Current NaNoWriMo Word Count

• Day 1: 1438 (1438)
• Day 2: 3674 (5112)
• Day 3: 1895 (7007)
• Day 4: 3094 (10101)
•  Day 5: 2028 (12129)

The Writing Process: Flexibility

A willingness to adapt creates stronger narratives

My NaNoWriMo project this year is the creation of the third installment of a YA urban fantasy series. I have the series loosely planned out (seven titles at this point), but I don’t spend a lot of time agonizing over the development of these characters. They make choices and experience consequences as naturally as I can possibly write. 

But then today, as I’m rounding the corner on 12k words, I realize that I’ve set up my MC to do something unexpected. I see it, I write it in this new way, and suddenly I’ve changed the course of the book. My main plot development points are still on track, and I’ll get there, but these changes are essentially going to alter how my MC survives the consequences of her choices. 

I do not believe characters should be exempt from consequences because we’re invested in them. My MC is in way over her head, and there should be consequences for that. She isn’t going to skirt by on technicalities or divine intervention.  

Flexibility allows me to follow the story as I realize what it is. The first draft, or the process of putting the amorphous idea on paper, always requires a bit of mental sacrifice. Is is through the careful and deliberate revisions of that initial brain dump that we string together the fate of these characters. 

When I write, I don’t want to plan out scenes or pigeon-hole my characters into certain outcomes. If someone naturally reaches a conclusive end, then I want the freedom to handle it appropriately. I need that flexibility to be creative, otherwise I have placed unnecessary boundaries on my craft. 

I do not stand for self-imposed limitations.

So be free. Allow yourself the freedom to write five different versions of a scene and weave together the flow that bests suits you.  Don’t fear your own written words. Break them up, delete them, rearrange them, sever them if needed. 

But don’t stand for mediocrity because of an arbitrary guideline.