I didn’t do any writing on the novel yesterday. I worked on the outline some, fleshing out the details of Part 3, but no writing. In part this was because I was busy with too many other things. But that is just an excuse. The truth is that I am pretty unhappy with Part 3 and because of that, even Part 3 has lost some of its luster. I feel like I am in a sudden struggle for survival in my attempt to finish the novel at all, let alone by December 15.
I decided yesterday that in the second draft, I am cutting Part 2 entirely. The plot just isn’t interesting enough in that part of the novel. I still think I have a pretty good Part 3 outline, but some of the motivation for the actions that occur are less clear without knowing what will happen in the new Part 2. I almost feel like I need to rewrite the outline for Part 2 before I can continue with Part 3 in any meaningful way. Of course, this will mean some minor changes in Part 1 as well, but I still think Part 1 is the strongest and I don’t think too much will change there. Truthfully, I feel like I could use some time away from the story. I’m tempted to set it aside and finish up another short piece I’ve been working on just to get my mind off of it for a little while. But that doesn’t get the novel written. I know that I need to stick with it. I can push through by brute force, like I always do, and clean things up in the second draft, even if that means some wholesale rewrite.
I may use the short story as a carrot. If I can get my 2,000 words on the novel done each day, then I’ll permit myself to work on the short story in the evenings–but only if I get the novel writing done first.
Anyway, since I’ve spoken about my daily successes, I felt a post was in order describing some of my failures. Part 2 is a definite failure and it is impacting my will to press forward. But press forward I will try. December 15 is looming ever closer and I’ve still got about 28,900 words to go.
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