NaNoWriMo Update #2 - The Pale Horse
My original goal was to write the entirety of Pale Horse: A Story of the World Hereafter during the month of November. That would be just over 120,000 words if I want to stay on track with The Long Road (98,000 words and 28 chapters including the Prologue and Epilogue) and The Minutemen (106,000 words and 29 chapters including the Prologue and Epilogue). That’s… a lot of words - about 4,000 words a day. If writing was my sole source of income that might be doable, but I work 40 hours a week and also like to spend time not sitting in front of my computer from time to time.
I’ve definitely made a lot of progress (as of the writing of this article I’m at 23,107 words and just started writing Chapter 6), for my own sanity and for the quality of my work I have to reconsider my goals. While I am more proud of The Long Road (it is my first novel, after all), I definitely improved my writing and storytelling in The Minutemen and want to continue this trend with Pale Horse, and rushing through it to meet an event-imposed deadline isn’t going to do my first draft any favors. Of course editing will be an important part of the process, but the stronger the initial draft, the better the final draft in my opinion.
So my goal has been adjusted somewhat. NaNoWriMo’s official goal for each participating writer is 50,000 words, which meets the minimum count for a novel-length work. I’m already halfway there after only one week of writing, so that shouldn’t be difficult to achieve even with a major holiday looming just over the horizon. So with that in mind I’m hoping to hit 75,000 words before the end of the month. That would get me just over halfway through my estimated final word count and provide me with a solid foundation. When I was writing The Long Road and The Minutemen I made it about halfway through each story before I put it down for a few weeks to give myself time to rest. When it was time to pick it back up I’d go over what I’d already written and make some adjustments before moving into the new material. Writing The Ghost, the Serpent, and the Wasteland was an altogether different experience, which I don’t plan on replicating.
Speaking of The Ghost, the Serpent, and the Wasteland (57,000 words and fourteen “chapters” for comparison’s sake), there are several characters from that story that will be appearing in Pale Horse. I’ve been very excited to include them in what I imagine will be Locke’s final story - not only to tie in the accidental prequel into the larger narrative, but because I believe these characters will really help bring about the ending that I’ve been working on since 2014 (while Locke has been a character in my brain for 10 years, he only found a home in this particular story about 8 years ago. Believe it or not, but Locke was almost the protagonist for a zombie apocalypse story. I’m very glad I bought Fallout 3, watched Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and went in a different direction back in 2013!). Already their introduction has made it easily to develop certain plots and has provided answers for questions I didn’t realize I had created during my brainstorming. It’s been quite the experience.
Same as last week, I wanted to include an excerpt, this one about the aforementioned characters from The Ghost, The Serpent, and the Wasteland (slight spoilers for that story):
The Marked Ones continued west for the next two days before turning north. By all accounts they should arrive at the edge of Wheelers territory by dusk and would be able to send emissaries to the tribe itself early the next day. Locke had opted to stay with the main force, riding alongside one of the Yava wagons to speak with Elnora. He had noticed some of the looks Ada had given him but chose to ignore them. The Yava chieftain was an old friend, nothing more.
Although Locke had to admit he had an ulterior motive. Before the Yava had arrived, the Marked Ones were an army first and foremost. Their identity had been forged by war and built around a culture of bloodshed and glory. Many of them lived and breathed only so they could find a noble death on the battlefield. But even after only three days things had changed. The Yava children were fearless, running through the camp and playing games as they chased one another and the occasional hapless adult. They knew that they were safe. Somehow they understood that these strange men and women with their tattoos and deadly weapons and hardened stares and harsh language would protect them to the bitter end.
Simply put, Elnora and her kin had given the Marked Ones a heart and soul. And he wasn’t the only one to have noticed it. Raul had sought a private audience the night before and had mentioned the change in demeanor almost immediately.The two had resolved to keep Elnora and her people content and safe as long as possible so that their presence could continue to affect change.
