I’ve finished writing the draft of my MG for JoNoWriMo+1.5 and am currently plugging holes in the ms (I use BLANK in the text and then go back later to fill in the character’s last name, or the food item someone was eating, or whatever I hadn’t yet figured out at the time I was writing) before making my official announcement that I finished.
But I wanted to share what I discovered about those 3000 words I cranked out last week in one sitting. Those words were in the last big scene of the book which I knew pretty well since I’d written lots of notes and could visualize it. Today as I moved around the document plugging holes, I realized that the last big scene slipped from past tense into present. It read like an announcer at a horse track calling out the race. You know, that neck-in-neck kind of stuff.
Anyway, it made me laugh.
Tracy Abell 
Interesting. I’ve never changed tenses in the middle of a story — but I’ll often change POV. Every now and then, I think I want to try a book in 3rd person…and inevitably, when I start really getting into it, it slips back into first. Have you ever written an entire book in present tense?
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It was funny how it happened without me noticing. I’m wondering if I needed that sense of immediacy in order to crank out the words as quickly as they were coming. I don’t know.
As for present tense, I wrote about one-third of an adult novel in present tense because it seemed to make sense for the subject matter (Alzheimer’s) but then decided present tense is too hard because it doesn’t allow room for reflection. That partial ms is somewhere around here………..
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I think it’s interesting what our minds do when we kind of let them at it 🙂
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It’s true they’d probably range a lot farther and wider if we’d just let them go. I’m not always good at that.
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Me neither. I tend to put boundaries around myself — so when I can find a way to keep them away, it’s a good thing 🙂
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Hey congratulations, Tracy, that you’re almost there. I’m so proud of you for sticking with your draft until the end.
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Thank you, Sheela. I’m proud of me, too, because we both know how treacherous that journey can be!
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Congrats on (almost) finishing!
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Thanks, Barb. And what a sweet sight it is!
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You finished a draft! Yay!
I hope we have more time because I’ve got a ways to go.
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Yep, I’m actually ahead of schedule this time around. Woohoo!
You’ve got three weeks – you can do it!
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You finished a draft! Yay!
I hope we have more time because I’ve got a ways to go.
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Wow! That is amazing! Congrats!
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Thank you, Sarah. I’m hoping when I read it in another couple months I’ll like at least some of it. (You know how that goes…)
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It was funny how it happened without me noticing. I’m wondering if I needed that sense of immediacy in order to crank out the words as quickly as they were coming. I don’t know.
As for present tense, I wrote about one-third of an adult novel in present tense because it seemed to make sense for the subject matter (Alzheimer’s) but then decided present tense is too hard because it doesn’t allow room for reflection. That partial ms is somewhere around here………..
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Yep, I’m actually ahead of schedule this time around. Woohoo!
You’ve got three weeks – you can do it!
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I love it.
“Coming up on the outside, it’s Resolution for the win!”
I use “fix” the same way you use “blank.”
🙂
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That’s exactly how it felt. I guess I was in sprint mode or something.
Do you put FIX in all caps so you can find it easily?
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I love it.
“Coming up on the outside, it’s Resolution for the win!”
I use “fix” the same way you use “blank.”
🙂
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Congratulations on finishing your draft!!!!!! That’s big news.
That last bit made me laugh, too. 🙂
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Thank you, Julie. I obviously didn’t get into the NaNo scene on time but I do have an idea that I want to start cranking on when this one is set aside.
Congrats on doing so well with your project!
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That’s exactly how it felt. I guess I was in sprint mode or something.
Do you put FIX in all caps so you can find it easily?
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Thank you, Julie. I obviously didn’t get into the NaNo scene on time but I do have an idea that I want to start cranking on when this one is set aside.
Congrats on doing so well with your project!
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