I'm doing something that I never thought I'd do; in fact, it's something that I spoke out against my doing last year.

I have decided to attempt NaNoWriMo.

For those of you reading who don't know what that means, NaNoWriMo is a challenge given every year for anyone who wants to sign up, to write a "novel," which in this case means a piece of fiction at least 50,000 words long, in the space of a month.

Last year, I noted that I am not naturally a fast writer, and so a challenge like NaNoWriMo would be anathema to me. And so while I wished others luck with it, I said that I myself would decline from participating.

This year I have changed my mind. Which leads of course to the obvious question: why?

Well, for a while now, I haven't been writing as much as I used to. Whether it's because I spent a year working on that novel (which, before you ask, is still in submission) or because I've been working full-time again, I have found that my fiction writing has fallen somewhat by the wayside. There was a time when gnomi and I planned every weeknight around making sure we each wrote 500 words of fiction no matter what. For the past six months, my fiction writing has instead come in fits and bursts, and I've not followed my own advice to all writers: write every day. It seems to me that I need to do something to jar the writing self into action again, and taking the NaNoWriMo challenge is as good a catalyst as any.

Another reason for me to do this project is because I still haven't managed to place a novel with a publisher. Nomi reminded me that I wrote quite a lot of unpublishable short stories before I managed to write one that sold. Perhaps I need to do the same thing when it comes to novels. So far I've only written two. If, let's say, I need to write eight more before something "clicks," whatever that something is...well, the sooner I get those novels written, the better.

Finally, doing this challenge allows me to stretch my writing muscles in a way that I haven't yet done. Besides getting the practice of writing quickly, I mean. I've decided that for NaNoWriMo, I'm going to eschew my usual genre of science fiction. Instead, I'm working on a novel that will turn into either a political thriller or political satire. I don't want to say much more, but I will note that the idea comes from having seen the way this country has chipped away at our civil liberties in the name of security. I've got something I want to say about that, and this novel is the manner in which I want to say it.

Getting a bit more personal, I contemplated not posting about this and keeping it a secret until I was done. Again, you might ask why. Honestly, it's because I'm not the kind of guy who likes to put his possible failures out in front for all the world to see. I'm not sure if I'll succeed, and unlike many braver souls, I'm not comfortable sharing every part of my writing life with the world. (Some of you know I'm talking about you, and bless you for your willingness to be so open with the world.)

But on the other hand...well, the point of NaNoWriMo is to be part of a community of people all striving towards the same goal of writing 50,000 words of fiction in the space of a month. So it seems senseless to me to take on this challenge and then deny myself the benefits of the larger community. To that end, I share here with everyone that I am using the handle mabfan for this project, same as my LiveJournal username. If you're doing NaNoWriMo as well, by all means please tell me your handle, and I'll add you to my buddy list. And for any and all who are interested, here are the links to my profile and progress pages:

My Author Profile

NaNoWriMo Progress for mabfan

Today's wordcount: 2086. A good start.

Copyright © Michael A. Burstein

The manuscript has been mailed to my agent.

Not much had been going on in my life, but given a few recent posts, I thought I'd update.

* The copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that had the upside-down signature sold to a collector in England, and I'll be mailing it out to him later today.

* lensman and gem225 both offered to lend me their DVDs of Star Trek, so I'm all set with those. When I can post more about why I needed them, I will.

* gem225 (who is new to comics) and I went on a comic book shopping trip last week. She reports on what she's started to buy and read in her post "I discover the joy and lure of comics, part 2". (I suppose this doesn't have much to do with my own life, but it's fun watching her get interested in comics. She's picked a good time to do so as well, what with Infinite Crisis on the horizon.)

* Finally, I've been in the process of revising the novel. I'm almost done with Part One, which required the most extensive rewrite, especially since I jettisoned about two chapters worth of material. If I'm able to keep up the pace, I'll have the second draft done by the end of the month.

The subject line pretty much says it all.

Just a few minutes ago, I finished the first draft of the novel I've been working on. The total word count is about 121,000 words.

In terms of manuscript pages and story chapters, my three-part structure has ended up breaking down as follows:

Part One: 183 pages (chapters 1-6)
Part Two: 225 pages (chapters 7-11)
Part Three: 75 pages (chapters 12-15)

So instead of having three acts of approximately the same length, I have a novel with a long set-up, an even longer middle, and then a quick wrap up at the end. (Come to think of it, that might actually work better.)

Of course, my work isn't done yet. The novel needs some extensive rewriting. For example, by the middle of the novel I had decided that my protagonist ought to be an orphan. This means the chapter where she has dinner with her parents needs to go. (Or, at least, I need to alter it extensively.)

Then, after I rewrite it, I have two or three first readers who have volunteered to give me feedback. Then I have to send it to my agent, and if she has any suggestions to offer I'd be well-served to incorporate them into the final submission draft.

But for now...for now I feel content to rest on my laurels, satisfied with a job well done.

If only it weren't so darn hot today...

Thanks to everyone who has been accompanying me on this journey. We've made it to the first plateau.

Another 10,000 words accomplished.

I'm not going to go into the usual analysis here, but I am glad to say that the end is almost in sight. I'm almost done with chapter 12. The way my stepsheet outline currently reads, the final chapter will be around chapter 15 or 16.

I am a little worried about the length, though. I've heard that publishers tend to look for books between 80,000 and 120,000 words, and this first draft might end up breaking 120,000 words. But I know the first part of the book needs a major overhaul, and then other rewriting might lead to some cuts. In the end, though, I'll just let the book finish finding its own natural length.

