Want to read along as I work on my NaNoWriMo effort? It’s a science-fiction murder mystery so different from The Glamourist Histories by almost every measure. This is also a little odd, because I invoked the Zokutou clause, which says:
You have to start your novel from scratch, unless you are a previous NaNoWriMo winner. If you have already attained the status of Winner, you do not need to start a new novel, as your main aim is now to finish one. You can now consider yourself a winner if, by midnight on the 30th of November, you have either:
- Written 50,000 words on one or more previous works.
- Completed your novel’s first draft.
So! I’m taking my novella, “Kiss Me Twice,” and expanding it back into a novel. Back? Yes. This was originally a NaNoWriMo novel and I cut it down to be a novella, then sold it to Asimov’s.
It’s an interesting exercise to expand it again, but not particularly fun. You might ask why I’m doing it then. Well…When it was up for a Hugo last year, there was some interest in seeing it in novel form. Because I had made drastic changes when cutting it down, and liked the new plot better, I couldn’t just dust off the novel version. I’m having to write it anew. The part of me that is interested in structure and the Hows of writing, wants to see what sort of things I’m having to alter to make it back into a novel.
Some things I expected, like adding POVs back into the novel, and putting in more sensory details. Other things are surprising me, like the fact that tangents seem more desirable. Some scenes, which were perfectly fine in novella form, feel abbreviated here but others of the same length are fine.
If you’d like to read along, and offer feedback, I’m posting the first three chapters in the clear. After that, you’ll need a password.
I’m curious about your reader reactions: what things bore you, confuse you, or that you don’t believe. Also the cool things so I don’t accidentally “fix” those.
OK, I have returned to my home after the Great Paint Excursion, and I’ve started reading this. Chapter One is really interesting – it’s like listening to an abridged audiobook and then reading the actual book. There are suddenly details spelled out that I had filled in on my own when reading it the first several times.
As I’ve said before, I’m really curious to see how this goes. I was very fond of the original story – enough to nominate it for a rocket ship – so I’m wondering if I’ll like this as much, even more or … well, we’ll skip the last alternative.