We did it. You, me, everyone who decided to participate in NaNoWriMo and sat down at their computer banging out words in the hope of contributing to your word count goal. You did it.
The first week is always the easiest as you write with the high of starting a new story. You haven’t hid the dredges of the middle yet. Your body hasn’t had time yet to realize that you’re actually exhausted. More importantly, it’s still fresh. Working through your novel is more pleasure than work at this point.
Don’t let the ease of the first week fool you.
The exhaustion. The feeling like you’ve hit a road block. The way your story may seem foolish. It is all yet to come and it’s best that you be prepared for it. The struggle is real folks, but it doesn’t have to be torture. It can be fun. It should be fun. And when you are blaring through your 1666 words a day looking to hit that 50k you should be enjoying yourself.
One of the things that I’ve found about writing is that if you don’t like your story. If you can’t see any good in the muck. If the story you are pounding out and trying to get right isn’t working for you, it won’t work for others. You need to enjoy your story, if only because you have to spend so much time with it crafting it and making it shine. When you write that first draft it is only the first go. You need to see the light in your story if you ever expect anyone else to. So, if you’re typing furiously and getting the story out of your head and onto the page, but don’t like a single thing about it or the fire has completely dwindled already, you may need to throw in the flag and try something else.
People seem to forget in the hubub of NaNoWriMo that it is just one method of writing a story. For some people you need to sit and linger over each part of the story until you’ve set up just the right way. Writing with your filter off is but one style of writing. Personally it’s the way I write, but I go in to it with very detailed outlines of what need to happen each chapter. Thus sitting down and writing is a way for me to get the words on the frame. It’s fun to see the detours, but I already know where things are going and what problems I need to be cognizant of. It’s not a lot of rework. However, people who write with a different style.
Where I’m At
It’s day seven of NaNoWriMo. My personal goal is 150k and I’m well on my way to hitting that goal. I’m at 35,058 with another 2k words for the day to go. I set a 5k minimum on myself per day and it’s worked out well so far. Hopefully I will be able to build a substantial buffer for myself by the end of the month (somehow I was roped in to cooking Thanksgiving Dinner for the first time ever).
I’ve been exhausted all week. Despite earning an extra hour on Sunday, I squandered it playing Destiny for half the day rather than taking my nap. Naps are vital to my well being, especially on a month where I get up an hour and a half early to get in the majority of my writing before work. So I’ve been tired already and waiting to for the weekend for a few well deserved naps.
In terms of the actual writing process, I’ve been pushing myself. I haven’t written in first person since I was 13 and I wrote Harry Potter fanfiction. Don’t judge me, but I’m still proud of my unfinished early writings (though no one will ever know the name I wrote under to spare my embarassment). This story called for first, despite my affinity for third person. This has been a ride getting used to it. I know I’m over writing a bit, giving more descriptions than necessary. However, I see myself paring down already. Thankfully, it shouldn’t be too hard to edit as it is generally tangents that slow me down.
How is your NaNoWriMo going? Are you meeting your goals? Has anything been standing out as different in your project?
Also I am considering doing a Science Fiction and Fantasy Book club. If you are interested, like the post here.
Later today I will be posting my excerpt.
So, I pondered... 