keg in kc
12-01-2011, 11:25 PM
(That's National Novel Writing Month, although I suspect that if anybody actually clicks on this thread, they probably know that already)
Just to set the stage a little, as most of you may or may not know, I've had sort of a long (long, long) time as-of-yet-unattempted (much less unfulfilled) fantasy of being a fiction writer. I've talked a lot about it, although I'm better with that now than I was a decade ago. Either way, I've never really had the self-discipline to do it. Because, well, writing involves a lot of work... And I have a reeeeeally short attention span.
So, November 2011. My third attempt at NaNoWriMo. The goal of said month is to write 50k words in 30 days. I've started this task twice before, but fizzled out just above 7k words in 2009 and around 17k words last year. So, needless to say, my odds weren't real great, based on previous efforts. Traditionally when I've tried to write, I've made it about two-and-a-half weeks before I get distracted and begin to spin my wheels. So, to be honest, I actually started the month thinking I would try my damnedest but fully expected to fail yet again.
But I didn't.
Much to my surprise, I'm proud to say that I passed 50,000 words around 6 pm yesterday, November 30th. I continued to write for several hours after that so that I could reach a personal goal of 150 pages (I write in a college-ruled notebook, call me old fashioned...).
I've learned a lot in the last 30 days, not the least of which being that I'm actually capable of doing the work if I put my mind to it. I didn't write every day in November, but I did write 26 of 30 days, and I wrote for 2 or more hours on 21 of those . And I had some pretty significant potential landmines in the last 10 days, those being a Thanksgiving visit from my mom and dad, god love 'em, and then right on the heels of that, a 4-day test of The Old Republic. So I had all kinds of reasons and excuses to fail, but somehow I managed to persevere.
Maybe it won't mean anything in the long term. Maybe my book will just sit on my desk now, half-finished. But maybe I've finally taken that first step, and a few months from now I'll be able to come on here and say "wow, my first draft of my really shitty book is finally done!".
Either way, I'm pretty proud of myself and I'm going to try to use this as a stepping stone into the future.
I'm really tired right now. And my brain is really fried. Hopefully my novel is more skillfully written than this post. :)
Just to set the stage a little, as most of you may or may not know, I've had sort of a long (long, long) time as-of-yet-unattempted (much less unfulfilled) fantasy of being a fiction writer. I've talked a lot about it, although I'm better with that now than I was a decade ago. Either way, I've never really had the self-discipline to do it. Because, well, writing involves a lot of work... And I have a reeeeeally short attention span.
So, November 2011. My third attempt at NaNoWriMo. The goal of said month is to write 50k words in 30 days. I've started this task twice before, but fizzled out just above 7k words in 2009 and around 17k words last year. So, needless to say, my odds weren't real great, based on previous efforts. Traditionally when I've tried to write, I've made it about two-and-a-half weeks before I get distracted and begin to spin my wheels. So, to be honest, I actually started the month thinking I would try my damnedest but fully expected to fail yet again.
But I didn't.
Much to my surprise, I'm proud to say that I passed 50,000 words around 6 pm yesterday, November 30th. I continued to write for several hours after that so that I could reach a personal goal of 150 pages (I write in a college-ruled notebook, call me old fashioned...).
I've learned a lot in the last 30 days, not the least of which being that I'm actually capable of doing the work if I put my mind to it. I didn't write every day in November, but I did write 26 of 30 days, and I wrote for 2 or more hours on 21 of those . And I had some pretty significant potential landmines in the last 10 days, those being a Thanksgiving visit from my mom and dad, god love 'em, and then right on the heels of that, a 4-day test of The Old Republic. So I had all kinds of reasons and excuses to fail, but somehow I managed to persevere.
Maybe it won't mean anything in the long term. Maybe my book will just sit on my desk now, half-finished. But maybe I've finally taken that first step, and a few months from now I'll be able to come on here and say "wow, my first draft of my really shitty book is finally done!".
Either way, I'm pretty proud of myself and I'm going to try to use this as a stepping stone into the future.
I'm really tired right now. And my brain is really fried. Hopefully my novel is more skillfully written than this post. :)