Oh November, you cruel mistress. Teasing me with just how easy 50,000 words should flow from my fingertips, and then hitting me with one distraction after another. Needless to say, we are in the last week of National Novel Writing Month, and I am severely behind.
Just like everyone else, I had a good start to the month. Fresh idea, a decent outline, and plenty of write-ins planned for the month. Best of all? I took a vacation the first full week of November. Well, for me personally, that was the best part of the month. For my writing, ehhhhhh… Let’s just say I didn’t get as much done as I thought I would.
The beginning of the week was spent in Red River Gorge, KY, in a beautiful cabin in the woods. I woke up our first morning there, determined to write. There was rain echoing off the tin roof, I was still in my pajamas, and the recliner couldn’t have been comfier. Quickly, I knocked out a thousand words, jumping headfirst into the story. I was feeling pretty good about myself, and then, just as suddenly as it started, the rain stopped. The weather clearing, my wanderlust took over.
So really, could you blame me? Who wants to stay behind a computer screen when the view is this nice?
We spent the day hiking up to and around the Natural Bridge. It’s a gorgeous sight to see if you’re ever in the area. It’s even better if, once you’ve finished hiking for the day, you can return to your private cabin in the woods and soak in a fabulous hot tub surrounded by nature. Why yes, it was the dream vacation.
We spent the rest of the week seeing the Bengals play (horribly) in Cinci for Thursday Night Football, and then we were back to Lexington for a few days to spend time with a friend and check out some local breweries. Words weren’t made, but memories were, and that’s really what counts.
Once I was back in town, I was determined to get back down to the NaNo business. I’ve hosted write-ins on every Monday this month, as well as having our Kick Off on the 1st and our Halfway There on the 15th. Our Mad Dash End of the Month Sprint is just a few days away on the 29th. And where am I? Less than 15k. No, that’s not less than 15k from the finish line. That’s less than 15k total.
So what happened? I guess a lot of things factor in. I hit a depressive streak that I’ve struggled to pull myself out of. I’ve dealt with several stressful scenarios in my personal life this month. And generally, it was just hard to even get time in front of a computer, let alone put words on the mockingly empty screen. But the BIGGEST factor? I care about this novel. You might say, “So? You SHOULD care about what you’re writing!” Yes, very true. But I care to the point where I’m scared to rush it.
My first NaNoWriMo novel, as I’ve likely mentioned before, was a steaming pile of poop. Why? Because I didn’t really care about what I was writing. Sure, I thought the idea was pretty cool, and I had some fun characters to play around with, but I knew the whole time I was writing it that it wasn’t going to add up to anything even worth editing. So, I didn’t. It’s gone untouched for years, a hot pile of word vomit just tucked away in my hard drive. But this year? I love the idea for this story. I love how it originated, I identify with the characters on a personal level, and I’ve put a lot of myself into the words I’ve managed to wrestle out. And you know what? They aren’t all that bad! Sure, there are places where I really need to go back and fine tune the details, but overall – I’m happy with the direction it’s going.
So maybe this one isn’t meant to be finished in 30 days. Maybe I shouldn’t rush it. Finish it, for sure, but don’t rush it. Do it the justice that it deserves. I’ll continue to peck away at my word count, but without 50k being the goal point (Besides, this is honestly a story best told in about 100k). Don’t they have some saying about slow and steady winning the race? Yeah, that’s me. Let’s just not time this race.
In other news, I have entered the NYC Midnight Short Story Competition as a further motivator to actually finish something. How does the competition work?
|
To me, it’s worthwhile even if I go out in the first round because I’ll still receive helpful criticism from the judges. From what I’ve read, a lot of people vouch for how constructive the judges have been with their comments. I’ll give it a shot, as I tend to be more comfortable with cranking out short stories rather than whole novels. Here’s hoping for the best, as I could certainly use a confidence booster with my writing right now.
If only I could count this thousand word blog post into my NaNo word count. *sigh*
Among the Authors 