I won NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) last year along with several of my writer friends and a few thousand others who took the challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days. It was my first real attempt at novel writing, though something I’d long considered. Since then that particular novel has been languishing on my hard drive and copied to cd for safe-keeping.
Last year I started with gusto and kept up the pace of writing at least 1667 words a day most days and on a few days wrote far more. I finished, surprising myself by breaking the 50,000 word finish line on November 28th. The final push was not unlike what I’ve heard about child birth. There was a pulse and rhythm, interwoven with the pain of continuing on, even when my body and brain were completely spent. Once I got within 5,000 words of the goal, I just kept writing.
This year is different. At the beginning of this NaNo contest I had no clear idea from which to write as I had last year. I was also about to leave on a four-day trip to the east coast attend a family wedding. Though I was able to write a bit on the plane, with all the socializing and partying with these people I love but seldom see my focus was largely on enjoying the time we had together. There was also a three hour time difference and major jetlag to deal with so it was day six before I could give any serious attention to my novel.
I’ve been hard at it for a week, now, and am far short of my ideal goal for this point in the process. Still, I’m over 11,000 words and the story is beginning to get interesting. I’ve hit the, “my story is crap and my writing is maybe the worst I’ve ever done” phase and decided to persevere.
They say if you can make it through week two of NaNo you will break through to a whole new level of the story and the momentum you need to perhaps even finish it. We shall see about that. In the mean time I just keep showing up at the Word doc. and doing my time on the keys.
I’ll keep you posted on my progress.
