Post NaNoWriMo Thoughts

Monday, Dec 1, 2008

I failed NaNoWriMo. But I'm okay with that.

When I first signed up for NaNoWriMo, I was an eager participant. I printed the flier and proudly hung it on my door, sent the website to everyone I knew who had at one point in time hinted at maybe kind of wanting to someday write a novel, and prepared a thorough outline for the story I intended to tackle (Stream Pirates). All in all, it was my new obsession.

Then November 1st came.

Oh the glory of writing the first few sentences of Stream Pirates. Oh the excitement of referring to my carefully laid out outline and my intricate hand-drawn map. Oh the thrill of adrenaline when I was able to meet my first day goal of 1,500 some odd words.

Oh the frustration when, two days later, I was 4,000 words behind and wondering why, oh why, my characters had chosen now, of all months, to be completely stubborn and refuse to go anywhere. I had it all mapped out, didn't they see? I had drawn them little road maps for their lives, and they had the audacity to turn to me and say "Eh, I don't feel like it. Maybe in December."

Oh the excitement when I realized my problem was POV. So I changed it and started again.

Oh the thrill when I reached 8,000 some odd words.

Oh the horror when I realized I was still in school. And still had homework, meetings, not to mention meals to eat and sleep to have.

Oh the oddly satisfactory sigh of relief when I decided deadlines aren't really for me and went back to my normal writing pace for Stream Pirates.

Perhaps NaNoWriMo worked for you. Perhaps you got the kick-start you needed by being "forced" to write 50,000 words in a month. More power to you; keep it up! But as for me, I shall stick to my write-whenever-I'm-not-swamped-with-accounting process. It has worked for me thus far, and I have faith that it will carry me down the rivers on my intricate map and right up to a finished novel. Eventually.