Novel Prep

 I'm thinking another round of novel writing is coming my way. Sure NaNoWriMo is a few weeks away. National Novel Writing Month gives you the 50000 words in a month challenge) but I reckon now is the time to get some prep done, ready for working on what I'm writing. 

And yes, work is stupid and I'll have to work around this, but I'm all fired up after a meeting with the Faber crew the other night. One of our ranks has finished her first draft. The rest of us are struggling a bit. 

She said something interesting the other night. In finishing her first draft, something she's been working on for many years, she said that this first draft was the shape she thought it would be when she first envisaged the novel. 

And I think I've found one of my problems. I don't have the shape of my novel yet. 

I know what I want to write about. 

I've got my characters - and last year's Faber course put me onto these wonderful characters, who I love. And I want to write about Faith, Laz, Mo and Harry. I want to investigate their back story - and Faith's way forward. 

But I need to get the shape of the novel out there. 

What is it's flow? What is it's narrative drive? How do my characters get from Point A to Point B? And where does it need to go. I have to work out what happens and where, and when, and to whom. 

So this is my job for the next three weeks. Working all this out, so when the first of November comes around, I know what I'm writing - writing to shape, rather than for investigation. 

So this is where I've landed. Get out Scrivenor, and start working on the form, the shape of the novel.

And may this, along with Mercury coming out of retrogradeon the 18th of October, just in time for Jonella's birthday. 

Today's song: