Life After NaNoWriMo
I will say this past month has been eye opening. I never thought I would be able to achieve what I have without more work than I put into it. That does not mean I didn’t put forth a mammoth amount of effort to pour out 50,000 words in just 30 days; that was something akin to a herculean task. In the aftermath I now know that I could most likely accomplish a mere 20,000 words a month and consider that comfortable. The shock I have in making that statement makes November worthwhile. I would have thought it impossible to write close to 200 pages in a month (double spaced). And yet I did it. I did it because it was only 50,000 words, which meant 2,000 words a night, and after I figured out I could do 1,000 an hour … well the math is rather obvious is it not?
I like living post-NaNo because I proved to myself (and I am my harshest judge, critic, jury, and executioner) that you can eat an elephant if you only eat it one bite at a time. Looking back I amazed myself. My usual critical self was locked in a closet and threatened within an inch of its life and I was free; I was free to write whatever I wanted to write no matter how bad I thought it was, and in the end I no longer thought it was bad. When I came across a spot that I did not know what to do with, not knowing how to comfortably get from once scene to the next, I told my critic to, “Shut-up!!” and simply made the transition happen. When the outline was getting stale I kept on writing and found new life hidden under some frond of a fern decorating the forest trail of my outline, and I was excited again. Indeed, this entire month was exhilerating, to the point that I cannot wait to start writing again (and I need to, I have weekly obligations with Promethean Logophile).
There is one thing I do not want to forget, something extremely surprising to me. There were two days that I managed to write out 5,000 words in a sitting/session (I didn’t remain seated the entire time). I thought those two days would be the hardest days I would face. I went into those days completely dejected and defeated, convinced I would not do more than 3,000 words before losing interest and desperately wanting a break. I was wrong. I was right in the effect that I did want a break, but that was before I started writing, and I did want a break while I was writing, but that was probably due to my deprivation of fun. Those two days found me digging deeper into my story, pulling out more detail, and more interest on my part in my tale. I don’t really want to have to do it again, it was not much fun spending an entire Sunday afternoon and evening writing and not resting for Monday’s work activities, but knowing that I have enough interest in my story that prolonged exposure actually got me excited instead of tired, that is something I want to keep with me.
From here I still have a long journey ahead of me. I only completed five chapters (for a fun exercise, calculate the average length of my chapters) and am perhaps a third of the way through part one (oh dear, oh dear). It has been suggested that I write a trilogy instead of a novel, and I might have to do just that. I’m not sure what will be involved structurally speaking, but I do know I will have to add in more climaxes and some resolutions (and probably more sub plots so individual books can seem complete). As for my writing in general, I will contribute to the afore mentioned site as well as my blog (which as been sadly devoid of new content most of the month of November). I will keep this site around to jot down any further notes as they come to me, reflections of NaNo. I do not yet know if I will keep a writing blog or journal in general. I’m not sure if I will need one, but if I do, I will announce it here. I do plan on cleaning up my five chapters and releasing an eBook version, which I will announce or post here, so stay tuned.
“So long, and thanks for all the fish.”
P.S. I will take a least a week off to watch T.V. and movies, read books and magazines, and generally relax. Consider the sloth, for I will be he.