I was skeptical if I could finish writing a fifty thousand words long first draft of a novel.
My first fiction failed to yield any response from any agent for the last two years. It was rejected by a leading global publisher for its kind and, mainly, for its size. It is one hundred sixty-two thousand words long.
My second novel failed to see broad day light of publishing as it was trailing behind the first one.
I understand that those two do not speak of victimhood of the communities, or misogyny or racism or casteism, or communalism and all that are in line with Associated Press approved narratives. Yet those two speak of power struggle, power abuses, conflicts and impacts of big issues on small people.
Should I put my hand on my third?
Should I?
I had to. I am helpless about developing a plot into a complete story.
When I had no time, I tried to finish my stories in only fifty words. They have a nice name for it, Mini Saga. But its readers complained of obscurity.
I moved on to tell stories in more and more words.
Written a dozen short stories of thousand to three thousand words.
Then, this October I noticed in a friend’s blog post about NaNoWriMo.
I started looking for it online. I missed it in 2012, 2013 and so on. 2012 required me to be present at WriMos' afternoon sessions at the county library headquarter. In 2015 the venue was two hours’ drive away, and the schedule was not compatible with my job. 2016 kept me busy with my near one’s medical issues. In 2017, my day job was monstrously all engulfing. In 2018 a job kept me distracted. In 2019 again there was …. something that held me back from participating in NaNoWriMo.
I had two themes under my sleeves. One, had already been developed to plot, too. But that plot needed me to read some reference books. I had no time for minute reading before the onset of NaNoWriMo 2020.
Hence, I developed the other theme into a plot. Then, I divided the plot points into five broad heads allotted ten thousand words to each of them. Next, I rearranged the plot points under those heads and allotted three broad points under each broad head. Thus, I planned for a total fifteen chapters segregated into five parts. Next, I allotted three thousand three hundred forty words to each of the chapters. Thus, my goal for the entire first draft became a little larger than fifty thousand words.
Also, I prepared its dramatis personae. Then, I waited till November 1, 2020 stroke my time zone.
For the calm of early morning, for my mind to be free from distractions while developing the plot into a novel, I dragged myself out of bed every morning between thirty past four to nine past five. The latter was the latest.
I did not have any beverage. I did not even think of having any. My whole attention was drawn towards writing at least a thousand words before anyone at home gets up.
Yet the start was a meager six hundred words on the first day. It was followed by another one thousand eight hundred on the next day but dropped again on the third.
I had to gear up. I squeezed my all free time on the weekend into eight hours, five on Saturday and three on Sunday.
Even then my speed was below average.
I started wedging my hours to participate in the six O’clock evening sprint led by Mr. Prakash Hegde of WriMO India chapter. It tuned me up to write one and half a thousand words in addition to the morning words in the day.
Before each break and after each break, I checked the word count per chapter. The first was the biggest. It splashed much above its designated limit. Then, I tried to finish the rest of the chapters within the limits. For achieving the limits, I recalibrated the word limits of the last three chapters.
Division into chapters and calibrations and recalibrations of the chapters saved my writeup from being jumbled. I was in awe when the ending came to me in the middle of chapter 2. Had I not allotted a place beforehand for the ending, I would have ended in swallowing the ending up and searching my mind for its remnants thereof over following days. Thus, the structure of the story kept me aware of my limits and helped me follow the limits towards completing fifty thousand words.
Yet, what I have now is just a pulpy dump. After two or more months of marination, I shall take up my scissors and scalpels to adjust the hook and cliffhangers and to remove inconsistencies in the plot. I probably have to rewrite an entire chapter.
Anyway, it has been an amazing journey. I owe it entirely to the WriMo community.
