Even though I don’t generally do updates each month for The Fifteen Minute Novel Experiment, I generally find that after the first thirty days I like to have a quick check in. the reason I often skip later posts is because the temptation to start editing begins to rise and with this particularly I want to hold off on that. I like to see the entire story take shape before I fill in the remaining parts. Mostly because when this is written in 15 minute portions per day, it is hard to keep some of the details straight because there are so many other things filtered between each writing. The Day 30 post was written this morning and posted.
As always it is lacking in a lot of details. I have come to expect that from this sort of witting actually and it no longer bothers me as much as it used to. when I sit and write normally I tend to read over what I wrote the day before, add in a few details to slowly ease me back into the story and mind of my main character. It shifts the way I write into their voice. when I do this I can keep all the little details straight, physical appearance of all in the story, tiny details of the house, neighborhood landscape, mental images of treasured items or anything else significant to the story. All of these are important as they add depth and meaning to certain scenes.
However writing in fifteen minute bursts I find myself focusing more on the broad strokes of the story. This used to rally bother me and I would have to restrain myself from immediately going back and adding that detail. What was Gwen wearing when Toby left her for her best friend? What are the details of the dress she so meticulously put together? what does her house look like? All of those ware questions that need to be answered, but if I sit and answer them now then the story won’t be told. This Fifteen Minute Novel is about getting the entire story out even if I can only give fifteen minutes a day to it because I have other tasks demanding my attention.
Later I will go back and let myself add all of those details in. This is just telling the bare bones of the tale.
At the moment I am rather pleased with the way it is shaping up. I can see parts where I will be adding in and expanding the story. Our story this far is that Gwen has been dumped by her boyfriend who cheated on her for over a year with her best friend. Because her friend and her friend’s family were often more family than her own, she feels she has lost a lot more than a boyfriend. And now she is being cast loose. Today she is mid flight and going to her grandparents far far away.
I know that when I make my first editing pass in addition to adding the physical details I will probably beef up the loss so that is is more clear that she is losing more than just Toby. At this point I haven’t reread anything so i am hoping that it came through clearly at this point. I sometimes find that writing these 15 minute bite sized writings I will baldly state a point and then need to go back and make it a bit more subtle. The bald statements serving more as mental markers where I need to work with it.
At this point in the story I want her to realize not only the loss, grieving and acknowledging that, but also to realize that because of her relationship with Toby and Lisa she altered bits of herself. There are things she gave up that she really enjoyed and that she let their needs dominate her plans. As she realizes that she will hopefully come more fully into herself.
At least that is the plan. For those of you looking for plain statistics the word count at thirty days is sitting at 16, 991 by my computer’s count. which seems about average for the first month. It will be interesting to see where this one goes actually as this is a singular story that won’t be spilling into a sequel. I have a second story line broken out so that if this story doesn’t last the entire year I don’t feel compelled to continue it, but can end it at it’s proper place and then let it rest before editing. Right now, I feel like it is on track.
And so the Fifteen Minute Novel Writing Experiment of 2023 continues…
Ten til Midnight 