I'm NaNoing this year too

I just wanted to quickly update to say that I am indeed participating in NaNoWriMo this year.

The new site has taken a lot of getting used to, and I know that many users are grappling with the extreme bugginess of the site. Clearly it wasn't quite ready to go at launch time on November 1st, but sometimes you get lucky and find workarounds that work for you.

One of the biggest problems people are facing is the inability to use the default type of word count updating method - the "total words" option. For me, adding words written during each session is working, but it doesn't work for everyone. And for me, adding my overall word count total does NOT work. It looks like it's updated, but when you refresh and go back to it, the word count has reverted to the old count.

I count myself lucky to only have that problem, where other people are having what sounds like an infuriating issue with their projects being deleted / disappearing over and over again. They've had to add it back repeatedly, and some seem just about ready to give up.

I'm hoping that many of these teething issues will be resolved soon, but it seems like the NaNo team is very short-staffed, and they're dealing with what looks like thousands of complaints. So it can't be a fun time for them right now!

As for my actual writing? I am working on adding words to pre-existing projects. The main project is one that I had to do some corrections for before November 1st, because I had previously stalled at a certain point of the book. I had to revise my plan for how the story was going, as it just didn't seem to be working. So that was done before November began, and while it was a little slow getting back into the story, I feel like it's flowing nicely now. These are my first projects where I'm writing to a beat sheet, and I'm hoping that when I get to the revision stage, I'll find myself with far less of a mess than I have in the past (in my pantsing days). Time will tell!

I went to a kick-off party which was a lot of fun, and I'll go to the November 30th Write Night for my region too. All in all, I just love NaNo and always get sucked into doing it, even in those years when I'm not sure I should.

Is anyone else doing NaNo too?

IWSG #18 - First chapter editing

It's IWSG day, so I thought I'd edit this and include the badge. I think my post fits the overall "insecure" theme, because I know often first chapters can be the most challenging in novels, and the most demoralising. In my case, I almost always have to edit the crap out of them to make them passable. But it can take a while for me to get to the point of being daring enough to take big steps.

* * *

Last time I posted, I mentioned that I had switched editing projects. I mistakenly said I was working on LOST & FOUND, when in fact I'm working on ON THE OUTSIDE. Maybe this goes to show that I have a stupid amount of novels to choose from when it comes to editing, and easily get confused between them all? ;)

Anyway, yes, I'm editing ON THE OUTSIDE. I sort of jump around a bit when editing, as there are so many bits I have wanted to edit, for so long (same with all my novels). This is the result of many skims / reads of the novel draft on my Kindle, where I put all drafts for convenient reading. But the bit that most troubles me about this novel appears to be the first chapter. It's a little bloated and boring, and I've already cut a bit out of it. But the other day I was thinking maybe I should just totally condense it down, and start off with the main point of the chapter - Livia (formerly named Nora...but it was too confusing having a Nora and her best friend Nina) is about to be abandoned by her bestie. Instead of a chapter that wafts around, slowly getting to the point, why not get straight to the point?

It's funny how editing can work - sometimes you'll tweak a chapter over and over, rewrite sentences, chop out a word here & there. And then one night when you're trying to get to sleep, you'll stare into the dark and wonder if maybe you shouldn't just chop out most of the pages in that first chapter. Your chapter is feeling bloated, it's suffocating you, and it's in severe need of a good hacking.

Well, that's what happened to me the other night. I haven't got my axe out yet, but I will be reading the chapter and considering how best to wield that axe.

It feels good to be in editing mode again.