Wednesday, November 29, 2017

I failed NaNoWriMo, and That's Okay

So that happened.

To be honest, I entered the challenge with apprehension and doubt if I could finish it. Hell, I even changed story subject at the last second. I had no idea where the story would go after a specific point, and all I had for the ending was a twist in the way the story was written. I know hindsight is 20-20, but after spending hours writing the most I have ever written, around 12,000 words in three weeks, my creative juices stopped. I have more than 40,000 words left and there's absolutely no way I'll be able to write that much in such a short amount of time, so I throw in the towel. That's it. It's over. I failed. Whoops.

To be honest, I'm actually kind of glad that I didn't finish NaNoWriMo. 
Maybe it might have something to do with what I started reading over the month. I cracked open John Truby's The Anatomy of Story and put my current story under a microscope, curious to find what unconscious Freudian-levels of symbolism and plot were planted by my subconscious. Shockingly, I found out that the story actually had nowhere to go, the main character wasn't formulated at all, there was no opposing force to speak of, and the protagonist's life seemed dull. With that bit of reality shoved in my face, I instead took the time to rebuild Point of View from scratch, away from my computer, taking what I've already written but editing it to match the tropes I wanted to keep and nothing else.

It's kind of going the same way as STTR (Second to the Right). The story is being rewritten after 5/6 chapters and the characters will be laid out in writing for future reference, somehow.

This month gave me time to tweak the background of my stories, to learn to frame a character in a certain way so that they change. Point of View's protagonist (Michael Whittaker) is an aged celebrity coming to terms with a world that won't appreciate him or his craft, as the new form of film-making goes back to its roots and focuses on story over actors. Peter Pan doesn't really change so the focus will have to be on Elizabeth Robertson and how she finds Peter hidden amongst the unknown. 

We'll see how that turns out, but I'm just happy that I'll actually get to improve my writing, instead of just pick up little descriptions along the way.


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