Noveling Madness!

It's only the sixth, and it feels like mid-November already. This is crazy. I went gangbusters and knocked out 12k of crap in the first four days. I wrote squat yesterday, and wrote 500 words of novel notes - stuff to make happen. So, my current word count gets me midway between the 7th and 8th, so by Thursday, I'll be behind again. Fortunately, I have a superweekend of power writing planned in an out-of-state location. Right, Judeldoo? :)

One character, who was supposed to be minor, is now going to live with her grandmother for the summer. The grandmother was to be one of the three major characters, and as of now, the grandmother is now moral support, and room & board for a troubled teen. But what would happen to make a teenager have to live with her grandmother for a summer? What catastrophic event could have befelled these poor, fictional people? I'm open to suggestions...

The main MC (ah, redundancy!) has to have a best friend. Eight chapters in, I decided that the best friend needs her own sub-plot, rather than just the supporting character role. I think I'm sending her to Copenhagen, thus the research on Hans Christian Andersen this afternoon. One translator was identified as having added sexual innuendo to his translations. Hmmm - were those innuendo written in the originals, or did he really add that? I think the BF/SC might have to find out. I don't want to do too much research - I actually might find the real answer, and that would mess with my story.

One thing that worked for me last year was switching between the three main characters' pov for each chapter. When I got bored or stuck, I'd switch to another character, leading up to the inevitable connection to all in the end, Love Actually style, sans the papier-mache lobster in the Nativity play. The male MC has already been silenced. I actually typed these sentences at the end of his chapter: Boy, I sound like a big jerk. I don’t think I’m going to be allowed to narrate my own chapters anymore. Of course, in a second draft, his chapter would be deleted entirely. But right now, I need those 945 words in my word count!

Other cheats that I'm not ashamed to admit: I added a set of horoscopes and a desciption of a band that I found.

I have also learned about "TIAMAT: The Primordial Dragon Goddess of Creative Chaos. She lived happily in the salt water below the mists of time, joined by APSU, the wettest Water God ever", "PHILYRA: Goddess of Paper. Yes, really. She's also a Goddess of Writing, Healing and Perfume", and "PHANTASOS: God of Dreams. Particularly the surreal ones where you're flying over a lake of custard and seventeen giraffes blow raspberries at you" (www.godchecker.com). Philyra and Phantasos havne't actually appeared in the novel yet. 38k to go - they might make it in yet! And the HCA research has just begun...

Ah, Nano... Oh, how I've missed you!