Sunday

I'm feeling a little dull today, so "Sunday" is the best I can do just now for a title.  I've been sitting here poking at it for way too long, and I should just write a check-in and move on.

As dull as tarnished silver

So, about that ROW80 check-in.  I did some writing this week, so that's really good.  Usually by this point in the post-NaNo scheme of things I've stalled out.  This week, I still wrote on my story.  But I also had to admit something to myself. 

I have read and studied lots about novel planning, outlining, writing in general.  I have never actually gone all the way through any of the systems.  I always decide at the last minute that I really need to get on that planning for NaNo, so then I skim my way through some plotting book or an article or two, and then I do the bare bones minimum before I run out of time. 

Why is this especially important right now?  Because while I was doing NaNo this year I was making a point to examine my writing style.  And I found that the days my writing really flew, the words flowing fast and the phrases coming easily, were the days when I had a good plan for the scene at hand.  The times when all I had was a vague notion--"J goes to T's family home with him"--were slow and clunky. They were much harder to write and really not terribly fun.

I never planned out every single detail of a scene, but the ones that went well had notes about things that I wanted to have happen in them and a general order of what would happen when.  So clearly I need to spend more time on my planning because that's what works for me.

Add to all of this the book I'm reading, K.M. Weiland's Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success. She recommends spending a couple of months really working on the outline before you write.  And I can see the sense of this. I clearly do better work when I have a plan.  So what's the problem?

I'm not able or willing to let go of actually working on the writing.  I said I would do 65,000 words by December 22.  I planned to have the first draft finished by the end of the month.  If I turn to just planning now, I won't reach those goals.  Also, I'm worried about stopping the writing.  What if I work on the planning then can't get back into the writing?  What if stopping to work on planning stops me completely?

I'm thinking of compromising, doing some writing, then a little planning, then more writing, and so on.  But is this my best choice?  I don't know.  I also know that I'm very tired today and getting more tired by the moment, so I may need to save this decision for tomorrow. For now, I'm going to wrap this up, hope it isn't too incoherent, and drag myself to bed.