NaNoWriMo Day 21 Results - Halfway There!

Progress
Words - 23,403 + 1,682 / 50,000
Days - 21 / 30
Average - 1,195 words a day (+25) [Required average - 1,667]
Pages - 46 + 3
Chapters - 6

Total Progress - 50.17% (+3.36%)

Halfway point, bhes!

So, funny story. Today I got home early because I volunteered at a food bank. (The old man I worked with was awesome. He was just like my own grandpa, he even had the same kind of Stalin-style mustache) Well, I got home at 2:15-ish and I tell myself, "Alright! I got home early. I'm going to take a quick nap and then get to writing!"

I lay on my bed and close my eyes.

When I open them, it's 5:30.

This raises a question - am I getting enough sleep?

Well, I'm going to bed shortly after posting this. I've got a very busy day ahead of me tomorrow.

On another topic, back to Claymore [working title, damnit, because I still haven't come up with a better one]. Despite the very simplistic story, I'm surprised at how long this story is turning out. In preparation for this NaNoWriMo challenge, I reviewed several books on writing and crafting stories. By far, the best one I read was The Secrets of Story by Matt Bird.

One little nugget of advice he gives is to give a one-hour plot two hours of breathing room. (He doesn't write it like that, but it's late and I can't find the page he writes this on). Basically, if you keep your plot simple and not rush two hours of material in two hours (a lot of his writing has to do with writing for movies, etc, but it translates very well for writing stories in general), the story risks become a rushed piece with little room for the audience to breathe and for the characters to develop. If every line of dialogue and every scene is tailored to move the story forward, then the characters and the world within suffer. Characters, events, and the world itself become impersonal tools, only serving to further the plot, and readers won't have anything "human" or "real" to which to cling.

Think about it: If in Thor: Ragnarok Thor and Hulk didn't have some comedic back-and-forths about who is stronger and instead Thor said, "Hey, Hulk. You don't belong in this trash world. We need to break out of here and punch death in the face." "Hulk no go. Hulk stay here." Thor takes Hulk to his ship and shows him a video of Black Widow. Black Widow in the video says, "Bruce, I love you." Hulk then says, "Oh man. Hulk made mistake." "I agree. Now let's break out of here." "Okay." Then the Hulk punches a giant wolf in the face.

That would have been so boring. Okay, the bit about Hulk punching a wolf in the face is really bad-ass, but that alone can't hold a movie.
A game on the other hand...

Point is, without some levity with banter, distractions, or even just silence, stories become monotonous. Always keeping the same tiring pace, rushing to the finish, tiring the audience's patience.

I bring this up because I'm more than halfway done with chapter 6, and sometimes I think that I should be much farther along. Chapter 5 has a huge development, setting in place the wedge that will drive Sweetie Belle and Rarity apart and cause the most emotional conflict in the story. Meanwhile, The first quarter of chapter 6 is about Rarity trying to find the CMC clubhouse, but along the way she runs into Maud and Trixie. The majority of the scene is a clash of wits between Trixie and Rarity (with Maud adding fuel to the fire in her own way) before the story resumes. Rarity then gets to the clubhouse, makes a startling discovery, and then the story resumes yet again.

There are quite a few moments in the story so far, in which while I write them, I question the pacing and importance of each scene I write. Then I remember that bit of advice and it makes me more comfortable with it. Of course, that doesn't mean everything I write now will survive in the second draft.

I also noticed that my late-night blog posts after a long writing session tend to ramble on and sometimes only vaguely resemble some sense of coherency.

Just saying.

Good night!