Sunday, November 18, 2012

National Novel Writing Month

November is National Novel Writing Month. I've known about NaNoWriMo for a years, but I've never participated. I have been lax in my writing duties, mostly because there's simply been a lot going on. So I decided to partake in NaNo this year. Here, around the mid-point, I've made some decent progress on a work-in-progress I've had sitting around for a bit. 20,000 words worth, which is a sizable chunk, but still a long way from finishing the book (final word count goal is around 80,000 words, it's sitting just under 60K right now). 

Those 20K words seems to have purged a good amount of the story that I've been trying to hammer out. But it also means that I've hit a point where I hate the book. This happens with me, and it's mainly from looking at the words on the screen for too long and constantly thinking about the characters and plot. I have yet to be able to start a book and work on it until the first draft is finished without wandering off to work on something else. 

I'd hoped NaNoWriMo with help with this, but alas, this hasn't been the case. While this point may frustrate other writers, I know myself well enough to back away from the project and work on something else. Nothing really says you can't work on multiple projects for NaNoWriMo, just that the word count is important. Yes, I know you're supposed to verify your word count at the end of the month, but, overall, that really wasn't the reason I participated. 

Are you participating in NaNo this month? If so, how is your progress? 

1 comment:

Lacey Wolfe said...

I am doing NaNo. First time as well. I couldn't start something new with work in progresses started already. My goal was to write 50k and that's it. I'm around 30k right now and just finished a full. Now I want to edit that sucker and ignore other writing but that 20k left for the month looms over my head miserably. So, this may get interesting as I try to write this 20k and get finished work ready for editor. Hmmm...

Good luck and I say either way, we're winners because we've pushed ourselves more then we usually do.