I have decided to write a Lovecraftian story for NaNoWriMo this year, and as if that were not enough of a challenge the protagonist is a woman. Not only will I be conscious of atmosphere, pacing, tension, and suspense, but I’ll need to maintain a believability in regards to how a woman would act in the situations I’ll be putting her in. This should be interesting, and my wife has offered to help me out, to which I am grateful.
I threw my hat into the ring for NaNoWriMo earlier this month and I am now happy to say I am as ready and prepared for it as I can be. This afternoon I completed my outline and while that puts me at ease I am a bit concerned. This year’s outline is the most detailed I’ve ever done, and while it’s also one of the longer ones I’ve come up with I’m not sure if I have enough of a story to hit the word count. Time will tell, and if I finish my story early I’ll either have to concede defeat or blather on intending to cut it December first. I can now safely rest the rest of October!
I had a good start. I religiously met my goals, even exceeded them from time-to-time, and often went to bed satisfied with evening’s work. Last week stopped that, and this week is proving worse than last week (presently I am 3,000 words behind. Ouch!). In the last two days I have been getting home late from work (Monday we went live with my mammoth update/rewrite, and last night I was caught in the worst traffic jam I’ll likely see in my little State), and as if that is not enough both nights I’ve had some phone calls that I either needed to make (figuring out the family Thanksgiving plans) or were forced upon me (tech support for my brother and his new iBook). Add to this the fact that I am beginning to feel under the weather and do not wish to be the sacrificial lamb this year (it seems every year only one person in my family is sick during the holidays, and it “rotates” at random).
Very thankfully I have Friday off, so I can either recover from overeating, being sick, and/or catch up on my writing (followed by an all day write-in with the local crowd of stress-out NaNo authors). On a downside, I will probably have to work late tonight to compensate for Friday. At least I can sleep in tomorrow, and get a couple of days off from responsibility. If only I could finish this book (or at least reach the 50,000 word mark) I could really relax! :)
Last week was by far my worst week. Exhaustion set in and my brain did not want to cooperate. I had to fight with it every day, every hour, for every word. With the arrival of the weekend came a break-in with our car (more on that at my blog) and even less motivation to write. My team lost its final game of the season, playing so miserably I don’t want to see them in bowl game, and would like my Saturdays back. My wife drug me down to the Humane Society to look at a kitty, a potential playmate for our cat, and after an hour of spending time with her we decided she would be just as hyper as our current cat and we did not want to two terrors. Despite all of this I manages to sit down and pound out 5,000 words last night, with an ease that surprised me. I am still 1,000 words behind my desired goal, but I think I can make that up fairly quickly.
I am finding that when I know an entire progression, including the transitions from scene to scene, before I start writing, that when I do write I can write efficiently and with less energy. That means I need to spend more time up front, figuring out what I want to happen and how to get from one scene to the next, but it might be worth it (this is a note about how I would write without pressing deadlines).
If all goes well and I get my words in on time, I’ll be “done” next Sunday! I’ll still have many tens of thousands of words to finish my book, but I’ll have beat NaNoWriMo!
I will probably have a tired audience, being forced to read many thousands of words just to finish a chapter. I wish I could offer some apology, but since I cannot yet bring myself to divide my chapters any further, nor shorten them, I will hope they find my words engrossing and not notice the number of pages they turn. This might seem like a wistful dream, but I received and email to this effect just this morning. I completed the chapter last night (making up some of my deficit but not enough of it to be real progress) and sent it off to my First Readers (as I call them). This morning I found a quick note from one of them, informing me he did not have to read my chapter, but after reading the first paragraph soon found himself half-way through it and had to force himself to stop. High praise indeed! If only the rest of my book will turn out the same way. I might actually have a little more gas in my tank to fuel me onwards into and through the next chapter (as soon as figure out what will happen in this chapter … I hate it when I change my mind midstream).
I squeaked out 1,300 words last night, bringing my deficit to 1,500. I might recover but this morning, after more caffeine than I usually imbibe, I am about ready to fall asleep. I might have to work like mad on my lunch hour then go home and go to bed early (say 8 PM?). This silly project is not worth my health, and if I cannot do it, I cannot do it. I should be more concerned with getting the entire book done, than with meeting the 50,000 word goal.
With that said, I will still continue. I had to fire up iCal last night and put in my total word count goals on the days coming, since I can no longer just add 2,000 to my present count (and managing a deficit along with my goal is proving too much for my tired brain). The upshot is, if I maintain my goal I will finish over the Thanksgiving weekend. The other upshot is I’m just a hundred words or so behind the 1,700 daily goal. So, I guess things are not as bleak as they look, though for me, I am still 1,500 words behind, needing to pull out a magical 3,500 words today.
Honestly, I sometimes think there is more drama in my life this month (managing this silly project) than there is in my actual book.
The second day of the second week (I cannot count Sunday) and I’m in great shape (though my wife tells me I need to get some exercise). I not only hit my goal of 2,000 words, but I finished early, and I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,000 words on the tip of my tongue. I decided to quit because I was tired, excited, and really wanted to continue watching a series on TV. I’ve learned that when I lose focus I don’t write well, so I took a break and don’t mind not writing any further tonight. I’ve met my goal, I’m on track. The tortoise beat the hare in the fable.
The wonderful thing is I’ve begun to have fun. Some part of me now knows I will be able to exceed the 50,000 word goal, baring any unforeseen calamity. I’ve started to enjoy the writing process again, like when I was a kid. My mind is filling with visions of the scenes my characters find themselves in and I am like a tiny tot in a toy store, staring about me with wide eyes and eager to see, hear, and touch everything. I had nearly forgotten how much fun it can be to create such vistas in my mind, revel in them for a moment, then describe them in way that will [hopefully] convey the same mood to my audience.
If there is anything about my evening’s writing that could be disappointing it would have to be the fact that I did not finish my chapter. I thought I would only have 2,000 words to finish out the chapter but I found it took me 2,000 words to get to the spot that will now take me between 1,000 and 2,000 words. This could very well mean that my second chapter is not paced properly, and that is something I am concerned about (but only when it is time to edit, because for now it means I’m going to finish NaNoWriMo with ease). My poor proofreaders will have to be the judge of my pacing, and if it is too slow I’ll have to shift some conversations to appear later in the story.
I think I can rest happy now, and perhaps dream of the settings I so recently narrated. I only hope no one nor thing will distract and derail me.
Tomorrow, nay in only a few short hours, the writing will begin. Oh how I wish my outline was complete and my characters better defined. I will admit I am nervous and intimidated, and it is because of these two lacking areas. I do have quite a bit of work done on my outline, and I have a few characters defined, settings figured out, and even a few ideas for new races. It still greatly concerns me that one of the holes in my plot is near the beginning. I fear I will hit that wall all too soon, and be permanently derailed (though in truth, I will probably be able to continue the story with the “hole” and add it later).
I am not ready, but I have no choice. I do wish I would have remembered about NaNoWriMo sooner so I could have spent more time planning out my novel. I have no choice. I am too tired to worry about it tonight, and tomorrow the writing begins and I will have no time to worry at all. My goal for tomorrow is 2,000 words, but I hope for 4,000 - 5,000 words to give me a buffer. The sheer enthusiasm of actually writing out the story that has been bouncing about my head ought to be able to carry me that far, I hope.
I shall attempt to post regular updates and even a few excerpts as I develop my story. Leave comments, especially if I am stuck on some point.
“Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.”