EXCITEMENT AND FEAR ON NANOWRIMO EVE
NaNoWriMo officially kicks off at midnight and, though I will definitely not be writing at midnight, I am extremely pumped. I'm sure that feeling will pass in about a week, but for now, I'm going with it. Listening to Scott Westerfeld’s interview about NaNoWriMo also boosted my excitement. Camp NaNoWriMo was hard, especially since I went on vacation in the middle of it (my computer served as a doorstop) and stayed up SUPER late the last night. And I literally just dove into it, with nothing more than a tiny fragment of an idea on my mind – two best friends who fall in love.
Though I “won” by meeting my 50K word goal for Camp, what I wrote ended up being rougher than rough and I’ve spent the months since doing several things, some of them being:
Detangling a second story from the first. I realized a month after Camp that I was trying to write two stories. I’d introduced a new male character and I loved him, but if I wanted my best friends to love each other, he had to go. I liked him too much to break his heart, so I pulled him out, put him in a box, and saved him for a rainy day.
Resisting the urge to edit while writing. I REALLY hope this is a skill that is honed over time, because I’m awful at it. Honestly, I could have written two drafts in the time since Camp started if I would stop going back and changing things.
As a result, WIP1 is going to have to sit in time out while I get some perspective and work on WIP2 for NaNoWriMo. I immediately decided on a different approach. I didn’t want to keep working on WIP1 right up until Nov. 1st though, because I felt that my brain would be TOO CROWDED WITH FICTIONAL PEOPLE to work on WIP2. So I spent this week transitioning, which led me to the decision to not be a “Pantser” (NaNo has taught me so many new words) and try being a Planner. I’m a planner in my real life, so why not in my writing?
I’ve got a plot outline, a few Character Profiles and a lot of scribbled notes in my writing notebook and on my phone. I predict the first week of NaNo will involve more planning, but also a lot of writing because a month IS NO TIME AT ALL!
Cue the fear creeping into my veins.
If I want to feel real fear, I’ll start thinking about how I’m attending NaNoWriMo’s “Night of Writing Dangerously” on November 16th with complete strangers.
No, can’t think about that. Must only think about writing, how much I love it, how much I love my characters, and how much I want to use this 50K word goal to hammer out something I love.
For those of you participating in NaNo and the Night of Writing Dangerously, feel free to reach out so I don’t have to do it myself. And, more importantly, GOOD LUCK!
