Wilson's 2015 Motivational Novella Challenge

[RedMage]

Alright, I've finally made a definitive start on my novella. For now, the working title will be "Ravensbridge" until I can come up with a better one, though I doubt I will...

I may rewrite or simply delete the opening 2 scenes, but I've written the 3rd and I'm 2/3 of the way through the 4th tonight, both of which are definitely needed and going to be in the story.

How is everyone else doing on their novellas?

 

[Bodhi]

I don't know if I'm part of this group (yet!). I want to finish my longest-form story yet, which would be novella (or novelette).
The pace I work at tho, this will be a lifelong endeavor. I can't seem to let my prose flow to churn out the pages and get the story down. I'm used to heavily pondering each sentence, like for poetry.

On November 3, I guess I'll be with you. At least until 2016…

 

[RedMage]

I don't know if I'm part of this group (yet!). I want to finish my longest-form story yet, which would be novella (or novelette).
The pace I work at tho, this will be a lifelong endeavor. I can't seem to let my prose flow to churn out the pages and get the story down. I'm used to heavily pondering each sentence, like for poetry.

On November 3, I guess I'll be with you. At least until 2016…

Are you disappointed by this? I can't tell if you are, or if you have accepted this as your normal pace and are happy with it.

If you're not happy with it, have their been any times when your pace increased? Were you doing something different then than you are doing now? Perhaps there is a clue in where or what you were physically doing at the time, or where you were in the story, any prep you had done for it or not done, etc etc

 

[RedMage]

I've decided to cut two scenes from my novella. They don't really add anything, only provide a rehash of the known problems my main character has to overcome. I don't need that and I can have her reach her decisions much earlier -- such as the end of the current scene

Overall, the story is going well. How is everyone else doing?

 

[Facing]

How is everyone else doing?

Not well. This project has been sidelined until after NaNo. That will still give me a month and I'm hopeful that will be long enough to have something to share.

 

[Wilson Geiger]

My novella-turned-novel is moving right along. I'm almost at 22k words right now, and I estimate by the time December rolls around, I should be close to 70k. I need to plan out a few additional scenes, but the loose plotting I've already done is working very well.

 

[RedMage]

@Facing -- good luck with NaNo, and with getting back to this next month.

@Wilson Geiger -- keep at! I'm anxious to see how it turns out.

I caught myself rambling at the end of my current scene. My protagonist still needs a further push before committing herself to the decision she knows she needs to make---and that's coming in the next scene. But for now, I want her to learn a bit more about why she should make the choice, and why it isn't as evil as she thinks. (She basically sees herself as a turncoat who has been thrown out of her previous side in a centuries old Cold War type conflict between two parts of a town on opposite sides of a river from each other.) So now I'm rambling and don't know how to bring her discussion with two friendly people from the other side to a close.

 

[Wilson Geiger]

Rambling is okay, man! Sometimes that helps me get a better idea of my characters' thought processes, or even helps to refine what the scene should be about.

I know you hate when I say this, and it's just my own advice, but no cutting. Just write past it.

 

[Wilson Geiger]

I'm over 25,000 words on the novella-turned-novel, and I'm still really excited about where it's heading. I didn't have a great idea where the middle was going to take me, but ever since I focused on a scene plotting session to iron out some of the loose details, it's been really smooth. I mean, so smooth, like the delicious, creamy middle of an Oreo, that I am starting to wonder if I'm doing something wrong, or the story totally sucks.

 

[RedMage]

Rambling is okay, man! Sometimes that helps me get a better idea of my characters' thought processes, or even helps to refine what the scene should be about.

I know you hate when I say this, and it's just my own advice, but no cutting. Just write past it.

Haha! Thanks, Wilson. And I don't think you've ever told me not to cut or, if you have, it must have been quite a while ago....

I'm actually doing quite a bit of writing and then rewriting with this project. That is, I can get somewhere between 200-400 words each morning before work, but then I end up completely rewriting all of them later that day. Or, if not all, then at least a significant chunk of them. And that's ok because all but this one problem scene have been simple and straightforward and simply exploring how to say things and find better ways later in the day.

I did skip over that problem scene though and wrote the next one. It came to a close this morning at 1,666 words! Now onto the next one and continued exploration of the hows and whys and wherefores of this story so I can include them in the problem scene.

 

[RedMage]

I'm over 25,000 words on the novella-turned-novel, and I'm still really excited about where it's heading. I didn't have a great idea where the middle was going to take me, but ever since I focused on a scene plotting session to iron out some of the loose details, it's been really smooth. I mean, so smooth, like the delicious, creamy middle of an Oreo, that I am starting to wonder if I'm doing something wrong, or the story totally sucks.

I bet it's the creamy middle of an Oreo. From what you've told me of it, it certainly sounds like an Oreo!

 

[RedMage]

I don't know if I'm part of this group (yet!). I want to finish my longest-form story yet, which would be novella (or novelette).
The pace I work at tho, this will be a lifelong endeavor. I can't seem to let my prose flow to churn out the pages and get the story down. I'm used to heavily pondering each sentence, like for poetry.

On November 3, I guess I'll be with you. At least until 2016…

Hey Bodhi! Did you decide if you're doing this or not? I'm just curious, dude.

 

[Wilson Geiger]

The novella-turned-novel is proceeding well. I've gone back and revised the scene list, and I'm sure I'll have a few more tweaks to do the further into this thing I get. Originally, this was a first-person perspective, with one character, but now I've added two additional viewpoints (with a twist). This allows me to show the conflict from a different angle, and it's made for some cool (well, I think they're cool, anyway) scenes.

Right now I'm 36,000 words into the novel, with 55 scenes loosely plotted out (and some already written). I expect, once the initial draft is finished, that I should have close to 100k words.

 

[Wilson Geiger]

So, we're in the final throes of the year. How's everybody doing?

The MilSF novella-turned-novel is proceeding pretty much as planned, and I've hit the 40k mark, so even though it's not 'finished', I've passed the novella stage. I still have a lot of scenes to finish up now that the bones of the story look good, as well as details that I skipped earlier.

I want the combat operations to sound authentic, and since I never served in that capacity, I might have to do a fair bit of research. I mean, yeah, we're dealing with future warfare, with human consciousness streams downloaded to power armor, but still...

 

[RedMage]

I've ceased progress on my novella as I've needed to turn my attentions elsewhere. I still want to write this novella story, but I don't think I'll be able to get back to it before the due date and, even if I do, I know I won't be able to do more than get a start on it. I do plan to write it sometime in the first half of next year, however.