Runaway Novel

Runaway Novel

So we've rounded the halfway mark for SoCNoC.  Some of us will be nearing the top of the 25k mountain (12.5 for HalfNoc folks) and be barrelling towards 50k.  Others will still be climbing upwards, a little behind, but hopefully still determined to make it!

The half way mark is where things start to get a little crazy in my opinion.  For those of you have been following my blog, you may know that I have been doing an experiment in outlines vs seat-of-the-pants writing.  I'm only half way and I can say with some degree of certainty that my outline is failing miserably.

Its not that my outline is bad.  In fact, if I may say so myself, it is actually quite a wonderful outline.  Detailed without being too bogged down.  It allows my characters and plot to breathe.  My problem with it is that my novel doesn’t want to just breath.  It is fighting for its right to exist without me.  It has a mind of its own.  I am no longer in control.

I fought back.  I struggled to keep it caged. After all, it’s my novel.  It should be written how I want it to be written.  BIG mistake.

Not only did my word count dwindle to dangerous levels, but I began to hate both the novel, for rebelling against me, and myself for being so controlling.

So, stuff it all, I thought.  I threw a tizzy at my keyboard, ripped up my outline in a rage (its ok, I had a soft copy) and behaved like a two year old. 

Then I ripped out my pen and paper and let the words flow.  No outline.  No specific notions of what my characters were going to do.  I just wrote. 

There is something deeply satisfying about reverting back to the pen and paper method.  The words seem to come to life somehow.  My characters jumped off the page, they paved their own way and starting making their own mistakes. 

My novel is no longer for the first person POV of a thirteen year of girl.  It is from the third person POV of a fifteen year old boy, with other POV's mixed in.  The girl is still there.  She is a major character.  It just turned out that this isn't her story.  It’s his.  So Anna has taken a back seat and Markoff is the character behind the plot.

I'm writing again. It’s still a little painful, I must admit.  Catching up is hard.  But there is a serious feeling of satisfaction every time I reach a milestone.

If I could give one piece of advice to all other struggling SoCNoC and HalfNoc participants, it would be to let your novel go.  It will come back to you, but as its own person.  Novels truly do have a life of their own.