Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

NaNoWriMo Report.


I've been starting or adding to works of fiction every November for the past dozen years. Now, a little more than halfway through 2016 National Novel Writing Month, I'm ready to yell "Nevermore!"

I'm hanging by my thumbs on the related questions of Plot and Structure. I have 50,000 words of good character description, but they don't go anywhere. My first novel was a pageturner. This one is going to be soporific if I don't figure out a way to get it moving. 

I have produced pages of ideas and notes, but so far no actual writing that a reader will eventually read. Oy! 

NaNoWriMo advises writers to have this planning done before November 1, so that you can start scribbling like mad when the clock strikes midnight. I didn't do this. My revised goal for NaNoWriMo is to have a structure chosen and a plot outline in place by December. I may have to throw away my first 50,000 words and just keep them in mind as backstory.

If I'm not able to nail down the plot this month, I may have to close the book on NaNoWriMo and this novel, and spend November like other people, getting needed chores and shopping done before the Crazed Days of Xmas hit. But I will miss it. 

But one Raven, sitting lonely on the placid fence, spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered—not a feather then he fluttered—
Till I scarcely more than muttered, "Other plots have soared before,
On the morrow, inspiration, as my plots have soared before."
. Then the bird said, "Nevermore."
— with apologies to EDGAR ALLAN POE