NaNo: this book is not 50k long

[clare_dragonfly]

I'm at 30k words now, and I am swiftly approaching the end of my outline. The plot is almost wrapped up; I don't think I have more than 10k left to go. It actually doesn't bother me that my novel(la) is going to be 40k or less. The whole plot is in there, I'm happy with the pacing, and honestly, I really like shorter books!

But of course, this is NaNo, and I need a way to fill out my 50k. So I figured I'd ask you guys for advice.

It's the first book in a dystopian trilogy. The plot is that one main character, Tab, found her brother had disappeared. So she left the ritzy boarding school where she has lived literally her entire life to run around on the dangerous streets of the city, looking for her brother. She's rescued by Mal, the other main character, who has been living on the streets for 5 years and knows what she's doing. Tab refused to go home without her brother, so they've been looking for him all over the city for three days, running into nasty pimps, thieves, and of course, the Resistance (people fighting against the evil government). They've just learned about someone he might be hiding with, and in 1k words or so, they'll find him and everything will hit the fan. There's also a third POV, someone who works for the government and has been tracking Tab; she'll find her pretty soon, arrest her and take her away. (There's more to the plot than that, but I can't give everything away!)

I figure I have two options:

1. Add another POV, the brother's. Since he's not in the same place as any of the other characters, this would involve going back and adding a bunch of new scenes. However, I'm not sure those scenes would end up in the final novel, so it seems a waste of time to write them; they would mess with the pacing, and since all he's doing is hiding out with his boyfriend, the tone wouldn't match the rest of the book at all.

2. Start writing book 2 of the trilogy. I have a vague idea of what needs to happen, but I'm a big plotter, and I haven't planned book 2 yet! The momentum of book 1 might help get me started, though, and I can always work on plotting the rest in December.

Any thoughts? Feel free to cast your vote for one choice or the other, ask any questions you can think of, or suggest other options I haven't thought of!

Comments

[rootsofthestories]

I would do book two. Outline as much as you can in like...a day and then start working on it. I personally believe that if you have a finished book, then you've won NaNo anyway but if you feel compelled to keep going til you've hit the word goal, I'd start book two.

[clare_dragonfly]

Well yes, but if I don't have a 50k manuscript to upload then I don't get the pretty purple winner bar XD

I am a few days ahead. I guess I could take a day off to outline. Thanks! <3

[anke]

They do uploads now? Anyway, save a copy of your finished manuscript, and paste what you got of book 2 at the end, and upload that.

Unless the rules changed, they considered a collection of directly related short stories not even rebelling, so you should be 100% in the clear there.

[clare_dragonfly]

Yeah, at the end of the month, you upload a file to verify your word count...

I hadn't thought at all about putting the two manuscripts together. I'm keeping the whole trilogy in one Scrivener document, so when I have 50k I'll just hit "compile" and it will all be there ;)

[anke]

I just remember the form field to paste your text, is all.

See, problem solved. :D

[clare_dragonfly]

Oh, hmm, maybe I'm misremembering XD Whatever! It'll be easy!

[inventrix]

My vote is also for starting book 2!

[clare_dragonfly]

Thanks! :D

[lb_lee]

I chime in with the book two idea. In my mind, if its legs reach the ground, it's long enough. If you want, you can always just add the second book bit towards the end, in case you find an even better stopping point.

(But then, look at me, I haven't written anything longer than 15K in years! I like the Zen activity of expressing what I want in as small a space as possible.)

--Rogan

[clare_dragonfly]

If its legs reach the ground--yes! That's perfect. Its legs do seem as though they will reach the ground (though the feet are not done yet*). Thank you! I guess I will go on to book 2.

*but actually, I wrote what I think will be the last scene, so uh... one of the big toes is there!

[lb_lee]

Yeah, I feel like getting hung up on the length is kinda against the spirit of Nano, which should be about getting something done, not just forcing the word count for word count's sake.

--Rogan