Wildcard Post: NaNo Progress & Excerpt

Total word count to date: 16,066

Why yes, I am behind. Nice of you to notice.

In truth, I'm not all that far behind. In doing the math, I still only have to write 1,786 words per day to have my 50,000 by the 30th. So all in all, not bad at all.

The better news is, this isn't my normal "slap it together" NaNo draft. I've done my time with bad drafting (five, to be precise), and I needed every one of them to learn and experiment with. This year, I finally feel like all of that practice is coming together, and if things keep going as they are, I will end up with an editable first draft by the end of the month. Cool, eh?

I feel the need to clarify though. By "editable draft", I mean a draft where the plot actually stays the same throughout the story. Sub-plots may pop-up, but they work with the main storyline, and don't try to take it over. Characters might not be fleshed out, but there's enough of their personality coming through that I'll be able to go back and round them out later. My sentence structure may need some serious revisions, but overall, the draft is coherent enough that I won't run screaming from the task of editing it later. That's what I want in an editable first draft. It's what I've been chasing after for years, and even though Her Private Chef is a good first draft, it's still not quite as good (technically speaking - I love the story) as Desert Heat. I can honestly say I'm looking forward to editing them both. Another first for me.

I feel like I'm finally coming "into my own" as a writer this year, tentatively confident that I'm writing potentially publishable stuff. Finally. And with this year's NaNo, I'm discovering my writing "threshold" - that I'm generally good for 800-1000 words at a time, after which I need a break. If I try to push past that, the quality of my writing goes down. No, NaNo isn't about quality, but I'm making it part of my personal experience since I already know I can finish a draft. I'm discovering that creating outlines that consist solely of scene synopses works best for me, personally, and that I don't have to be so afraid of weaving sub-plots in...they don't have to take over the story, and can just be another level of complexity.

This year's NaNo has been great so far, and I can't wait to see how the draft turns out.

How is your NaNo experience going so far? Are you on track to "win"? Learning anything about yourself as a writer?

Here's a short excerpt from Desert Heat, unedited, of course.
******************************************************
Three loud thumps came from behind him, and he glanced over his shoulder with a frown. Marie was struggling in his arms, and he turned back to her, noting the bright red color rising in her cheeks and her absolute refusal to meet his eye. He let her go, careful to make sure she was steady before removing his hands from her arms.

"Oh my god," she said, turning away from him and running a hand through her hair.
"That's probably Scott. What was I thinking?" She turned back, distress lining her face. "I'm so sorry, that was a huge mistake. You have to go."

Darren frowned. "What's wrong?" He picked up the forgotten itinerary, holding it out to her. She snatched it and laid it on top of some folders on the table, then twisted her hair up into the tidy style she always wore, securing it with a few pins. She spared him only a cursory glance, her normal bland expression back in place.

"I'm having dinner with Scott," she said, reaching for her jacket and buttoning it back over her shirt. He realized the wanton woman he'd just been with was gone, and the cool, controlled doctor was back. "We made plans earlier on the plan." Three more knocks sounded, and Darren felt like opening the door and punching the man on the other side.

"Cancel," he said, blocking her way as she walked briskly toward the door. "Stay with me."

A flicker of that other woman sparked briefly in her eyes when she finally met his gaze. "I can't." She looked down, staring at his chest. "I'm sorry - you're just too...too...you." She pushed past him and pulled the door open. Darren turned, feeling only a little better when he saw the questions on the photographer's face when he saw him.

"Sorry I'm late, Scott," Marie said, gesturing back to Darren with a professional smile. "Dr. Newbury just stopped by to replace my copy of the schedule, and we were going over a few things." She raised her eyebrows at Darren. "Have a good evening, Doctor."

Round Robin: Up a Tree

Welcome to the weekly Round Robin! Each week I post a four-sentence prompt, and your mission, should you choose to accept it is to continue the story (up to 4 sentences at a time) in the comments. You may post more than once, but not consecutively. You don’t have to be a writer to join in – anyone can play, and take the story whatever direction you want.

Here we go!

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Up a Tree

Nelson stood barefoot in the cool grass, his neck craned at an impossible angle. Above him leaves rustled and danced as the object of his interest moved through the branches. Dark clouds were approaching, and lightening had flashed just south of the ridge moments ago. He reached for a low branch, preparing to swing himself up.

Construction Zone: Automatic Sub-plots

Delve into my NaNo draft with me for a moment, if you will. Marie, our heroine is driving her team in a big truck with an extended cab along a highway in the desert. The next “catastrophe” I’ve planned for them is an engine problem, which happens on schedule. They get out, one of the guys thinks he can fix it, and rummage around in back for a tool box. I’ve not given them one, I want them to solve the problem creatively (or not, whatever happens as I write).

