It Was Less Troubling When They Hated Each Other
Fate help me. I have just written 1,376 words more in the same chapter that I've been writing for three days. Well, truthfully, I just split the chapter so it's now partly in Chapter Eight (where Kate drops the Little Green Envelope back to Andy) and partly in Chapter Nine (where Tabitha goes to get the Little Green Envelope back from Andy if he gives it to her or not).
I had to make so many decisions on the fly in this chapter and the mood changes so many times that it seriously felt like I wrote 5,000 words tonight. To only be at 24,073 is actually shocking to me. The reason is partially that I didn't check the word count at all since I felt like I was in a flow that I haven't felt all novel.
There is a slightly major problem with this last bit of writing, however. It was supposed to really set the conflict for part two of the novel. I almost had Tabitha and Andy hook up (they were "seeing each other" for a time three years prior to the start of the novel and Tabitha broke it off because she thought it was getting too serious) which would have really created a conflict all around.
I think I wrote the chapter so there was a palpable sexual tension between the two. I mean, I did have Tabitha offer to sleep with Andy. They definitely had a pretty physical relationship in the past it would seem. But Andy rejects the advance and Tabitha is more embarassed by it than anything. Then they get to fighting again and Andy is ready to kick Tabitha out the door (more drag her by the wrist) when Tabitha basically says that she's got a plan to get Kate and Andy back together.
Andy listens to this plan and I leave the chapter as I wrote it right now with the two of them sitting on the couch and Tabitha explaining the way things are to Andy.
It's not the world's funniest chapter. And it dragged out a lot of really personal storylines for me (not based on any of the characters in the book, but on completely different people). It got so emotional that it even shut Little Green Envelope up. I don't think that there was really anything to make fun of it was so intense.
This is the last few paragraphs of what I wrote tonight:
“I mean, look at us,” [Tabitha] said, “can you ever possibly have pictured us together? And I don’t mean behind closed doors, but out in the world? There isn’t a single way in a million years that it would have worked. And maybe I think that if you could just get your act together that you and Kate could work out. It’s not like you weren’t working, you just have to quit acting like a jackass.”
“Is that your plan,” Andy said, still sounding as if the air had been let out of him, “for me to stop acting like a jackass?”
“It’s certainly a start,” she said. “What you need to do is be the you that I knew a few years ago. I don’t know what’s happened to you. It’s like you’ve lost the will to be a nice person.”
“I still am,” he said, “you just don’t see it because you’re the last person in the world that I’d want to show it to.”
“That’s too bad Andy,” she said, “you ever heard of the ‘best friend test’? It’s an old saying that if you really want a woman to like you, she’s not the one you want to convince. Or, that’s not totally true. She’s obviously the one you want to convince. But the person you want to convince the most after the girl herself is the girl’s best friend. If you’ve got her than you’re pretty much home free.”
“Does that rule still apply after three years?”
“Boy,” she said, “it applies until either the girl or the best friend is in the ground.”
This is not the Tabitha that I wrote up until this point at all. There's nothing seemingly vicious in this dialog at all. She actually seems like she's not flighty or at least trying to act that way. It's the Tabitha that I think would be the Tabitha where she's not putting up a front. Similarly, it's the Andy where he lets his guard down as well.
Of course since neither of them are entirely trustworthy characters up until this point in the story, either of them could just be trying to get an advantage over the other emotionally. It's the undertone of exploitation in the scene that I might want to play up more if I ever go back and edit this into a second draft.
After all, based on the limited dialog, it was only a few minutes since they were at each other's throats.
I think either Andy or Tabitha have to say something to set the other one off. But if the round-and-round starts again the chapter may end up being 20 pages that I don't finish until way after mid-month.
Talk about screwing up the pacing in the name of a word vein.
---
The Word War has really started to mess with my mind I think. 24,073 puts me on pace for 60,180 for the month (I have the spreadsheet projection, I didn't actually do the math).
Yet, somehow I feel as though I'm really far behind. This is probably for the best though as it will actually push me to finish the story in November.
I sort of wanted to use NaNoFiMo to blow the dust off of my 2005 alternate history novel, "Stars, Bars, and the Crown" and finish it. I left it pretty much at the climax. I just worry that the resolution won't match the intensity of where I left off.
This novel is so personal and that one was much grander (even though the central story is interpersonal) that I don't even think I'm preparing myself for that one writing this one. I created whole worlds for that one (there are six newspapers of various political bent in that one and I actually wrote coverage of various story events in all six perspectives) and this one takes place in two apartments - so far.
