Know the Novel Part 3-Dead Magic

Well, guys, I’ve been an inconsistent blogger over the past month and a half, popping in and out of here and skipping some weeks. But the biggest reason for that absence is why we’re here today—to talk about NaNoWriMo ONE LAST TIME! Because naturally, NaNo swallowed up November, and recovery + holiday busyness has made the first half of December rather full as well.

So! I’m using the final phase of Christine Smith’s Know the Novel link-up to chat about Dead Magic: how it went, what happens now, and what I want to say to YOU. (Read to the end! <3 )

1. Firstly, how did writing this novel go all around?

Surprisingly, it went pretty great! There were hiccups along the way when I got busy or ran out of plot like a train runs out of unfinished railroad, but as it turns out, off-roading* is kinda fun.

*We are mixing metaphors today, friend.

I’m just shocked and proud of myself for not only beating my first NaNo, but surpassing the goal and finishing the first draft! Yes, I hit 50,000 on November 25th, kept on writing… and on December 1st, I reached The End. It’s a pretty crummy ending, but it’s a finale nonetheless. I knew that if I stopped, I might never finish. Or at least, not for a very long time. So I’m glad to have tied everything up for the time being.

A little update on the final stretch of November…

• Day 22 // 1,011 words
• Day 23 // 2,125 words
• Day 24 // 2,008 words
• Day 25 // 3,875 words
• Day 26 // 1,303 words
• Day 27 // 303 words
• Day 28 // 1,748 words
• Day 29 // 1,956 words
• Day 30 // 3,681 words
• December 1 // 3,136 words

Week 4 (plus 3 days) word count: 21,146

Total NaNoWriMo word count: 62,402

2. Did it turn out like you expected or completely different? And how do you feel about the outcome?

Honestly, a weird mix of both. Aspects of the story like the characters’ main qualities or certain settings turned out very much as expected. Other parts, like how it became 65% Greek-mythology-inspired, 35% fairytale-inspired (instead of the other way around), surprised me.

I’m happy with the outcome… as a terrible first draft. Hearing tales of others’ NaNo adventures in the past, I knew that expecting anything polished wasn’t realistic, and this was kind of the POINT for me. To let go of expectations and just create something messy and new. So in that way, this lovely little 62,402-word disaster is exactly what it’s supposed to be right now!

3. What aspect of the story did you love writing about the most? (Characters, plot, setting, prose, etc.)

Definitely the characters and setting!

I’ve rambled on about Tami, Uncle Seb, Oscar, and Cass before (check out Know the Novel Part 1 and Part 2), so I won’t wax eloquent about them.

The sleepy little town of Thatcher, which didn’t get NEARLY enough page time in this draft, was another favorite thing… along with the whole road trip across Canada and how the climax of the story took place in my very own province, in a city I’m very familiar with!

And I couldn’t talk about the setting without mentioning Cass’s coffeeshop, The Crow & The Pitcher, which is run by three fairy godmothers in Calgary.

4. How about your least favorite part?

Probably the fact that lots of the major story elements didn’t really connect together at a deep level. (See question 5!)

5. What do you feel like needs the most work?

Most definitely the plot—pacing, foreshadowing, rhythm, you name it! I feel as if I spent the month throwing ingredients in a bowl, and didn’t really mix them together. So instead of a nice, sticky chocolate chip cookie dough, what I have is a bowl of powdery flour floating on top of unmixed eggs and milk.

The cookie analogy is strong with this one. 😛

My storytelling instincts grumbled a lot about the lack of foreshadowing, lack of research, and lack of cohesiveness between plot and character development. BUT, as I have said a hundred times already, that is normal and acceptable in a first draft, because all of that can be remedied with some thoughtful editing.

6. How do you feel about your characters now that the novel is done? Who’s your favorite? Least favorite? Anyone surprise you? Give us all the details!

