Yesterday, at roughly a quarter after one EST, I finished writing the novel I had started 10 days prior.
Not only did I make the NaNoWriMo goal of 50,000 words, but surpassed it by a few, and finished the first draft entirely. Now it’s sitting, waiting patiently for me to be ready to edit and polish it. And I know there much work to be done yet. It needs a lot of help, I’m certain. Since I went with a different method of writing than I have in the past–namely I wrote the whole sucker without going back and reading what I had just written–I have no idea if there are consistency issues. I know there are scenes that need to be expanded and more detail given. I know there are scenes that I’ll want to change entirely or delete completely. The word count will change, decrease and grow, accordingly. But I can’t even look at it right now, because I’m still too close to it. Can’t see the forest for the trees, you know?
It’s written in the third person, with alternating POVs between the characters. I’m a fan of writing both in the first person, and in the third. As you may have noticed, the flash fics have all been first person. To be honest, everything always starts in the first person in my head. And then as the story starts to build, I see if I see scenes from both character’s perspective or just from one. I, personally, am not a fan of books that switch POVs and they are both written in the first person. I find them hard to read. Though I have read some books that do it well, it’s not my favorite type. So if I find that I have scenes from both character’s perspective, it gets relegated to the third person. It’s all about what works for my story as a whole.
Both of my upcoming releases, Worth It (out on December 1st as part of the Dreamspinner Press Advent Anthology Heartwarming) and Hero Worship (included in the Dr. Feelgood Anthology with an expected release date in February 2014) are written first person. They are both short stories, though. Postcards (working title) is much longer, and had more time for the story to develop. I think that’s why it ended up being in the third person. The story needed to present things from both characters POV.
At any rate, the entire tale is on the page. I now have the bones to work with and hopefully make into a good story. And I did it in 10 days. Imagine how much more I could get written if I didn’t have to go to the day job? 🙂
Kris T. Bethke--Author of M/M Romance 