Assuming you read my first post here in OW — and you did, of course, because you are smart and sexy and read really fast — you will have noted that I am participating in National Novel Writing Month for the first time ever.
Allow me to explain why I never NaNo’ed before.
Writing 50,000 words in 30 days is insane. Plus, writing anything without intense editing as I go is completely contrary to my working style. Besides which, November already goes by so quickly that I’m convinced Father Time secretly shorts all of us a couple of days every single year. And did I mention? Writing 50,000 words in 30 days is insane.
Now let me explain why I suddenly up and decided to do it this year.
Apparently, I am insane. Plus, I decided that going way, way, waaaaay out of my comfort zone might turn out to be a good and empowering thing. Besides which, it’s only 30 days — fewer if I’m right about that Father Time thing — so I said to myself, how freakin’ hard could it be? Thirty days, pfft! Piece of cake.
Omg, this is so not any kind of baked dessert.
In terms of word count — currently at 12,778 — I’m actually not in bad shape, but there are some tough times a’comin’.
For one thing, I keep writing late at night, but the NaNo clock clicks forward a full day at midnight. So, in terms of where I should be in the work, I have been consistently running a day late and several thousand words short. Let me remind you, there is no half-winning. “Win or win not,” as Yoda say. At midnight on Nov. 30, everybody’s NaNo clock runneth out.
Also, I’m increasingly sleep-deprived. Last night, this contributed to the worst file-loss disaster of my writing career. I managed to trash the 1,500 words that I had just finished writing.
They say that sort of thing builds character.
I can only tell you that it hurt so much I felt alternating waves of hot and cold running through my body for about five minutes before I could even think to look for backup files, which turned out to have been created before the evening’s work … and right after I trashed it. (As you can imagine, autosave and autobackup are now set to OVERKILL.) I chose to stay up and rewrite the lost scenes last night, because you fall off that horse, you’d damn well better climb back on.
So that’s where things stand. But not to worry, there’s much happier news coming. Because, whether or not I “win,” this is turning in one of the greatest writing experiences I’ve ever had. And I’m going to tell you all about tomorrow. (Or the next day. I really have to get that word count up!)
###
dh
Hang in there! You are doing AWESOME! Next thing you know you will be going to write-alongs and having Word Wars :-) Welcome to Insanity. I only ride the bus though. Great ride, full of thrills and hilarious laughter. And then it ends. Abruptly, tho with plenty of warning. You never know what that bus will do at the end of the track. Will it jump? Will it fall off a cliff? Will it be picked up by a passing super-villain and tossed up to the moon? Who knows.
Hang in there! The next week is one of the hardest and a sure test of your will :-D Make sure you brew your caffeinated tea extra dark!
Thanks so much for the vote of confidence! Unfortunately, due to some time-consuming computer problems, I haven’t written a single new word since Tuesday. (Story notes, yes. Actual story, no.) Today and through the weekend, however, I will be cranking. Gotta keep my seat on the bus! The views are spectacular, and I don’t even care that I have no idea who’s driving. :)
At this point, notes can count in the overall wordcount because you are doing it during the month. It may not be satisfactory, but it is still writing on your story…. keep that in mind when you need a few more words to win ;-) heh, I said this week was one the toughest, looks like you found that out :-P
Thanks for clarifying. I’ve been inserting TDB scene descriptions, chapter titles, notes of things I otherwise might not remember/think of later … I pretty much have to, since I’m totally pantsing this thing and developing plot and characters as I go.
[...] it began, so I had no preparations and no plans to write this year. After finding out Deborah finally took the dive AND started a blog, how could I not participate at least a [...]