Tasha's (aka Beren) Journal

Well I've finished my word count for today, now I just have to make up for yesterday's non-writing :). The end of this week is going to be a bad week for writing because I have so much else to do too, including the in-laws coming down, so I intend to try and do a lot at the beginning of the week anyway.

I am out of the chaos zone now, but that doesn't mean I'm writing in order because that would be boring ;). The details are all coming together in my head now and flowing nicely onto the paper.

Fav scene I wrote today involved Charlie being mothered by a dragon, and no, sorry, it wasn't Alexander.

What I don't think I've mentioned before is that the novel is not the only thing I am writing this month. I'm trying to finish Dark Reflections 2 as well as converting one of my fanfics to an original novel (an no I'm not just filing the names off - I'm creating a whole new universe and using some of the scenes and the premise which was original in the first place). The way I go about Nano is, on a normal working day, I try to get my Nano word count written in the morning (didn't manage it today because of the weekly shopping) and then writing and other duties in the afternoon. This means I don't get nano'd out with the main book. I'm very bad at staying focused on only one thing.

That there is my mind *points down*, flitting from one thing to the next. Seems to work for me though. I think sometimes I give my sister conniptions ;)

Doing Nano has become rather a tradition for me. I used it to make myself finish my first Chronicles of Charlie Waterman novel, then last year I used it to finish the second one and so this year I am using it to finish the third one. I'm on target so far, which is always nice.

I'm aiming for 70k or there abouts, because that's the length these books seem to end up and they are a nice reading length. However, the difference this year is I didn't have the first 20K written. This year is total seat of the pants writing. I had a basic idea and the rest is all just happening.

Never fear, this is how I usually write. I am not an ordered writer at all. Sometimes I write down important points so I remember to put them in, but the way I write is very organic. At the moment I am in the throw it at the page stage. In other words I'm skipping from scene to scene just writing what comes into my head. I'm creating people and places on the fly with random scenes form the very first one to the very last without filling in everything in between.

The plot is still developing in my head and so far I have all the good guys mapped out and know exactly what they're doing. I know exactly what the bad guys are doing, but I have no idea who he/she/they/it are yet.

I think I am almost at the refinement stage where I will go back and start filling in important things like places and more about the characters to give them depth, but I'm not quite there. Maybe another couple of days of random writing before I get down to the details.