And then they find a box in the back. One that could be a tool box. I’m intrigued, because it’s not supposed to be there. I’m typing furiously; just as curious as they are to find out what’s in the mysterious box. They open it up, and through a serious of cryptic comments, we all find out that it’s a kilo bag of cocaine.

Obviously, this adds some serious issues to the story. There are certain logical things that one “expects” to go with illegal drugs being randomly found. One of which is that at the very least, someone’s probably looking for the drugs.

This doesn’t actually change my plot at all…it just adds another layer of complexity. More bad guys to watch out for. Maybe more good guys if law enforcement gets involved. Certainly more challenges and danger to deal with as they try to solve the main challenge in the story. It’s something I hadn’t thought of, and why would I? I was focused on the main story when planning out my scenes, and I don’t plan out every little detail before I start writing (because knowing too much about the story before I write it bores me, and then I don’t write it).

This happens to me quite often – I’ll be writing along, minding my own characters when someone finds something, or an event I didn’t plan just sort of happens. Sometimes it’s annoying, and completely unusable. My past NaNo drafts have many such examples that make me fear editing them. Occasionally, they’re like the example above, and I sit in awe of what can happen when you let things play out as they will on the page.

Do automatic sub-plots pop up in your drafts? Are they normally usable, or just words to cut later? Have you ever taken an automatic sub-plot out and turned it into it’s own story?

Goals and Reading List 11/9/09

Here we are again, looking at another week full of things to do. Last week I was about half and half with accomplishing things, but the momentum wasn't too bad. I'm about 1,100 words behind on NaNo at this point, but I'll catch up eventually.

I couldn't wait to re-check the word count guidelines again - for anyone who might be interested, Harlequin Blaze and Intrigue (the two lines I'm considering for my novels) are both 55,000 to 60,000 words now. Must have gone up, but that's okay. Good, actually, since it opens up potential to submit to other houses without having to add so much should Harlequin turn me down, if I write to 60,000 words. Cool.

Anyway, I didn't do too badly last week, even with falling behind a bit. Desert Heat is cruisin' along, but needs more "heat". I didn't get a short story drafted, but did get the plot down for each of them, along with the main character and common thread. So good progress - they should go quickly with the advanced planning.

As far as personal goals went, the Thanksgiving decor is up, work-outs were a non-event, and all the halloween stuff is gathered for inventory, but that's as far as I got. Sometimes, you just have to sit and play games instead of working all weekend.

So...here we go again...

Weekly Goals

Writing
- 2000 words per day on Desert Heat
- 2 short story drafts for Holiday Lights
- Chapter 32 of Tempest
- Start writing earlier in the evenings (ie, quit playing on FB so much)

Personal
- Get cracking on the halloween decor inventory. I don't want it stretching into Christmas. We have Wednesday off (Veteran's Day is a federal holiday), so will hit it hard then.
- Start my gift calendars
- Catch up on the backlog of laundry from before the Halloween party

Weekly Reading List

It's slow going with all the writing at night, but I still manage to sneak some reading in at lunch and on the occasional break at work. The beautiful thing about ebooks is they are completely portable, and unnoticable on a device as small as my PDA.

Another Harlequin freebie, Snowbound by Janice Kay Johnson was completely delightful, fraught with angst as it was. A teacher and her high school charges are stranded in the mountains by a huge snowstorm, and taken in by a war vet in a remote mountain lodge who isn't at all happy for the company. It's a wonderful story of redemption and healing, very well written.

Starstruck by Julie Kenner (Harlequin Blaze) is a hilarious and poignant story about falling in love with your best friend - or not. The tension is high, the heat is on, and so is the struggle between following your heart, or following your head. The sort of on again/off again bumbling relationship between the two main characters, Alyssa & Chris, is very believable, and the ending is just perfect. I can't wait to get Claire's story (Alyssa's best friend) when it comes out!

Texas Blaze by Debbi Rawlins (Harlequin Blaze) is my current read. Last month I read her Texas Heat, which was three shorter stories about three of Kate's friends finding love at her ranch (two with Kate's brothers, one with a local rodeo hero). I was really looking forward to Kate's story, and so far, it hasn't disappointed. How do you get the guy you had a crush on when you were young to admit his attraction to your grown self when it seems "taboo"? This is an excellent read, but I wouldn't expect anything less from Rawlins.

That's it for this week - how's your week shaping up? Any good reads, or is everyone busy writing away?