Meeting Your Book Halfway

Meeting your book halfway can mean a lot of things, but in this post it means reassessing where you are after you’ve gotten this far.

I just surpassed 26K in my nanowrimo challenge and I’m feeling pretty good about my progress and how the book is shaping up. With 24K left to go, I am taking a step back to look at my overall achievement. Sort of like a painter does after he’s created his vision and now needs to see how much more he needs or wants to do.

For my book, this means building cohesion — I am now going through the process of revisiting some of the earlier chapters to see if they flow seamlessly, one into the other. I’m also referring to my shot sheet to see how much I have deviated from the plan.

In some cases I am steering things back while in others I am just letting it be because it sounds better or makes more sense.

I’ve discovered that I am also devising new scenes I had not considered before; new locations for things to happen. And I am making sure that whatever the characters say or do is in line with who I said they were from the start – the language they use, the way they look, their attitudes. Things like that.

And of course I am spell checking because I have a tendency to type something different than what’s in my head. Like typing ‘can’ when I meant ‘come.’ Why I do that I don’t know but it needs to be addressed.

After that, I will continue writing and when I’m finished, I will go back and fill in scenes with more description, have people say things a little better, and in general smooth out any rough edges.

Right now, it’s time to get back to my word count. See you next time.