First Draft November, Days 8–10

Progress: 6,258 words. Total word count: 20,036.

First Draft November, Days 6 & 7

Day 8

Today’s word count: 1,999. Total word count: 15,777.

Today’s lesson from The Novel Writing Workshop is on setting! The lesson focused on the macrosetting (general area, e.g. city) and microsetting (rooms and other specific spaces), as well as on the time setting. Amy also presented setting as a potential ‘force’ affecting plot and character development, which I found delightful.

The first exercise was to describe the macro- and microsettings in as much detail as possible, taking into account the time setting. Since there are two macrosettings and many microsettings in my novel, I decided to only describe the ones the scene I will write today was set in. In the beginning, it seemed like I was never going to finish this exercise. Either because I was going to run out of time, or because I was going to die of boredom. But I soon got the hang of it, and got some descriptions I’d like to use in my draft.

The second exercise was to choose one of the microsettings and describe it from the POV of a character who loves that place, and from the POV of a character who hates that place. I only had one microsetting, so that choice was made for me. The difficult part was finding a character who hated that place. After a lot of thinking, I found it! Same character, different time. And this exercise just flowed. Rather than simply describing the place, I wrote a scene in ‘both’ characters’ POV. It revealed a lot, not only about the setting, but also about the character and the plot.

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I rewrote some of the stuff in the second exercise and included it in today’s word count. It almost felt like cheating. Or hacking, more like. And we got 1,999 words! What a satisfying number. We’re now totalling 15,777 words. Another somewhat satisfying number.

A fellow FDN writer suggested I reinstate the first-last line bit in my updates. So, here it is. Well, half of them, because I’m not gonna not stop mid-sentence. It’s too good.

—green grass growing around the trees.

…

But I kept writing and rewriting—

I may add them to my updates on days 4–7 at some point.

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Day 9

Today’s word count: 1,689. Total word count: 17,466.

Today’s lesson from The Novel Writing Workshop is on point of view! We have already explored POV in the last lesson. But this was a fair expansion—person, distance, intention. I won’t lie, I skimmed through some of it. POV was one of my favourite things to play back when I published on Wattpad. So, I felt like there was few things useful to me. But I did appreciate the case studies. And it reminded me to be intentional about POV.

The exercise was to think write the beginning of the novel in at least three different POVs. I am far into my draft already, and I didn’t think it’d be very useful for me to go back to the beginning. So I started my next scene instead.

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I usually split my writing into one or two sessions. Today, I wrote a sentence or two whenever I could. Some ‘sessions’ were longer than others. Eventually, I reached the daily goal with 1,689 words, totalling 17,466. I’m thrilled!

As promised, today’s first and last sentences:

—the letter until I had nothing left to say.

…

I can no longer endure the pain—

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Day 10

Today’s word count: 2,570. Total word count: 20,036.

Today’s guiding question(s) from Frist Draft November is:

What makes your protagonist take the first irreversible step into the unknown? What do they risk if they say yes? What do they risk if they say no? Why does this moment matter more than the ones that came before?

This one was difficult because, sure, I’m following the three-act structure, more or less, but since my narrative is non-linear, I’m kind of at that point in the story, but also not really. Either way, the exercise was helpful in identifying the different things I should make clear for the reader, especially because I follow a non-linear structure. I’m just not super confident in how to incorporate them. It’ll come.

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Today, I wrote a massive 2,570 words, putting us at a total of 20,036 words! I’m so very excited about this. And we’re past 20K! That is, 40% of the month’s goal! Wow. I did not think I’d get past Week 1. Next milestone: 23K by the end of the week.

As promised, today’s first and last sentences:

—of knowing who I really am.

…

Nothing seems to—

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