My Journey To The Wattys 2020

Day 163

It's been over a week since my last post on my progress towards the Wattys. In my last post, I pointed out that I've mostly got the outline figured out and it was time to work on the characters. Incidentally, last week the official Wattys profile also posted their latest chapter dealing specifically with characters. Good timing.

Have I made any progress?

A little. Last week, I ended up spending a couple of days writing another chapter for my ONC project, mainly because I felt inspired and I didn't want that inspiration to go to waste. That puts the ONC project at five chapters. Even if I don't make it through to the next round, I'm happy where the story's at and I'll be pushing for another chapter this week.

On my Wattys project, I spent some time working on motivations etc. for one of the main supporting characters. It's one of those characters that kind of are at the center of what's happening because they're the cause of it but at the same time, the story doesn't necessarily revolve around them. By working through this character and their contribution to the story, I've actually had a bit of a revelation on the timeline of the story itself. Not necessarily changing it but a change in how it's all revealed. I'm still working on the angles on this one and as I dive into one of the main characters this week, I expect this change will become more clear. Overall, it'll make the story a bit more mysterious, I think, and the events at the beginning of the story more unexpected.

Time will tell whether it's a good idea or not.

As far as my schedule goes, it's obvious I'm not going to start writing the story today. Partly because I need to keep some options open on the ONC front, should I actually make it through to the next round, but primarily because I want to finish at least the character work before I begin writing. In the end, I may let my schedule slip into mid-May to allow more time for world-building as well but most of that, I already have from my prior attempt and the world is relatively firmly established in my mind. Much of that I like to make up on the go anyway, as long as there's a firm framework.

So, for now, May 1 is the start of writing. If that goes well, I'm aiming for June 1 to actually begin posting chapters. In that sense, this project won't be one of those where I post as I write. I want to have a few chapters ready to go before I do that, then see what happens.