While scanning through my NaNo novel to find the appropriate spaces for dialogue, I found myself slowing down and really getting into the text. I began to fiddle around with the odd correction and then just took off in a certain section, expanding in all directions - descriptions of places, people, thoughts and even storyline.
I have this habit - I'm sure others will recognise it - of embedding the text with certain comments - such as 'find out about this later' or 'check facts' or 'why is she doing this? Provide justification', or expand on this'. They're in bright red and they're divided roughly equally into questions which I can answer through imaginative research, ie. thinking and planning and visualising, or through looking up stuff. Also, there's the odd aide memoir about something I know well enough but don't want to stop for because I want to get on with the narrative. You know how it is when that urgency strikes and it becomes vital to speed along with the thoughts in case they outpace you and are gone forever. Now, here I was, spending time filling it all out. It felt gloriously self-indulgent and satisfying.
I must have felt guilty because I kept justifying to myself that it was okay to do this. That I wasn't actually losing valuable challenge time because I was up-to-date, more or less, anyway. I wrote for nearly 90 minutes and went to bed too scared to tally how many words I'd written.
Early this morning, I woke up with ideas buzzing around in my mind. I'd found the solution to something in the story that had been bugging me but which I'd decided to shelve until I'd finished my 50,000 words because it was complicated and I had plenty else to say anyway.
I fell out of bed and on to my desk and still on automatic pilot, I did a wordcount. Guess what? I'd added 1842 words to my total just fiddling around with the text!! It flowed and I let it.
The moral of the story - the end isn't the only place to add words to. You can add them anywhere, the beginning, the middle, the end. In fact, the dialogue writing exercise which I'd set out to do, was also what I shall now name 'expanding from within'.
It keeps coming up again and again, doesn't it? Never feel guilty about 'wasting time' as long as you're working on the book, writing what you didn't plan, researching, planning, fiddling about with plot-points. If there's a flow, go with it. Let the inner critic shut up for now and come back later when it's needed.
Write unchained. |
