Hello, dreamers. National Novel Writing Month is entering its second week. By this point, participating writers have fully committed to their projects. We’re well underway.

For my part, the start of this week will involve my first major action sequence of this book. I’ve already begun, and expect this section to encompass the next one or two chapters. At this point I am totally locked-in on OctoWIP, and everything else is on the back burner. With that said, here’s what I’ll be working on this week:

NaNoWriMo

I have now made it through four chapters of OctoWIP. Most of these early chapters are, by necessity, devoted to character development. However, this time around I’ve managed to inject more tension into the opening chapters, ratcheting up the stakes. I believe I’m finally getting a grasp of the general feel of this story.

Over the next several days I’ll be working through dense action scenes. I’ve spent parts of the past three days preparing for this, including producing diagrams of the upcoming spacewalk. I’m still thinking about exactly how I want to handle POV through this series of events. I’ll have action taking place in several different areas, including in open space. But I love writing chapters like this: flying by the seat of my pants, feeling the adrenaline from the characters as they struggle to survive.

I plan to have these chapters complete by Wednesday, at which point I’ll need to determine the way forward. While I have a clear idea of where the story is headed from here, I’ve yet to determine exactly how to divide chapters, or where exactly the first phase of the novel will end. At the moment, honestly I’d be thrilled if I could get to the end of phase one by Friday. I do know that after the coming chapters I’ll be jumping ahead by a week or two in the story’s timeline. From there the paths of the two POV characters will diverge; Karen will begin settling into her role on the ship as the crew learns about the ocean moon, while Anita will leave the ship on a daring repair mission.

In any event, while writing a novel I typically pause between phases of the story. I step back for a day or two to distance myself from the work, then make a complete revision pass before resuming actual writing. If I could get to the end of phase one by Friday night, that would work out wonderfully. I could take it easy over the weekend, enjoy some college football, focus on platform maintenance and maybe even write some short fiction. But we shall see.

Short Fiction

My new critique group continues to be invaluable. As planned, I’m taking advantage of the short fiction lull at the end of the year to pass my extant manuscripts through my critique group. And I gotta say, these guys are awesome.

They’ve now helped me work through two of my existing short fiction manuscripts, and both now feel like some of my finest work. Over the coming months I hope to run the rest of my existing manuscripts past them. And I’m looking forward to reading more of their work as well, and sharing my perspective.

The success of this group led me to create my own beta group. Composed of my most reliable and insightful beta readers, the new group provides a forum in which beta readers can discuss my work while I observe. It also gives me an easy way to share new stories with my beta readers (I’d started having a hard time keeping track of what I’d sent to who).

Upcoming Content

Here’s what you can expect on this site through the week ahead:

Wednesday: “NaNoWriMo Midweek Update”

On Wednesday I’ll be updating readers on my progress with OctoWIP. This week I’ll be looking at the approaching end to phase one of the book, and where the story will go from there.

Friday: “On Writing: Struggle Stories”

Every writer dreads writer’s block. What’s worse is the “novel hangover”. How do you move on to something new after devoting your entire life to a project for almost a year? My answer: you sit down and write something terrible.

Sunday: “NaNoWriMo: Week 2”

I’ll end the week with a wrap-up on the first full week of NaNoWriMo, apprising readers of my progress and my goals for the coming week.

It’s going to be another big week. So read on, and dare to dream. – MK