So NaNoWriMo 2014 is in the books.  Before I continue with Memories of a Dimanagul’s normally scheduled programming, I wanted to take two posts (The other being on Wed.) to talk about what happened over the month of November.

The first few chapters went without a hitch.  I had a strong grasp of Russ as a character and I knew where I wanted to go with the story.  The initial conflict was simple:  Russ is the false antagonist of his own super hero group.

This lead seamlessly into the incident at the stadium, when I go over the revisions I will need to look closely at those early chapters and see if I dragged out the slower paced introductory chapters.  The interaction with Negator in theswamp may need to be explored more.

Overall, I feel I skimped on introductions of characters and scene building.  This is something I tend to do intentionally in Two Destroyers and Kingless Country.  I have many characters I throw around, so I’m concerned I don’t paint a clear image to the reader.

In general I feel the story needs more local flavor, nods to the New Orleans area etc.  If I wanted to be serious about this as a published novel, I’d want to go on vacation to the Big Easy and ‘feel’ the atmosphere.   Everything I mention is second hand knowledge.

I was pretty happy about the mid chapters.  Namely Phinneas’ introduction and the goals he laid out.  I think most of the story is Russ doing things and making things happen.  Passive heroes are never fun.

I hit some difficulty in the final stretch, the late teens to the end.   Here I got a bunch of ideas on how the story would pull together.  The direct result of Russ’ falling out with the Macro Corp. and Kirin’s introduction as the hero ‘Freda’.  In the original version of the Macro Corp, Russ was much younger (16) and Kirin was a shoe in as a romance interest.  In this version, I wanted this to be much more nebulous.

Something I’ve learned from writing on MoD, you don’t need to force romances.  It’s rare for a guy and a girl to just be friends.  Kirin’s naivety makes this easy to keep it pure.

On the final stretch, I basically had to retool the whole resolution.  It looked OK on paper, but in execution it seemed shallow.  I always had plans to have Nerissa make an appearance, but it originally was going to be much more subtle.  In the end, I used the kneejerk alliance with Negator to set things straight.   I’m not completely happy with it.  Also I’d like to flesh out the part with the Elemental lords.

The conclusion (The final action scene) I’m pretty happy with.  It’s probably rough, but I like the idea of it.  I’m happy I avoided a long drawn out battle between Micron and Macro Man.  They’re friends after all.

The actual resolution needs work.  I wanted it to be short, but I don’t think it needs to be THAT short.   Looking at the big picture, this novel needs 5,000+ words to be ‘done’.  There’s not a lot of bloat.

Of course that’s my opinion as the creator, I’d be interested to hear the opinion of those that read this mess from front to back.

Thanks for everyone and their support of A Matter of Time.  Next year Joyce/Medica will be taking the center stage.  I hope everyone enjoyed reading as much I enjoyed writing it.