiGoreng instant noodles for lunch. Everything tasted fantastic and I sat down to write. Shortly thereafter, I began to feel awful and decided that I needed to lay down.
Nothing helps time travel than a nap, and suddenly my afternoon was a distant memory. I’d managed to write 600 words, so only 1067 more to hit the target for the day. The problem for me was I’d hit an absolutely solid wall where I was at a pinch point between the inciting event and the midpoint. I kind of failed to pace my story between those two events and suddenly I had a huge gap to fill.
I reread my previous day’s writing (when I managed to undo some work, but that line was awful) and discovered if I created an event to show just how underestimated the antagonist was, it would add a whole lot more misery to my antagonist.
So she went from being the potential leader of a rebellion to the girl who potentially got two guilds involved in a battle with the king, released a demonic panther into the human world, almost got her friend killed and in doing all of that, got arrested by the high inquisitor and right now is being branded for execution.
I love when a story takes a great turn! (Am I evil…?)
As I currently sit at 17.6k on the old wordcount-o-meter, I’m feeling pretty good! My next points to write are as follows:
- Protagonist ends up in prison.
- Jailbreak is planned.
- Jailbreak is attempted and succeeds at failing.
- Protagonist blocked from human realm, left to survive in the demon realm.
- Protagonist makes shady deal with demon.
- Demon takes his payment (Her Mother, unbeknownst to her)
- Protagonist has mental breakdown, saved by guild members.
- With nothing left to lose, Protagonist takes fight to Antagonist.
- Remainder of guilds and protagonist defeat antagonist and go further to the King.
- Monarchy removed, guilds form leadership council.
- Protagonist leaves kingdom behind for travel, finally securing her freedom at great cost and damage.
Only 32.4k words to go!
My favourite thing about this story is that it links into my whole world that I am currently building! My characters discuss how powerful the antagonist is and refer to him as being close to the first magicians. Check this out!
“Sorry doesn’t cut it.” Jareth stated. “Narwhal Pendergast is not a man to be trifled with. His magical abilities are unlike any I’ve ever seen, and only comparable to those I’ve heard of in the stories of the first magicians.”
“Jefferson and Gabriel?” Carvella’d heard the fables of the duo who’d taken on the gods in a time where magic was still new but she’d never considered them a lesson in history. “So let me get this straight, you think he’d be able to defeat a god?”
“It’s not about fighting the gods though, is it?” Jareth scolded her. “He’s only fighting us… and he’s winning.”
My face while writing that was literally the giant smiley emoji, even though things are going terribly for my protagonist (Carvella).
That aside, I’ve been listening to some more podcasts and they all seem to say a few common things:
- Go to Writing Festivals, if for nothing else, just to mingle and talk writing unabashedly for the day with other people like yourself.
- Find an agent. Make sure the first 100 pages of anything you submit to them are no less than absolute gold.
- Don’t quit your day job.
- Write for you and what you want out of it.
No pressure right? Anyway, I tick many of the above boxes. (Day job, check. Write for me, check. Talk writing, check.) Now I just need to mingle at a festival and find an agent (preferably at the same one, ha ha ha *hack*cough*wheeze*).
Well, until my next NaNoWriMo update! Good luck out there and hope you’re going well with your own writing! Let me know!