My progressSo far, I'm very happy with my progress in my first draft. I've hit 9,250 words as of today, so I'm definitely on track to have 10,000 words done by the end of the week. I'm expecting to have around 20,000 words on my first draft, so I should be able to have it done around Week 4. I've managed to write some everyday, and I've found that it is easier to write in a few small sessions throughout the day, rather than one large session. Issues I've encounteredThe main thing that I am having difficulties with is formatting conversations in the text. I understand that I'm supposed to start a new paragraph when someone new starts talking, but I'm not sure when to start a paragraph if I'm describing something outside the conversation. Here's an example: In the text, one character is talking at the beginning. Then the protagonist describes the character talking, and then the protagonist talks himself. I'm not sure if I should put the "He paused, and I sensed..." part with original paragraph, or start a new one with it. It could kind of go either way, but I think that it should be part of the original since it is still describing the person talking. (The image shows the opposite) The storyWhen I first started conceptualizing the story, I would think of different things that I could add in the story and I wrote them down for later. That gave me a very general outline of what I wanted for my story, but I'm mostly coming up with it as I go. I still haven't given things specific names yet, because I want to see where the story takes each character before I assign a name to them. I've decided that I want the "aliens" to look similar to iguanas, like in the image below. Obviously, they won't look exactly the same, but I think that they fit the general desert aesthetic that I'm looking for. Before this week, I was only writing the background information. It made more sense for me to write everything chronologically to start, so that when I write my second draft I can jump back and forth in memories. This week, I finally actually got to the present, and I have written out the first arrival of the humans. I also made a prophecy of sorts for the story, and it goes like this. Mysterious beings seek to claim, Their home has fallen deep to flame Thrice they come, they cannot fail The battle for home fought tooth and nail A tragedy struck by the heart Division, the loss will soon impart A lesson learnt to set them free Beware, my people, my warning is clear The arrival of the Silver Dragon is near. So that's how my Genius Hour project has went this week. Check back in next week to see what happens next!
0 Comments
Project DetailsMy project is to write a full novel in 12 weeks. Originally, my plan was to write it in 3 separate drafts so that I would have plenty of time to build the story from the ground up. I thought that I could knock out the first draft in about a week, but I was sorely mistaken. I'm currently 5750 words in, and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. As a result, I've shifted my plan to write the story in 2 drafts, with a week or so at the end to get feedback and edit. My word goal for every day that I am not actually in school is 750 words, and my goal for the days that I do go to school is 500 words. If I keep with that, my novel should end up being around 30,000 words, which I think is a good number to shoot for. The storyWithout giving too much away, my story is about the human invasion of an alien planet. It's taken from the alien's perspective, who are very primitive in comparison to the far more technologically advanced humans. I've taken some inspiration from the early conflicts between the European settlers and Native Americans in early colonial times for the story. The protagonist of the story is a lone wolf who struggles with "fitting in" to the village he finds himself stuck in.
|
AuthorJust your average student who's tired of reading everyone else's stories. Archive |