NaNoWriMo

 

NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, occurs during the month of November.  Essentially, a bunch of insane people, who like to call themselves writers (yes, I am one of the insane) decide each November that it would be a good idea to write 50,000 words in 30 days.  A novel written in a month.  Did I mention it is insane?

 

Synopsis of my novel (which doesn't really describe it because my plot is only half done, so this is just a taste):

My novel is about this girl who finds a door in a tree, opens it, and finds herself in another world, which is kind of medieval, with lots of magic.  And first she's convinced she's gone insane, but eventually she just goes with it.  She becomes a gryphon rider, fights pirates and befriends a boy named Niccolo, all while trying to thwart (thwart, great word) the plans of the ambitious Prince Regent, who wants Jeza's gryphon as his own. 

 

This is my second NaNoWriMo.  Last year I was recruited by Natalie and Emily, with whom I then recruited Maddie.   My novel last year did not go very well.  I wrote 10,205 words.  But then again, it was a success. I had never written that much before.  I tested the NaNo waters and got a feel for it.  (I suppose doing NaNoWriMo makes you want to put 'NaNo' in front of anything NaNoWriMo related.  This is a NaNo Post, and this is a NaNo side bar.  Or is it a NaNo NaNo side bar? NaNo-ception. Like I said, insanity)  This year I am keeping pretty close to the writing par of 1,667 words per day. Well sort of.   I am writing a consistant amount each day, more or less. 

 

I, unlike Emily, am a partial pantser.  For this novel, I already had 6k words written (not counting them in my official wordcount though).  The story was in my head.  But I don't plan out each chapter, or character.  Thats what I like about not planning it all.  It gives your characters room to grow and become individuals.  It allows their role in the story to completely change.  Last year, one of my background characters suddenly became this manipulating mastermind. (ok that seems random, but pretty much she drives several of the characters insane and kills two of them, which is only revealed later in the book)  I did not plan that, but somehow it worked. This year, I have this character who was only meant to be in one part of the book, but sometimes it made sense for him to just pop up, and now he is essentially the main supporting character.  Pantsing is fun, because one idea leads to another and another and then all of a sudden you have a story.  Pantsing is also stressful, because you suddenly feel like you have no more good ideas. 

 

And yes, NaNoWriMo is insanely hard.  But this year, I have the feeling that I really can do this.  I'll have a day where I write next to nothing, and then magically the next day I write 2,500 words.  I've written more words in the last 19 days than I have in the whole 30 days of last years NaNo.  The best part is, it doesn't matter if it is good writing, not now.  For this novel, I kind of get what people say when its just the story being told through them.  Of course I am thinking it all up, but then when I am writing suddenly it becomes just like telling a story, not trying to make the words beautiful, just solely getting the story across.  Thats kind of the point of NaNo. Forcing you to write until you get into a flow and then it becomes (sorta) easy.

 

And yes, there are those moments when I feel like giving up.  I am kind of going through one right now, thanks to a lovely thing called writers block.  But then I look at it, and realize I've written 60+ pages of writing (which believe me just blows my mind), and I realize I just can't give up.  I've made it too far.  

Keep an eye on the Word Count Widget over there to watch my word count steadyily increase-->

P.S. I might post another blog post next week NaNoWriMo related.