Little Ida’s Flowers

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  “MY poor flowers are quite dead!” said little Ida. “They were so pretty yesterday, and now all the leaves hang withered. Why do they do that? . . . Why do the flowers look so faded to-day?” she asked again, and showed him a nosegay, which was quite withered.  “Do you know what’s the matter with them?” said the Student. “The flowers have been at a ball last night, and that’s why they hang their heads.”  “But flowers cannot dance!” cried little Ida. “O yes,” said the Student, “when it grows dark, and we are asleep, they jump about merrily. Almost every night they have a ball.” —Hans Christian Andersen. (1805–1875)

NaNoWriMo report 1

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Here's a picture of my "Novel Bible."  These are the notes (so far) that I will be consulting as I write my novel in one month. 

I am learning very quickly.

I began with a more mathematical approach to this project, thinking that I could break the project down into smaller portions based on clean divisions of the overall project: 50,000 words = about 1667 words per day, or one scene per day.  I then set an initial goal of 1 chapter per week, or 5 chapters at the most.

Two words: "Epic Fail!"  Of course, I'd rather do this two days into the project, than later.

My first chapter was subdivided into eight smaller scenes.  I just finished one scene and realized that the scene in itself is one whole chapter!  If I squeeze eight scenes into one chapter, it would produce rather lengthy and cumbersome chapters.  If this pattern holds true, then my novel will be not five chapters, which sounds simple enough, but as many as 37 chapters!  That's a little over one chapter per day!

Perhaps the "Tolstoy" style would be appropriate here: five major "books" or parts, and the appropriate chapters accordingly by scene.  Sounds reasonable.

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