Another Update on My Work-in-Progress

The silver lining in the pandemic crisis is that I have been writing diligently on my work-in-progress, a contemporary novel I intend to publish under a pseudonym.

In Kansas City, the shut-down began in earnest about the weekend of March 14-15. At that point, I had around 70,000 words written on my first draft. As of April 4, I had over 88,000 words written, and I could see the path to the end.

Eighteen thousand words might not sound like a lot for three weeks work (NaNoWriMo pushes writers to produce fifty thousand words in a month), but for me it’s a huge achievement. Moreover, I’ve kept to this pace since the first of the year. So even though I’m distracted by the news and compulsively calculate death rates with every updated set of statistics I see, I have continued to write.

When last I wrote about my progress on this book (February 3, 2020), the pandemic had not yet impacted the United States seriously. At that time, I was in the middle of the story. I was dissatisfied with my major protagonist, as well as with another important character. I’m still not happy with the protagonist, but I can see ways to improve him in the next draft. The other character is coming along.

I’m currently working my way through the climax of the story. Or I should say, I’m working on the climax to the outward conflict. Then I have to resolve a conflict between two of the main characters. Once that’s done, I’m into the denouement.

I don’t write action scenes well. I much prefer writing dialogue to depict the tensions between characters. So it won’t be easy to get through the outward conflict. I’m in the middle of a crucial scene now. It involves guns and violence. More than that I won’t say, but I am struggling with how to resolve it.

I’d rather skip ahead and write the argument between my two main characters that will get them to a new place in their relationship. Still a tense place, because there will be another book in this series. I hope.

Some aspects of this draft have not gone as planned. I wrote last November when I began the book that I would (1) develop a good outline, (2) dictate more, (3) use the Scrivener for Windows 3 beta version, and (4) integrate Scrivener with the Aeon Timeline software. How has that worked for me?

(1) I did a rough outline of each subplot before I began writing, but I didn’t integrate the subplots. So I’ve been grabbing scenes from various subplots to make up a chapter. The result is an uneven first draft. There are some holes that I will have to patch in the next draft.

(2) Dictation really has not worked. The app I used did such a poor job of spelling and formatting that I had to rewrite too much. I have dictated some scenes into my email program, then cut and pasted those into Scrivener. But I’ve found dictation works better for blog posts (though I’m not dictating this post) than novel writing.

(3) Scrivener for Windows 3 is coming along. I am now semi-proficient in it, at least for drafting. I can compile a chapter at a time to send to my critique partners. But I am not looking forward to compiling the whole book for final editing and formatting. I have several months before I have to address that problem.

(4) I quit using Aeon Timeline a couple of months ago. I still see its promise, but the syncing with Scrivener did not work smoothly, and I didn’t have the discipline to insert the date and time of every scene in Scrivener as I wrote. Now, it doesn’t make sense to spend the time fixing what I didn’t do right on the first pass. I’ll deal with Aeon again on my next book.

Obviously, my process in writing this draft has morphed from what I expected. Which is what happens with every book I write. But I never know what direction the morphing will take.

I keep telling myself, I will finish this first draft. I hope it is done by the end of April. Then the real work begins—editing. I like editing, but that process, like the first draft, is full of ups and downs, triumphs and pitfalls.

Still, I keep reminding myself:

I am a writer

And my stories speak the truth.

These lodestars keep me focused.

What keeps you busy during the pandemic?