The Unexpected Mission is the title of my entry for 2009’s NaNoWriMo and it has taken me about 11 months to complete it to my satisfaction.
A snippet of my entry reads like this:-
“….He knew that he was asking a very hypothetical question. He knew what would be the consequences if he does not deliver.
Deepak did not say anything but instead he stood up and put his hand on John’s shoulder. He just looked at John, smiled and said that he will be contacted in one week’s time or perhaps sooner, depending on what John is doing to get his money.
Deepak said John will be of course, watched at all times, just to make sure that the police are not involved in this.
Deepak walked away and John was left still sitting down at his place. John took out the paper and looked at the list again. Two of the banks listed are located in Accra, one in New York and two more in Malaysia.
It is not going to be easy to arrange for the transfer of the money within a week especially the banks are located in three different countries and governed by three different banking rules…”
In between my regular work and my laziness to open the rough story to complete it), I was impressed with myself that I was able to complete the short novel with plenty of revisions to style, grammar, spelling mistakes, expansion of the nameless characters and additional twist to the story.
The final tally is a short novel of 50,203 words (ya, delete quite a load of them especially the x-rated part), covering over 93 pages.
I had intended to publish it once the rough edges of my book have been cleaned out – after all since I put a lot of sleepless night into the story, the last thing I want to see is it collecting “dust” in my laptop folder.
But recently as I went shopping for new books, I realised something – a 93-page story is going to end as a really short story. 93 pages were nothing in the novel world. So, I looked back at my “piece” and I realise why some good novelist can write a really thick book (they write good stuff there and not for the sake of getting the book thick).
They expand on the current storyline – perhaps with some sub-plots, explanation and further expansion of the characters. It ends up something brilliant.
And as I went through my 2009 NaNoWriMo entry – I realise that there is plenty of “holes” in the storyline.
The main storyline and the main characters are there but sub-plots were missing and some of the background actions were not explained properly. So, whilst it is good to complete the 50,000 words finishing line within the NaNoWriMo month (it is not an easy task considering that 81% of the participants did not finish the 50,000 words finishing line) but to make sure that the storyline is tight and interesting, it is better to put more time and effort.
So, I am holding back the “publication” of the 2009 NaNoWriMo entry for now – there is plenty of time to improve on my “masterpiece” (at least, that is what I see them as).
Another 2 weeks and I will be busy with my entry for 2010’s NaNoWriMo entry (title yet to be confirmed but I have some plots in mind) and perhaps another 11 months, fine-tuning the content.
15 days and counting…
Related articles
- NaNoWriMo for the Kindle Reader: Mastering the Craft of Fiction (kindlereader.blogspot.com)
- Writing Fictional Characters Who Aren’t Like You (advancedfictionwriting.com)
- October is National Graphic Novel Writing Month! (tor.com)
- The Prisoner of NaNoWriMo by Craig Robertson (podiobooks.com)
- “Short Story on Paris Versus Novel for NaNoWriMo, Up To A Writing Challenge in November?” and related posts (sergetheconcierge.com)