I made it to 50K! Then why am I not a winner yet?
As I mentioned last week, I’m keeping two counts. I was actually on point with my keepable word count. I had 39.5K yesterday. But then I was listening to music and heard a song I mentally tied to one of my scenes. Please note, if you play the song, there are swearwords in it.
The Offspring – Slim Pickens Does The Right Thing And Rides The Bomb To Hell
This song has been tied to my character for a while. My character is a man who has dedicated himself to a military career. He has spent his entire life serving the throne and protecting the people.
At the beginning of the book, his brother stripped him of all that.
The book progresses, and my character works to redefine his life. He discovers there is more to himself than he knew. He keeps his integrity, and when he sees people in trouble, he runs to help. That’s when he sees his brother again.
I paired this song with that meeting and the subsequent monster attack. Except, what I wrote didn’t live up to the feeling I get with that song.
So I started rewriting it. As I did, I moved events, had different characters deliver information, and… well, crap, now I’m going to have to redo 7K because the events don’t flow together correctly. *sigh*
Yes, I’m over 50K, but my keepable word count has dropped to 32K. That is well behind the target. Therefore, I haven’t validated yet. I’m going to push myself over Thanksgiving and three days after to jump back up, since I’d really like to win NaNoWriMo with novel worthy words.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, I hope all of you in the US have a great one tomorrow. I know I’ll be chilling at home with my family, for which I am very thankful.
Have you ever visualized a scene and had to redo it because it turned out lackluster? Do you pair songs with scenes from your stories? Do you have playlists? What do you use to organize your playlists?
If you’re wondering about the picture in the header, it has nothing to do with word counts. Last week, I read Chrys Fey’s blog post and figured I’d take a picture of my #6 — rosemary, “sun-dried” (dehydrated) tomatoes, roasted garlic, and red pepper. With the exception of the red peppers and actual oil, all the rest of the ingredients came from our or my mother-in-law’s garden.
I think you’re a winner.
You wrote the words. Even if you don’t keep them, they count. 🙂
Rarely have I linked any of my fiction writing to songs or music. I do have a playlist for a mostly unfinished work that I have in the wings waiting to go on stage.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
Congratulations! I bet you could write another 50K in the next five days. 😉
Yeah, sometimes I’ve had to massively re-write scenes many times. In my current WIP I had to make huge changes to the last act and rewrote the last three chapters at least four times. It’ll get there.
And music hugely influences my writing. All of my books have a soundtrack. Curiously, they all continue songs by Maynard James Keenan (Tool, A Perfect Circle, Puscifer, various side projects).
Oh I think you’re a winner
You still wrote well over 50K. I personally don’t think your behold d just because you rewrote part of it. It’s a writing challenge…you wrote the words and thas the goal.
I’ve attributed many songs to characters, scenes, and stories. I love music. 🙂
Congrats!!! That makes it according to the rules. You just hold yourself to a higher standard which is very cool.
I’d like to write a scene I don’t rewrite!
I don’t write well with music playing. The music gives me new ideas and the songs change faster than I write. If I’m serious about getting writing done, I put on paraliminals or meditiation music through headphones (if in a noisy place) or shut it all down and have silence.
Happy Thanksgiving and good luck on 50K to keep.
Hmm… I think you should count those words. You’re a NaNo winner 2015! (Aren’t you NOT supposed to rewrite during NaNo? Isn’t that a rule or something?) Anyway, didn’t get to hear the song because have the kids here (1/2 day school). But I love the idea. I have one character only in one book that loves Janice Joplin (I don’t think I even mention it in the book–I just know it) and I listen to Janice every time I tell her story. Which I should get back to… Anyway, congrats and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Congrats!?
Have you ever visualized a scene and had to redo it because it turned out lackluster? Why yes I have. It’s very frustrating too ’cause in my head it was awesome!
Do you pair songs with scenes from your stories? No, I’m too easily distracted. I end up dancing.
