I’ve lost control
5 Nov 2011
Vladimir Nabokov, The Art of Fiction No. 40
INTERVIEWER
E. M. Forster speaks of his major characters sometimes taking over and dictating the course of his novels. Has this ever been a problem for you, or are you in complete command?
NABOKOV
My knowledge of Mr. Forster’s works is limited to one novel, which I dislike; and anyway, it was not he who fathered that trite little whimsy about characters getting out of hand; it is as old as the quills, although of course one sympathizes with his people if they try to wriggle out of that trip to India or wherever he takes them. My characters are galley slaves.
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Nabokov’s characters did exactly what he wanted them too. I’m close to 7000 words into the NaNo novel and already I’ve lost control. My characters are doing their own things! I’ve written myself into a corner and now I have to write a sex scene. There are continuity issues, my flashbacks are out of order, it’s the past – no wait not that far back – fuck. Wait, that hasn’t happened yet. It’s a nightmare. And entirely par for the course with the challenge of writing this fast. Regardless of my plotting, I’m still having to ‘pants’ parts of the story. There isn’t time to story board the sequences, so by the seat of my pants, I am guessing, making it up. Cranking out the daily words so I don’t fall behind.
Trying to introduce enough tension between the central characters and avoiding any more love interests – man are they trouble!
Nov 08, 2011 @ 19:42:40
My characters are not galley slaves – in fact I think I’m the slave! Let them take you on a journey – nothing is permanent, all can be changed. They might take you somewhere very interesting.
Keeping track can be hard, but I kept a written chapter guide in a notebook, but I’m a hand writer, so it works for me.
Good luck!
Nov 07, 2011 @ 20:48:42
Hi Louise
It’s Tanya from a certain Twitter cabinet. Someone mentioned you had this blog – i love the community you guys are creating.
Good luck with the NaNo – it sounds like a great exercise. I’m not surprised your characters keep running off – I think they tend to do that. I find it pretty exciting when they do that but it is inconvenient too. Maybe Nabokov kept control because Humbert Humbert was so out of control anyway. !?
Keep us posted!
Nov 08, 2011 @ 08:57:33
Oh worlds collide. Glad to see you.
I’m sprinting now to week two and half way!
Nov 06, 2011 @ 22:30:20
Ahh the beauty of a creative mind.
I’m using yWriter – @spacejock’s software and Word to keep track of scenes.
I am def not writing my NaNo linearly.
yWriter is free to download but you can give him a donation.
You can paste your scenes into chapters and move them around – it’s a bit easier than doing it all in word.
I’ve not looked at other software but hey it’s good for me.
Good luck with week 2 in NaNo!
Nov 08, 2011 @ 08:53:10
I am using Scrivener and I’m really liking it so far.
I like the cork board idea and the project target tracking with it’s little changing colour bar. Go green Go green.
Makes me compete with myself I think!
Hope you are progressing well with week two. Sprint to the half way.
Nov 05, 2011 @ 23:42:06
I feel your pain! Especially the whole sex scene thing, I have been thinking about that, it feels inevitable in my “novel” but I have no idea, never written one before and I am terrified I will go all giggly and teenage girl if I start to write one. I’m going all giggly teenage girl, just writing this comment.
I’m finding the whole lack of time to research hard. My plot has a mind of its own now and I;d like to be able to pause, reflect, and do a bit of research on some of the themes. But without the research the writing feels like one of those wonky trolleys, it keeps trying to veer in another direction. I only have about 5000 words. Your word count is on track!
It’s scary stuff but keep at it x
Nov 08, 2011 @ 08:51:12
I avoided writing ‘it’ so far but it can’t last!
Good luck with the sprint to halfway.
Nov 05, 2011 @ 20:56:08
You are doing better than me. I’ve only managed 5600 or so words. I did however start with a theme rather than any characters or plot. Thankfully I have now got some plot.
Good luck. I hope you characters behave themselves at some point.
Nov 08, 2011 @ 08:50:37
Characters are still misbehaving but I am just going with it. There is NO time for editing in this race. Hope you are doing well.