But it's starting to get to the point where this one might pick up some steam. We'll have to see.
I had to make so many decisions on the fly in this chapter and the mood changes so many times that it seriously felt like I wrote 5,000 words tonight. To only be at 24,073 is actually shocking to me. The reason is partially that I didn't check the word count at all since I felt like I was in a flow that I haven't felt all novel.
There is a slightly major problem with this last bit of writing, however. It was supposed to really set the conflict for part two of the novel. I almost had Tabitha and Andy hook up (they were "seeing each other" for a time three years prior to the start of the novel and Tabitha broke it off because she thought it was getting too serious) which would have really created a conflict all around.
I think I wrote the chapter so there was a palpable sexual tension between the two. I mean, I did have Tabitha offer to sleep with Andy. They definitely had a pretty physical relationship in the past it would seem. But Andy rejects the advance and Tabitha is more embarassed by it than anything. Then they get to fighting again and Andy is ready to kick Tabitha out the door (more drag her by the wrist) when Tabitha basically says that she's got a plan to get Kate and Andy back together.
Andy listens to this plan and I leave the chapter as I wrote it right now with the two of them sitting on the couch and Tabitha explaining the way things are to Andy.
It's not the world's funniest chapter. And it dragged out a lot of really personal storylines for me (not based on any of the characters in the book, but on completely different people). It got so emotional that it even shut Little Green Envelope up. I don't think that there was really anything to make fun of it was so intense.
This is the last few paragraphs of what I wrote tonight:
“I mean, look at us,” [Tabitha] said, “can you ever possibly have pictured us together? And I don’t mean behind closed doors, but out in the world? There isn’t a single way in a million years that it would have worked. And maybe I think that if you could just get your act together that you and Kate could work out. It’s not like you weren’t working, you just have to quit acting like a jackass.”
“Is that your plan,” Andy said, still sounding as if the air had been let out of him, “for me to stop acting like a jackass?”
“It’s certainly a start,” she said. “What you need to do is be the you that I knew a few years ago. I don’t know what’s happened to you. It’s like you’ve lost the will to be a nice person.”
“I still am,” he said, “you just don’t see it because you’re the last person in the world that I’d want to show it to.”
“That’s too bad Andy,” she said, “you ever heard of the ‘best friend test’? It’s an old saying that if you really want a woman to like you, she’s not the one you want to convince. Or, that’s not totally true. She’s obviously the one you want to convince. But the person you want to convince the most after the girl herself is the girl’s best friend. If you’ve got her than you’re pretty much home free.”
“Does that rule still apply after three years?”
“Boy,” she said, “it applies until either the girl or the best friend is in the ground.”
This is not the Tabitha that I wrote up until this point at all. There's nothing seemingly vicious in this dialog at all. She actually seems like she's not flighty or at least trying to act that way. It's the Tabitha that I think would be the Tabitha where she's not putting up a front. Similarly, it's the Andy where he lets his guard down as well.
Of course since neither of them are entirely trustworthy characters up until this point in the story, either of them could just be trying to get an advantage over the other emotionally. It's the undertone of exploitation in the scene that I might want to play up more if I ever go back and edit this into a second draft.
After all, based on the limited dialog, it was only a few minutes since they were at each other's throats.
I think either Andy or Tabitha have to say something to set the other one off. But if the round-and-round starts again the chapter may end up being 20 pages that I don't finish until way after mid-month.
Talk about screwing up the pacing in the name of a word vein.
---
The Word War has really started to mess with my mind I think. 24,073 puts me on pace for 60,180 for the month (I have the spreadsheet projection, I didn't actually do the math).
Yet, somehow I feel as though I'm really far behind. This is probably for the best though as it will actually push me to finish the story in November.
I sort of wanted to use NaNoFiMo to blow the dust off of my 2005 alternate history novel, "Stars, Bars, and the Crown" and finish it. I left it pretty much at the climax. I just worry that the resolution won't match the intensity of where I left off.
This novel is so personal and that one was much grander (even though the central story is interpersonal) that I don't even think I'm preparing myself for that one writing this one. I created whole worlds for that one (there are six newspapers of various political bent in that one and I actually wrote coverage of various story events in all six perspectives) and this one takes place in two apartments - so far.
But it's starting to get to the point where this one might pick up some steam. We'll have to see.
posted by incendiarymind at 9:04 PM
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