Congrats on reaching 50K! I know you can do it to get what you want to keep also. Admittedly, I just verified mine once I was done. There’s a lot that I’m going to have to revise anyway.
I love using music when I’m writing and more so when I’m plotting.
As for needing to rewrite scenes due to lackluster, yes. So much yes. It was so awesome in my head and didn’t come out right on paper. I’ve also written new versions of certain scenes because I couldn’t get them to work right and tried a new approach. Initially I marked my first few chapters of this project as scrap, but then I liked them again, but not all of them so now I’m back to reworking that…after NaNoWriMo ends.
Congrats on reaching the 50k mark! I’m about 7k off, even though my count says 65k.
I’ve so many songs that’ve spawned scenes. So… many. Sometimes, I find myself humming the tunes whilst writing the scenes. The final battle scene is one of them and I’m currently trying to avoid having to redo it by getting it close to right the first time. It looks so awesome in my mind, I just need the words… the pacing… to match.
Hey, 50K is 50K in my book. (Sorry, no pun intended.) You wrote the words, you should get the credit. I’ve had to rewrite scenes multiple times to get them the way I want. Sometimes it takes a while for the right words to come together. I rarely attach music to my writing, though. Music distracts me too much.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I think you’re being too hard on yourself. And they always say that you’re not supposed to edit at all when you do NaNo or fast draft. Plenty of time later to re-think scenes and fix problems. Accept you hit 50k and WON NANO!!!! 🙂
I think you have done amazingly well, Loni and your motivation throughout has been outstanding. Many congratulations!! When I wrote my first novel (I have only sort of completed the one 🙂 2016 is my target for completing the second) the last chapter was completely ‘pants’. Luckily I had a mother who told me so and I knew myself it was because I just wanted to get to the end. However, once my mother had pointed out the fact, I set to and re-wrote it immediately within an hour and now I think it’s the best chapter in the whole thing 🙂
With regards to music, I listen to a whole range of music depending on my mood so I tend not to have playlists. Yesterday was Bruno Mars day. However, I never listen to music when I’m writing. I need total silence to get fully into my writing zone.
Wishing you a lovely Thanksgiving!!
I’m in awe of your word count—keepable or otherwise. I’ve been perpetually 12k behind this month, and should really just pull the plug on this entire project (so very little of it is worth keeping) and enjoy the weekend, but I’m pushing forward instead. So congratulations on hitting 50k…even if you don’t want to keep all of it.
Yes, I’ve had to rewrite scenes because they didn’t live up to what was in my head. My head is a much better writer than the rest of me, I think. 🙂
And yes, I’ve paired certain songs with certain scenes. I think somewhere in my house is an old printed draft of Effigy that details the “soundtrack” in the margins.
Which probably answers the third questions…yes, I have playlists, story-specific lists as well as character-specific ones. I’m always adding and subtracting when I stumble across songs that I like more.
Happy Thanksgiving—go celebrate your NaNoWriMo Win!
I feel that you have written 50k by all the NaNoWriMo rules. I’ve written some ‘lackluster’ scenes in my winning attempt, but I’m planning to revise this scrappy first draft. Then I will start polishing scenes. If I go back and work on a scene again, I lose my impetus – and my sense of where I’m going.But then that’s me.
Well done, Winner.
I always have to rewrite scenes in edits. Great job hitting 50K regardless – I think it counts! 🙂
I love The Offspring.
I’ve rewritten plenty of scenes, but not because of a song. I do listen to music while I write, though.
Wow! Congrats! on the milestone. I achieved 25,000 words twice but just could not get it together this year. Best wishes with your WIP!
Sounds like a good read! 😀
Have you ever visualized a scene and had to redo it because it turned out lackluster? Yes.
Do you pair songs with scenes from your stories? Yes.
Do you have playlists? Yes.
What do you use to organize your playlists? After Grooveshark died, I switched to Rhapsody. 🙂
Congratulations! Even if you don’t keep some, you still wrote a lot! Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving. We did a bunch of visiting and now I’m looking forward to a quiet Christmas.