Off the NaNo Rails
In my last post, I whined in a rather pathetic manner about all the things that had been keeping me from meeting my NaNoWriMo word count goals. Well, I’ve definitely gone off the rails by now. I’d need to write almost double the original daily word counts every day for the rest of the month in order to catch up. And that just isn’t going to happen.
What seemed like an exciting and achievable goal on November first has turned into something that’s a bit embarrassing and disappointing.
So I’m trying to see the positive. NaNoWriMo got me to pull together a story that, while I wasn’t completely comfortable with, at least was in enough shape for me to begin writing. And I started writing. And I now have five chapters of a novel I didn’t have before.
And best of all, I am going to keep writing. I’m going to get as many words done as I can every night until November is over—and beyond.
That’s all for now. I’ve got to get back to work.
Well, there you go. Exactly what happened to me the first time I tried NaNoWriMo (except that my attempt was supposed to be the magic try that would finally unlock that fantasy novel I’ve always wanted to write).
My project wasn’t nearly as well planned as yours (not planned at all, actually) and I had no idea what I was doing, so you’re in a better spot now than I was. You might actually have a fighting chance of pulling out a word-count miracle.
But even though I came nowhere near finishing, I learned from the experience and got a lot better at just getting words on paper. The next time I tried NaNo, with a project that had a bit more meat on its bones, I finished the 50k. Most of it was unusable, and I’m still revising it (er, theoretically), but I did reach the goal.
Now the next goal…actually producing a complete manuscript that I’d dare ask someone else to read…that’s a horse of a different color.
The part about whether or not the words are actually usable is what really gets to me. I go through a lot of mental anguish trying to force out a bunch of garbage that I know isn’t worth much, just for the sake of finishing a manuscript. I have to keep reminding myself that I can always fix it later. But I can’t help thinking that if I were better prepared, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to produce a nearly publication-ready manuscript on the first shot.
And probably get it done just as fast as the garbage. Assuming I really was well prepared.