Monday, November 17, 2008

An Update on My Second NaNoWriMo

Well, I've had an interesting month for National Novel Writing Month. Starting with frying my hard drive and losing the first 5200 words of my novel, scheduling and hosting a nine year old's birthday, and dealing with tenants that won't leave. All this is on top of managing my usual daily schedule and the things my kids throw at me. I've got over 30,000 words, so I'm doing okay. And I've got a new Mac Laptop, something I've wanted for a long time. All and all, not a bad month so far. It has made getting things done more of a challenge and it's been a lot more difficult to fit in reading all my favorite blogs. But I'll catch up eventually.

The story I'm writing for NaNo is one that came out of nowhere just before the month started and it's been a challenge for me. Usually, my brain is several scenes ahead of where I'm writing, not this time. I don't have any idea what's going to happen next. It's a little scary. I'm positive at any moment I'll hit the proverbial brick wall and that will be it, long before I reach the goal of 50,000 words. So far that hasn't happened, though I have had a few times where I needed to just wait for the next scene to unfold for me. This is not my normal writing style. I don't usually plan my writing particularly, but the story unfolds so fast in my head I can't usually keep up.

My theory is this story has a lot more depth and subplots than some of my previous writing and that's making things go more slowly. Okay, I had to laugh at that line. I have written 30K words and I think it's going slowly. Too funny. Some of my writing partners were having a hard time getting to 10K, and here I am worried about 30K. Of course, part of my worry is that I won't finish writing because problems in life will prevent me from finding the time to write. Silly concern, really. It's like worrying about a natural disaster striking. You can only prepare so much, then you just need to live your life and deal with it if it comes.

So, I'm going to write while I can, when I can, and if I finish, great. If I don't, for whatever reason, the world won't end. I'll be disappointed, sure, but I'll survive. Still, it is a challenge that I'd hate to lose.

4 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

Wow, sounds like you're really on a roll. Keep up the good work.

BernardL said...

Keep in mind the NaNo deadline is a self imposed one. You will finish, maybe just not when the website does. :)

Spy Scribbler said...

I'm behind. But I'm still hopeful. I'm at 18,000 at the moment. But still hopeful.

Just exhausted.

Virginia Lady said...

Thank you all for your support! I'm nearing the 50K mark and it looks like there's a least another 10K worth of story to go after that, so while I'll complete the month's goal, I'll still have more writing in order to complete the novel.

There's already whispering about National Novel Editing Month, which occurs in March every year, on some of the forums.

It's a sickness, I think.