EASY AS A, B, C . . .from BB
Back on November 21, I told you how far behind I was on my 50,000 word novel (a fairy tale) for the National Novel Writing Month: well, I fell even farther behind, and then I powered through the last two days and “got ‘er done.” By “done,” I mean I hit 51K and change. A lot of it is junk—that’s the way some first drafts are—but there are some really fun bits too. So it’s NaNo “done”—I was a “winner”—but not “done Done,” because it will need a lot of work.
I’m going to let it lie now, for a while—while I return to the historical which I also mentioned in that blog. It’s about a woman in the British Isles who led a revolt of the Celts against the Romans, burned three of the invaders’ cities to the ground including Londinium (you can easily guess what that was), but both lost and triumphed in the end.
In my past—WAY past, as this was I’m-afraid-to-tell-you-how-many-years-ago (actually I don’t even know)—I had done maybe five hours of research in order to write an historical poem about this heroine. As I put my hands to the key-board to write, I was horrified to realize, “Oh, no! This is a novel!‘ But I steamed ahead and wrote the first of the poem anyway. When it got to about 12 or 13 verses of rhymed iambic pentameter (what was with that?), it was already too long for the contest.
I cut out a couple of verses, “synopsized” the rest of the story and sent it in to the League of Utah Writers’ contest where I was sure it wouldn’t do anything, because it barely scratched the surface of her story. I was right. (Entries for their contest, by the way, are open to everyone—member or not—and usually due around mid-June—check out www.luwriters.org where they will eventually put up the rules and categories for 2013—possibly some time in January.)
Anyway, the week after I’d entered the contest, I sat down and wrote the “rest of the story.” In verse. Iambic pentameter verse. It was then 32 quatrains long. Since then, I’ve added a few more (it’s now up to 39 verses). The following week, knowing all along that it was really a novel, I wrote an intro or prologue and one more chapter. Since then, I have written one more chapter and done hours and hours . . . and hours of research. I have 471 pages in total, including a screen play.
So. My WIP: I have dug out all the pages and was giving myself until the end of January to try to organize them (and now I’m still SO far from organized, it’s frightening!) into some manageable and cohesive pieces, while reading all the “old stuff.” What a mess!
My plan is to be ready to write new chapters by Feb. 1. I will continue to write through February and March and hope to edit in April. IF all goes well, and with the help of my two critique groups (The ABC Writers Guild at www.benschwensch.wordpress.com and the Wasatch Mountain Fiction Writers or WMFW), I hope to send the finished product to three possible publishers in May.
And that’s what WIPs are all about: a Work in Progress is a work IN progress.
See you day-after-tomorrow for “Friday Friends”
The ABC Writers Guild 