The Middle of the Story (NaNoWriMo 2013)

I promised that I would give some "teasers" about this year's NaNoWriMo...

First, let me say that I am super excited about my technique this year. As I've mentioned before, the first year I just wrote every day until I'd pounded out one thousand six hundred sixty seven words and went wherever the story took me. It was a haphazard mess.

The second year, I started with a story concept and got mixed up every time there was a distraction, so it sort of went flat at the end.

This year, I spent the month of October developing my story from beginning to end and creating a fairly detailed outline. So, since November 1st, this journey has been one of simply telling the story. I already know what is going to happen, in fact, in my mind it is like the events have already happened and now I am just relating them to my readers.

The story is better, makes more sense and the words come faster. I don't have to stop and try to remember who's who because it's in my notes...

So, with that said, and I do feel like I can't say enough about this as a creative writing method... where is the story now?

As I approach the 20K word mark, I really feel for Agatha. As soon as she works her way out of one abusive relationship, she finds herself plunged into another. The struggles in her life are intense and tragic, but she is strong and she keeps fighting back.
She has just given birth to her second child and things seem to be working out in her favor as she is working, earning her own way, and learning to save money. She is still young and there is a lot she doesn't know, but she is learning to grieve for her losses and make better decisions.
It seems at this point, that she has the highest hopes of anywhere in the story and all are cheering her on toward a happy ending.

But, it's only 20K words.
And, if you know anything about a story, you know that if it seems too good to be true, then it probably is.

It's like that point in a movie when you think everything is working out and you think the hero has solved the problem and overcome the villain, only to realize that there is still an hour left in the movie and so the story can't be over.

That's where we are with Agatha. It's too early in the book for things to be this good...