Day 6 of the festivities is about over. I'm far short of where I ought to be on the word count (7,813 when I should be at 10,000) but I have to admit I've made a great deal of progress on the WIP. There is something to be said for typing mindlessly as fast as you can.
That's not exactly how I've been doing this, but, close. The impulse to stop and edit is hard to resist, but in this context only hampers progress. Hardest are the times when you realize that to go forward, changing something two or three pages back is necessary. Now, if that was written on a previous day, apparently it's impossible to alter the word count on the progress report for the Nanowrimo web site. So, there's another one of those things that doesn't quite work, but it shouldn't bother you unless things like that bother you.
Earlier today I rectified all that and just figured the total and assigned all that to the first five days. Which means two things. I see that I'm about 2,000 words behind for today, which, technically, I haven't started on yet, according to Nanowrimo. I guess I don't really care, but I like for these things to be tidy. Else, why bother?
So why am I writing a blog post instead of working on the November novel? Because I haven't the slightest idea where the story goes from this point forward. Something's got to happen about now--I've pretty much introduced all the characters, laid out the premise, etc., and now, something's got to happen.
OK. That's all for now.
Ah, it's tough! It doesn't seem like such a biggie when we can easily churn out 500+ word blog posts, but somehow when we're spinning up fiction... the brain says nah don't wanna. I've gotten over the slump in the past by "cheating" and writing garbage for a couple paragraphs to get the words flowing again, but I just CBA anymore with NaNo.
ReplyDeleteI tend to agree. I still see this as something useful, even if I'm not built quite exactly right for the drill. Last night I thought one solution might be to outline--in the form of a sequence of scenes--and think of it that way rather than one long rambling narrative that is supposed to be going somewhere. The scenes might easily be about the size of blog posts. Or less. I'm anxious to try it out. Not right now, but maybe later. :)
ReplyDeleteAs far as the positive take on Nano, I have noticed over the years, very distinctly, that blog posts written by anyone who is doing Nanowrimo at the time are written with much more coherence and flow and a certain tinge of color, somehow, that you don't find in your typical post. I always thought this had to do with getting the words flowing.
I'll keep on, but I harbor no delusions of technical "success."
I just thought of something else. If someone like, say, you or I, wrote all their blog posts to be a length of, say, 500 words, it's possible that this is somehow conditioning our brains to think, or create, in spurts of about 500 words. If that is even remotely true, then doing Nano might help shake up that pattern a bit, which would in turn probably make us all a little bit better at writing long novels.
ReplyDeleteIt's me, Hetty. I love the insights in the comments here. Makes me wish I started a new project instead of the mess I mired myself in. Keep plugging away.
ReplyDeleteNANO! Wow. I've been off the in the woods for awhile doing whatever it was/is that I have to do, and you have taken off on the NANO rocket. OMG! Step aside, Jeffie Boy, or the NANO Galaxy will knock that stupid grin off your face and drop your stupid cowboy hat off to orbit Pluto for the next 10,000 years as it heads for yet to be created worlds somewhere off in the great beyond.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Roy. You are a better man than I.