NaNo Blogging: The Trick

One of the things I'm doing with this novel is eschewing the normal chapter format (I know I've said I have five chapters but those are more like acts in a script, organizing principles around which I've divided the plot in order to deal with it in miniature rather than actual divisions within the text.) in favor of smaller, quicker scenes. This plays into my strengths, I think, since I can write a scene in an hour or two and snap it into place. Juggle them, mix them around, and string them together thematically as a coherent whole. Dropping and adding subplots as the mood and necessity strikes me. The flow between the scenes is what's preoccupying me at the moment, finding the right way to order them and create the rising and falling tension required for good drama. Where to have the action, where to have the pauses, the build-up and the release and more.

One thing I've hit on in order to separate the individual scenes are brief interludes. Brief little bits that are quotes from famous people or encyclopedia entries about aspects of this world I'm building. You know, like those passages from the Galactic Encyclopedia from Dune or the Foundation series?

Not only do they save me from having to dump a bunch of explanatory exposition into my text about things that my characters would already know, they also serve as a way to break up my scenes with a wider reveal of the overall world. A glimpse into what's going on elsewhere and elsewhen. An avenue to get chunks of my backstory, my outline, into the text. Beats that can tighten or loosen the flow of the plot. And ways of subtly highlighting some aspect, some theme, in the upcoming scene.

Best of all, whenever I get stuck with a scene, I can just work on one of these interludes and up my word count.