Should I be worried?

Rose English · Nov 5, 2008

This is my first attempt at NaNo. I'm a planner so I had the detailed 30 point outline prepared the week beforehand.

Well, my male MC has pretty much derailed everything. He persists in having his own say in what happens next. 'We' seem to be experimenting as we go, we're head hopping, we're screenwriting and so on. I sit down with my outline but when I start to write all this other stuff comes out instead. I am grateful for these ideas but frankly I'm concerned at how far away from the outline I can safely wander. I'm terrified 'he's' going to dump me in the middle of week 2 and leave me with no way to get back.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this, and if you did 'go with the flow' did you complete NaNo? Where you able to edit your work into something usable at the end? Or should I gag 'him' and all this other fun stuff and stick to my outline? I know it's down to me at the end of the day but I'd love to know what you guys think...

Soccer Mom · Nov 5, 2008

Yes, I've been there before. Keep going and when you get done, this head-hopping, screenwriting, place-holder laden mess will actually be your new outline to write from and put the ms into shape. This is actually how I tend to outline.

AmandaAcidic · Nov 5, 2008

I wouldn't be worried. Maybe your MC will come out with something even better than you planned.

If he does dump you, just go back to your outline. It's what I'd do.

Kalyke · Nov 5, 2008

I've been writing for ten years. In all those years I have tried to practice focus and discipline when I write. When I start a scene I think "I need a scene where _______ happens, because______. When I have a conflict like that, I don't write, I think until I have that part of the story imagined. I don't really consider characters as having a will of their own. It's cute to think that way, but mainly it is you manipulating an idea in your head, so that is where the problem will be solved.

MagicMan · Nov 5, 2008

I have had the same thing occur. I did up an 7000 word outline, had a great plot, and NaNo started. I started writing and one of my outline minor characters stole the scene. I continued on the plot and that minor character jumped in and again took over. He is now a main character and a driving force for the novel. The detailed outline keeps moving further away but the main plot elements remain the same. I pray he continues to be as forceful because the story is turning out way better than I imagined.

Smiles
Bob

FinbarReilly · Nov 6, 2008

I'm doing something sort of weird: I'm basing my novel off a comic script that I did a while back. The fun I'm having is that I'm burning through pages too quickly; I'm up to thirty pages in the script (out of 75), but I'm just hitting 8400 words. Here's hoping that I can come up with something to slow things down...

FR

dclary · Nov 6, 2008

FinbarReilly said:
I'm doing something sort of weird: I'm basing my novel off a comic script that I did a while back. The fun I'm having is that I'm burning through pages too quickly; I'm up to thirty pages in the script (out of 75), but I'm just hitting 8400 words. Here's hoping that I can come up with something to slow things down...

FR

Either that, or take it beyond where you'd gotten with your comic. My story is based off a fantasy movie I'd wanted to write -- but the movie would have only encompassed about 1/3 of what I'm writing

FinbarReilly · Nov 6, 2008

I'm definitely taking it beyond the comic. I'm describing a number of scenes in much greater detail and having a little more fun with the scenes. It doesn't hurt that I skimped on the details originally because I needed the comic to be a bit briefer than planned...

FR

caromora · Nov 8, 2008

I'm a little late to the discussion, but I think you should go for it. You don't have a contract for the book, so you can afford to be as creative and disorganized as you want to be. It sounds like your unconscious mind is driving the story. That can lead to some really cool ideas you might never have come up with otherwise.

Also, maybe you should just revise your outline to reflect the new direction your story has taken.

Rose English said:
This is my first attempt at NaNo. I'm a planner so I had the detailed 30 point outline prepared the week beforehand.

Well, my male MC has pretty much derailed everything. He persists in having his own say in what happens next. 'We' seem to be experimenting as we go, we're head hopping, we're screenwriting and so on. I sit down with my outline but when I start to write all this other stuff comes out instead. I am grateful for these ideas but frankly I'm concerned at how far away from the outline I can safely wander. I'm terrified 'he's' going to dump me in the middle of week 2 and leave me with no way to get back.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this, and if you did 'go with the flow' did you complete NaNo? Where you able to edit your work into something usable at the end? Or should I gag 'him' and all this other fun stuff and stick to my outline? I know it's down to me at the end of the day but I'd love to know what you guys think...

Should I be worried?

Rose English

Soccer Mom

Crypto-fascist

AmandaAcidic

Good morning beautiful!

Kalyke

MagicMan

FinbarReilly

dclary

Unabashed Mercenary

FinbarReilly

caromora

Still alive. Kind of.