National Novel Writing Month

Posted on by under Blogging, fiction

Or, presage to an insanity plea.

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Well, I’ve decided to do it.  I’ve signed up for NaNoWriMo and I am really, truly, honestly going to try to finish this novel.  At least the first draft.  No, honestly. I am.  Really!  Okay, I’m officially protesting too much.  Eep.

This is my first NaNoWriMo.  At this time last year it was not an option.  I was still in complete denial that any of my short stories would ever turn into a n-n-n… a no-no-no…. a very long story.  But now I have a rough outline and the first six chapters of a very long story indeed. Problem is, I am absolutely stuck on that blasted sixth chapter.  So, here’s the new plan of attack.  I’m going to push aside my overwhelming desire to fix everything in the beginning before moving on, and simply start my word count at chapter 7, and zoom-zoom-zoomity-zoom from there, without stopping and editing and perfecting every single page, like I usually do.

Go, my characters — fly!  Be free!  Say what you will say!  Go on adventures!   Make mistakes!  Face your fears!  Do SOMETHING!  Make the words do that thing on the screen where the story go be done, super done, with the words and the count and stuff!  Yeah!

Did I say “eep” yet?  Eep.  I’m already a basket case and I haven’t even started.

I’ve heard that other people also participate in this insanity and maybe even have some idea what they’re doing, and can help support me in my time of need.  If you are such a person, I would be happy to be your writing buddy.  I have no idea what a writing buddy does, but boy, it sounds very reassuring right now.  So hit me up here: Joy Pixley.

The side effect of trying to get 50,000 words written in one month is that I won’t have much time to post stories on this blog between now and December 1.  But just because you don’t hear much from me, I haven’t given up on Eneana.  In fact, I’ll be spending a great deal of time in Eneana, at one pretty spooky manor house in Layor, where a young noblewoman is trying to solve the mystery of all the unexplained deaths within its walls, before her own name is added to that list…

Wish me luck!

26 thoughts on “National Novel Writing Month”

  2. I absolutely encourage you to post snippets, bits and pieces. A couple folks I know did that last year and enjoyed not only keeping in touch with blog readers, but some of the feedback. A friend used her blog as an additional motivator. Go, Joy, go!

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    • Thank you Norma! Yes, it is pretty exciting. Unfortunately it’s so exciting that I’m finding it hard to buckle down and do my other (non-writing) work today to get it out of the way before tomorrow. Better get cracking on that!

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    • Cool, another buddy! You must be “w-willow” on Nano? I was really lucky that my local group had their kick off meeting last night, and I decided to do NaNo and signed up and found out about it just in time to go. Everyone seemed really friendly, and a lot of them had done it for many, many years. It sounds like a lot of them meet up at write-in events throughout November. Do you do those? They don’t work for me at all — I’m lucky to have a perfectly quiet, private place to write at home, why go to a noisy cafe with all those distractions? But it does mean I worry about not getting as much social support, so maybe I will try a few.

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      • Yep, that’s me.
        I’ve been to a few write-ins. I thought they’d not work for me, but there’s something about a bunch of people sitting together typing away that is quite inspiring. I think I wrote 3,000 words in 90 minutes of writing time (we took breaks every 20 to 25 minutes). So maybe give it a try, you might be surprised.

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    • Thanks! I’m a plodder — um, I mean plotter — and writing fast is not really my strong suit, so I’m trying to be realistic about my expectations. Still, I’m sure I can get at least *something* useful done on my novel in the next 30 days!

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      • Oh, and congratulations on succeeding three times — that’s an amazing accomplishment! (Did you realize that only 14% of participants won last year, and only 11% the year before that?)

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      • Actually, I find the writing goes more smoothly (and faster) by having a thoroughly-worked plot from the outset. It’s like a map; so much easier walking when you know where you’re going. You just need to be flexible, for our characters do have a tendency to change direction!

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      • Yes, I’m finding that already. I forged ahead boldly and wrote four long scenes that I already had tagged in the outline to do. But I can see already I’m going to get to much fuzzier (as in, completely unplanned so far) part of the outline where it’s going to take a lot more thinking, eep!

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    • Thanks! I hope it turns out interesting. Right now it’s a big huge muddle, and that’s after I already worked on it before this, off and on for months. (Although maybe that helps explain *why* it’s a muddle, bits & pieces added here and there.) The new scenes I’m adding for NaNo seem to be working, and it’s great to just focus on one thing. Well, that and a HUGE SUPER STRESSFUL deadline at work. But I got a nice big head start on NaNo on Sunday and I’m up to current word count… (looking it up) 8,733 (on day 4). Whee!

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