Day 17: When your story has deviated from the outline...

Heyho everybody!

Another day, another few thousand words? Yep, I'm sure hoping so. I managed to churn out about 2k last night so I'm still above where I need to be for NaNo. One of my writing buddies nitesh is at 43k, say what! Go! :D Anyway, I'm happy because today I'm gonna go have another write-in at Zoey's! Yay!

Oh, the real reason why I wanted to write this blog today is that my story has kinda sorta definitely strayed off of the path and off into the forest to chase willo' the wisps. Before NaNo began I made an outline and vowed to stick to it. But like with every story I've ever written/began writing, the damn thing just took on a mind of its own and started writing itself. I've managed to keep my plot relatively on course but it's been weaving around a lot. Good news, though, is that I think most of what I wrote actually helps make the plot better, more interesting, and less blah than I originally intended. The consistency of it went from being like chicken broth to full on chowder in just a few chapters. But, of course, now that I've added so many little elements to make the plot thicker and juicier, I need to make sure I keep track of them all so I don't half-ass things. I've really only re-read the entire story once so far because I know I'm going to be tempted to edit, and I'm definitely saving that for next month. Consequently I'm going to face missing components and chunks of plot that could make it better that I'll have to add next month. But hey, this is supposed to only be a first draft right?

So I'm cool, I'm cool.

But I'm still irritated. Trying to change how you've been writing for years is difficult, mind you. It's no small task to go from the editor's dream where you do all the work for the editor by editing the shit out of your manuscript to just going with the flow like the hippies in Fairfax. Nothing against the hippies but it can be really tough to make such a drastic change in how you write. I'm still okay with doing it, but I'm really starting to get the itch to edit. So wish me luck as I dive back into writing today and hope I don't become the Editomegazoid. I'll make sure to try to keep Captain Gini's advice in mind while I write today.

~The Editomegazoid