CampWriMO April #1

I’ve been revising my novel The Deadliest of Errors for almost a year now. Not long ago it seemed like I would never be done.

I had bouts of feeling suffocated in a smog of details so that I couldn’t see the ‘real’ story. Those were the times when I would have to leave it alone for a few or several days, and when I would feel it was pointless to continue because, let’s face it, I was writing complete rubbish, and the times when I felt stale and uncreative — just what the hell was I thinking trying to be a novelist when I had next to no imagination? I would never write the next Hunger Games, nor Game of Thrones. The instinct to abandon Deadliest crested high and I thought I must write something new.

The temptation was so great, but after a short break from my WIP sudden clarity would hit and I would attack it again with a new insight to the deeper crevices of my story.

Still, I knew that after Deadliest another revision awaited me — a much larger revision — and if I concentrated only on Loved UP it would be several years before I ever wrote anything new.

And so I decided to develop a short story into a novel. Starting date : today! April 1st -- Campnanowrimo.

As much as I told myself I would plan all my scenes in advance, I have fallen back on my usual process, which is to have an idea of the climax, an idea of the characters, and take it from there. But I was still editing Deadliest too.

It was one day last week I actually sat and read the whole thing in a day, and what I found completely surprised me. Yes, it needs copy editing, and tweaking with sentence structure a little, but regarding the big stuff like pace, tension, character development, plot, I’d pretty much finished. There IS light at the end of the tunnel. And it makes it easier to move on.

So here we are Day #1 of Campwrimo. Already I have written 1416 words before lunchtime — my target is 1k a day until April 30th. I am pleased, because I thought I’d be scratching my head for hours on where to start. And do you know how I got into the flow? I made a list. I listed words connected to what I wanted to put in the chapter, then it just suddenly came. Freewriting. That’s the key for me. Let’s hope it works again tomorrow. And when I read it back, it wasn't even too awful!

At least I don’t have Deadliest nagging at me to finish, either. At least, not until after beta readers. That baby is soon to fly the nest.