NaNo Day 15

Wow. It has been so busy! I've had like three violin lessons in addition to my usual weekly ones in preparation for recital and then (though this is entirely my own fault) had a Harry Potter marathon which I just finished yesterday.

Actually, finishing the Harry Potter marathon and watching the last movie in my own home, it's really really hit me that Harry Potter is pretty much over. I'll always be able to read the books and watch the movies but there won't be any new movies or books to look forward to. I'm feeling sorta sad about it, I'd never thought before that I'd feel so sad about Harry Potter ending and yet. . . I'll probably watch the last movie a couple more times over the next few days. I would turn it on right now if I didn't have to wake up early tomorrow.

So I haven't written anything at all since the 10th, I think. I know, it's horrible! I've gotta catch up! My word count is currently 27,242. I've gotta get writing again!

And of course I'll be getting the video game Assassins Creed Revelations tomorrow and therefore waste more precious writing time. Why? Why did it have to come out this month? Of all the months of the year, this one?

At least there's a write in this week. Maybe I can make up a decent chunk of wordcount there?

I hope everyone is writing exciting things and that your muses are being kind to you (probably not to your characters though ;p)!

May Madness Update 5/6 and Beginning Boring-ness

May madness is going wonderfully so far! I'm so glad I decided to do it, I'm writing normally again, it's great :D I've written 10,000 words in only five days, that's just so awesome! And then coupled with ROW80 I'll be unstoppable. Unstoppable!! >:D Um. Yeah.

The only problems I'm having right now is that the beginning is boring. I'm trying to get to the part where things start happening as quickly as possible without just skipping to it. I'm not going to worry about rewriting or anything just yet but I know it needs some work.

I've been thinking about that general rule of 'make it harder' for your character but should you really do that in the beginning? Like within the first 50 pages should you really start making things harder? I'm under the impression that that sort of thing should wait until a bit later. Am I wrong?

What do you guys think? Does that rule apply to anywhere in the book or not?

The Mission of a Chapter

Something should happen in every single chapter to further the plot.

Now, I already knew this before, but it's quite easy to slip your mind when you're actually writing a story. You get caught up in your character, the world, the story and just the general awesomeness of writing your book, and totally forget that this chapter is supposed to have something important in it. Happens to me all the time, happened to me earlier today. I was writing along and then was all like "Oh, wait. What's furthering the plot here?"

Now, I went to one of my most favorite books of all time to scan through the chapters and see does something very important happen every single chapter. I went through Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. And something important does happen every single chapter. Something that furthers the plot. Now, when I was writing earlier I was pretty much just thinking, "Okay, introduce characters, setting etc. until I get to the first twist, however many chapters that takes."

I can't do that though. I can't have chapters there just to be there. They have to do something for the plot. I can't have a chapter in my book just because it's interesting or funny, unless it furthers the plot. It's a bit frustrating for me but at the same time it makes things easier cause I know that each chapter has their own individual mission of getting the plot a bit further, instead of just acting as separators within the book.

When I forget this kind of stuff it makes me feel a lot like this:

Good day!