Folks:

It's been a long day and I haven't had a chance to look through the replies yet. (Mundane details of my life included an unexpected doctor's appointment to clean the wax out of my ears.) Thanks to everyone who made suggestions; if all goes according to plan, tomorrow I'll look through the list, select the names, and let everyone know who made the cut.

I haven't posted any progress reports for a while, because as I mentioned earlier I had to take a break from the novel. So for those of you interested, here are where things now stand.

Two weeks ago Friday I finished the second part of the novel, which now stands at 102,000 words. (That entry can be found here. For the past two weeks, however, I have been working on something else.

Although it's a long shot, I decided to apply for the Boston Public Library's Children's Writer-in-Residence Program. More information about the fellowship can be found here. Although I'm not a children's writer or a young adult writer per se, I've worked most of my career to make sure that my prose was accessible to middle school and high school students. (I have a lot of experience teaching both age groups.) Furthermore, I've had a young adult novel idea in the back of mind for many years -- in fact, I've had it in my files since the year 2000.

So this seemed like a good opportunity to work it out a bit.

The fellowship application is due tomorrow. So for the past two weeks, that's where all my creative energy has gone. They required a five-page outline and a fifteen page sample of my writing, so I finally plotted this book and then composed one of the scenes. I'm pleased to note that I mailed the application in yesterday, so they've probably already received it.

If I get the fellowship, it would be a nice opportunity. There's a stipend involved, but there's also access to the collections of the Boston Public Library, and anyone who knows me knows my love of libraries.

And if I don't get the fellowship, I still have an outline and fifteen pages done for that book. So it's not a waste.

I want to acknowledge stakebait, who pointed me towards this fellowship.

This leaves the burning question, of course: what about the novel? Well, I spent yesterday and today revising the stepsheet outline. I've fixed it up so it now accurately reflects what I actually wrote in part two, and I'm plotting away at part three. I expect to get the final plotting done tomorrow -- so starting Monday, I'll be back at work on the actual first draft.

A few minutes ago, I broke the 100,000-word mark on the novel in progress.

I'm of mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, the fact that I have managed to reach so many words on a work of fiction is something of an achievement. I've never written anything this long before, and that makes this a more substantial work than anything else I've written.

But the fact that it's not done yet bothers me on a few levels. First of all, when I had originally plotted out this book, the plot structure I had planned for it felt like it would only require 100,000 words to tell the whole story. Clearly that's not the case. The initial setup (Part One) took about 45,000 words, and the development of the main part of the plot (Part Two) has taken 55,000 words already. It'll probably end up being 60,000 words. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that the book will take longer to write than I had originally anticipated. I'm rather eager to have the manuscript finished.

The second concern I have is the question of how much of what I'm writing is necessary to tell the story, and not just padding that makes the book feel long. Now, believe me when I say that while I've been writing the novel, every scene has felt necessary, and not like padding at all. Furthermore, I've got gnomi reading my new pages each day, and she tends to agree that what I've been writing is necessary to tell the story -- although she acknowledges that I may end up doing some cutting when I revise later on.

And the third question is marketability. My understanding is that publishers tend to prefer novels between 80,000 and 120,000 words. Given that Part Three has yet to be written, there is the distinct possibility that the book might break that 120,000-word mark. If so, it may end up being harder to sell.

But all these are just the thoughts that play out in the back of my mind, when I let myself go there. For right now, I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the feeling of having completed 100,000 words of the novel.

This evening, I hit 90,000 words on the novel.

I'm not about to go into all the details I've done before, because I've caught a cold and feel rather crappy. I took a nap this afternoon, and I think I need another one. But despite being sick, I wanted to manage 1500 words today, and I'm pleased that I did.

Part Two is now 176 pages long, and there's still more of it to write before I get to Part Three. This 100,000 word novel is definitely going to go longer than that, at least in first draft.

For those of you keeping track at home...

As of this morning, I hit 70,000 words with the novel. Breaking it down a bit:

Part One, which I finished a while ago, was supposed to be about 33,000 words. It ended up at 45,500 words.

Part Two is the section I'm working on now. It's also supposed to end up at 33,000 words. Right now, it's at 24,500, and I expect that it'll take more than 8500 words to write all the scenes that are still missing. My main character has to escape an assassin who has been sent to kill her, then testify at his trial, interrogate him, get appointed to a position in her community... Yeah, there's a lot that has to happen.

The step sheet for Part Three hasn't been completely outlined yet, but I know how the whole thing is supposed to end.

I see that I reached 60,000 words on January 20. That means it has taken me about 15 days to write 10,000 words, which averages out to 666 words a day.

Of course, I'm not writing on every single one of those days, because I'm not writing on weekends. In reality, I only wrote on 8 of those days, which averages out to 1250 words per writing day. Given that I'm now aiming for what I call the "Bob Greenberger" quota of 1500 words a day, it looks like I'm doing okay. (I have to admit that I don't meet that quota every day; some days I've written under 1000 words, due to the vagaries of life's existence. But I do keep that quota goal in mind.)

Also, to be fair, I didn't write on either Friday, January 21 or Friday, January 28, when I should have; the first of those Fridays coincided with Arisia, which kept me busy; the second one coincided with my having hot chocolate with a former student in the morning, which discombobulated my schedule. Taking those two days into account, my overall average per day I was supposed to write is only 1000 words -- which is still more per day than at least one Hugo and Nebula winner I know who supports himself entirely with his writing.

And, to finish off, I've actually only done 750 words so far today. But I may not manage another 750 because I have a meeting for my part-time tutoring gig that I'm required to attend, and with it being winter, shabbat starts as early as quarter to five.

I'll meet you back here with another one of these posts in 10,000 more words.