I LOVE ALL OF THEM. And they have sooo much potential to grow into how I envision them in future drafts. Right now they’re like walking sketches of their real selves, but I already adore:

• Tami and Uncle Seb’s tight relationship
• Tami and Oscar’s awkwardness-turned-camaraderie-turned-something-more (she finds him annoying at first, and he’s just an adorable puppy with his nose in a book)
• Cass’s no-nonsense approach
• Orion’s flair for the evilly dramatic

7. What’s your next plan of action with this novel?

To let it sit for a good, long while! I’m taking the month of December off from writing (because goodness knows I need a nap and a pile of good books to read). Then in January, I’m returning to The Brightest Thread to wrap up final edits (!!!). I have some general ideas of what next year’s writing goals will look like, but that’s another post for another time. Suffice it to say, Dead Magic has to wait its turn.

And before I get to it, I’ll need to scour the library for Greek mythology and collections of fairytales. #research

8. If you could have your greatest dream realized for this novel, what would it be?

To see it published (probably not as my first book—that honor will hopefully go to The Brightest Thread)! It would be awesome if one of the big five publishing houses picked it up and gave it a great marketing campaign. I think Dead Magic is one of my highest-concept works, so… I can dream, right? 😉

9. Share some of your favorite snippets!

I shared way too many in the last post, but okay, here’s ONE more!

And there, nestled between an antique shop and a music store, is a brick building overgrown in ivy, with just its black-painted door and a few windows peeping out. A sign hangs above the door, displaying a black bird in flight over a jar. The Crow & The Pitcher, it says in swooping cursive.

It also says “closed” in the front window.

I almost cry. “Oscar, please find me. Please get here soon.”

People pass me on either side, and I stand here on the sidewalk like a rock in a streambed. Drowning. Aching. Unseen.

10. Did you glean any new writing and/or life lessons from writing this novel?

Yes, I did! And I want to talk about a few of them here.

Firstly, what I learned about myself.

1. I can write fast if I really want to.
2. Momentum is key—both for individual writing sessions and for a whole month of writing.
3. Writing fast every single day is not my prime creative rhythm. I function best when writing for two or three days in a row, then taking a couple days off to percolate before my next stint. Every creator has a different rhythm, and that’s what tends to be most sustainable for me!*
4. I think I also learned/confirmed some things about story structure and the writing craft through the mistakes that I made, but those learnings are little inklings that will come to better light when I one day edit Dead Magic.

Secondly, an open letter to all my fellow writers, whether you participated in NaNo or not!

Dear writer,

I hope you know that whatever your word count is, whatever state your story is in, whatever challenge you accepted or did not accept… you are still a writer of worth.

National Novel Writing Month is a manmade construct, an event made to challenge and unite and motivate us. The moment it becomes a slave driver, a loudmouthed critic, or that sneering voice in your head, it has ceased to be what it was meant to be.

NaNo is not the holy grail of writing. Writing is.

NaNo is not a measure of your worth as a writer. The spark of creativity from YOUR Creator is.

Neither is NaNo a measure of your story’s worth. Whether you take one month or three years to create a first draft, whether you write fast or slow, to the tune of clacking keys or scratching pen, what matters on the other side are the words on the page. When a reader one day picks up your story, she will have no idea how you wrote it, how you felt writing it, or how long it took. In the end, your story will stand on its own.

If you did not partake in the challenge this year, and instead watched from the sidelines as a flood of social media posts streamed by, announcing impossibly high word counts or gushing over a sense of writerly camaraderie from a circle on which you are the outside… it’s okay. You are a writer, yes, but you are more than that. You’re a human being, and sometimes human things make NaNo less than ideal. You’re no less worthy for having to focus on your health, your family, your school, or any number of other things.

If you did do NaNo, but you didn’t quite make the goal you were shooting for… that’s okay too. Failing a goal does not make YOU a failure. You wrote something, you pushed yourself, and you learned. That is a win.

If you hit 50,000 words or more last month, congratulations. I hope you had fun doing it! I hope you, too, learned something and have a first draft that you can work with later. But as you ride the high of winning, beware the winner’s curse that ties your work to your worth. They are not synonymous, and you are more than this win. Enjoy it, revel in it, but know that you’re loved for other reasons.

With love,

Another writer

P.S. I’ll be taking a semi-hiatus this month, if that wasn’t obvious already. But keep an eye out for a Christmassy post and Subplots & Storylines!