As I’ve talked about the struggles with building the novel, I’ve already let out some spoilers about how it will go. Yet if this journal is to be something interesting or useful to you, I need to let down the walls enough to let you get inside my head on this. To do that, I don’t see any way other than to reveal everything--or nearly everything.
Part of the joy of reading a good story is being surprised. It’s what keeps us turning pages, and it’s what makes the ending so satisfying.
Yet I enjoy reading a good story multiple times. I’ll go back to it again and again, as an old friend. There are some books I’ve read over a dozen times.
So the question for my readers is this: Would you rather wait to read the book, and come back and read this journal after the book is out, or would you rather go through the development process with me, watching as the story unfolds in my head, and only enjoying the story, if you enjoy it, as a second-time read?
In other words, would you rather I revealed everything to you in this process, or not? I’d like to hear from you on this.
I’m pretty sure I’m going to reveal nearly everything, because I think that’s going to be the most useful bit for people who are trying to write themselves. There are loads of books out there that tell you how to do this kind of thing, and they are mostly much better at it than me. I’ve even read accounts of “this is how I decided what to write.” But I’ve never seen someone walk through the birthing process for a novel from the very beginning, in real time, as it were. I think that will be the most helpful and most interesting way to approach this, if we just agree that some things are going to diminish in that first read, because you are going to know (mostly) how it ends, just as I will.
That is my dilemma, and I think what I will do is try to keep final twists and outcome to myself, but reveal just about everything else, for the reasons above.
That isn’t, however, set in stone, and I would like to know what you think.
Brian Groover
Frederick, Maryland
Monday, 27 October 2014
YOU ARE READING
NaNoWriMo Journal
RandomThis is the journal of a walk through writing an entire novel in a month, as it happens. This includes thoughts, tools, struggles, and planning strategies. I wrote 78,000 words for the novel in the month of November, 2014, and this is the journey...
