Updated Rewriting Plans & NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo is underway, so I have a nearly mid-month word count update below. 😀 I wanted to talk about rewriting again, because it’s relevant to the work-in-progress. ^_^ I woke up one day with a solution to the larger “Puppet Box” issues! Just like BOOM. Solved. 😛 Actually, I had a dream the night before that I was a werewolf, and I was all stressed because I was trying to hide it from my neighbors so they wouldn’t try to kill me, but my guide was all like, “No, you’re hiding so you don’t have to kill them.” And for some reason there was this super creepy Santa-thing in a giant hobby store warehouse, and I absolutely hated it, but it was only dangerous to humans, and I was a werewolf, so I didn’t need to worry about it. Obviously, I have the best dreams, and the story has nothing to do with werewolves, but it’s oddly relevant, and by the end of the week, I had most of the minor things worked out as well. 😀 In true me fashion, I immediately wanted to switch projects. Strike while the iron is hot! While I did flip flop a few times on this, literally going back and forth until 9:00 p.m. NaNo-Eve, I did eventually decide to go with “The Puppet Box” because I was texting with a writing friend the Wednesday before, and she had a really good point! I was super excited and wanted to jump in without even thinking about it. Isn’t that how I should write? It may be the solution to all my overthinking problems! “The Inescapable” was feeling blocked. I suspect that I’m not starting the story in the right place. But regardless, I know a project I feel paralyzed on isn’t a good project for NaNoWriMo, and not everything is. You can’t exactly move at a NaNo pace if you keep getting hung up on stupid stuff, but no worries. Things will work out or they won’t. ^_^ In other news, I’m currently in the process of seeing what I can do with the YA stories. I’m not in a hurry. I just want to see what I can come up with and what the characters will show up for. On one hand, I have too many ideas to fool around with stuff that isn’t working, but on the other hand, I have so many other old ideas that I could mess with that I don’t ever think about rewriting, so I just want to see what will happen if I restructure these stories, and if doing so will fix anything. I already found a solution for “Winter.” ^_^ It’ll change just about everything but the characters involved and their personalities, but I think it will work. The characters are showing up for it, and things are coming together. Obviously, I’m not trying to get back on that horse right now, but if there’s anything I can do, I want to at least give it a try. I think I just wasn’t thinking broadly enough on some of these. I was only trying to fix the ideas as they were, so I couldn’t see what else I could do with the same materials. It’s like I kept trying to make a tote bag when the story wants to be a boat. I made note of some basic changes for “Raven” and “Discord.” They are still a long way from working, but I’m not stressing about it. Time will tell if my brain decides to do anything with them, and I’m at peace just staying open to it. “The Puppet Box” has given me a lot of grief, but honestly, just about all of it was caused by doubt. The story wants to be told a certain way, and it’s my job to tell it that way. Things don’t always make sense when they’re in pieces, so I want to get better about trusting the process and trusting my writer gut. 🙂 Current NaNo Word Count: 21,016 Not too shabby! This puts about 1000 words ahead of where I need to be to stay on track. I’m not quite writing everyday, but I’m doing a little something just about everyday, even if it’s just tweaking the mini outline. 😀 I’m almost caught up to where I was when I was rewriting this back in the spring, and everything feels a lot better. My document is a mess. I have about five more chapters before it’s not anymore. I have notes, the mini outline, and hacked up scenes from the previous draft in the same document. It’s been really fun. Haha. But it’s a relief to know that the last attempt at writing this wasn’t so far off from where I needed to be. It gives me hope for all those other projects I’m stuck on. ^_^