Finally, into the slog we go

Where the writing process felt rapid and productive two weeks ago, I’ve learned my lesson from all the editing that followed. Now I’m settling into a pattern. Every day I write something, but before I write I spend time thinking through the story arc I’m hammering out. When you decide to write a book having not considered what the book is about first, you find yourself behind the eight ball with plot and, as we’ve seen already, character development.

As structured and non-creative as it seems, I’ve found that setting word targets per scene and establishing the number of scenes per story arc are important but impermanent steps. They help me to keep in mind the plot lines and stay on target with writing something each day, but I change my mind frequently as the story progresses. I already know how the story begins and ends, but it is the in-between, the road the characters travel, that makes reading a book worthwhile. So now I find myself thinking each day about how to get from A to Z realistically, and interestingly, and character developing-ly. One step at a time.

As an example, I have four story arcs in this novel that eventually converge during the climax (at least, assuming I don’t change my mind later; it was three story arcs two weeks ago, then four plus some connectors, now four on their own). The first story arc is targeted at around 40,000 words which means approximately 20 scenes if I average 2,000 words per scene. Right now I’m averaging 1,750 words per scene but I know that I’ll find gaps that need to be filled (new scenes?) once the story arc is drafted. Plus, my most recent scenes have been closer to the 2,000 target. By the way, I Googled “story arc” and found definitions of archetypal story arcs that are kinda fun. I’ve already changed my mind 2-3 times about my protagonist’s story arc.

So, given my target of 20 scenes, I am every day disappointed to discover that I have only written X and still have Y to go. This is particularly true when thinking that, knowing there are (X+Y) scenes to write in total, I have only identified what I’m writing in Z of them. As of today, X, Y and Z are 9, 11 and 17, respectively. And that doesn’t include the second story arc which will need to be at least 15,000 words and in which the scenes are naturally shorter. At least that second story arc, which is the antagonist’s story, is the most fun to write so far. The third and fourth arcs are each closer to a series of interludes targeting 10,000 words. That feels more achieveable. If that sounds like a lot of story arcs, I will admit to being worried about it. However, for the story I’m telling, it still makes sense.

I’ve interrupted my writing to draft this post, so time to get back to it.