This is my very first NaNoWriMo, and I'm writing a good ol' fashioned sword fighty fantasy adventure. Right now my word count is the grand total of... 3338. Oh. Considering that's almost 10,000 words below schedule, it rests somewhere between the realms of pathetic and tragic. The official NaNo website tells me that "at this rate" my 50,000 words will be finished by the 28th of February. Thanks, guys! Unfortunately for me, I have until the end of this month.
I was going to do a preliminary NaNoWriMo blog post but unfortunately I've been without the internet. I was also planning to spend the last few moments of Halloween staring, moon-eyed, at the computer screen, coffee in hand, waiting for the cathodes to flicker over to 00.00 and then boom, off I'd go like a bolting (fat, Shetland) pony. As it happened I spent those moments collecting vomity glasses from a nightclub floor dressed as the Wicked Witch of the West. I got in at 5 in the morning, had little sleep then went to work at my daytime retail job, then went to work at the club again at night. I spent the next day resting, and can't actually remember what I did on Monday my life is THAT interesting, but I eventually came in late to the party on the 4th, when I actually wrote some words at one of Kent's many Write Ins.
When you do NaNoWriMo you learn that there simply is no excuse for not writing. I've always fancied doing it, but thought that, as a student with essays and "reading" to do, I wouldn't have the time. I naively that after graduation I'd somehow be more free to pursue the challenge; I shudder to think how difficult to be if I actually had a social life nowadays as well as two jobs etc. NaNoWriMo encourages you to fit in writing wherever you can, be it during your fifteen minute break at work, or by waking up half an hour early to fit an early morning session in. The Write In meetings are a fantastic idea, as not only do you get to meet like-minded writers, but you also get the motivation to get some words down during the twenty minute "sprints". As a writer speed isn't my strong point, but watching others zip through their novel is a much needed kick up the backside.
Everyone does NaNoWriMo differently, Some like to write a steady 1667 words per day and others like to plough through a substantial amount at the beginning, or attempt a mad dash at the end; I personally feel have no choice but to be the former.
But why am I so far behind? Right now, the answer is obvious. There's only a very limited number of words I can blag before it becomes apparent that I don't actually know what on earth I'm doing. In writing there are planners and there are those that can spontaneously produce amazing work right off the bat. I'm definitely a planner, but I launched into November without a much-needed novel blueprint. I pretty much started with a sentence-long idea and a couple of half-formed characters. How far I've progressed from there, I'm not too sure.
Sure, plot points, character and setting are gently inching their way out of my brain as I write but still, it's like trying to steer a horse with a really flaccid grip on the reins. I'm stuck in a fantasy land of my own creation, and I haven't even drawn up a map. That's how dire the situation is. What's the world called? What are people wearing? What's the geography like? Who's the main character? I DON'T EVEN KNOW! Naturally, I've ground to a halt.
I'm also fairly certain that what I'm writing is terrible because I'm focusing more on quantity instead of quantity. This doesn't exactly inspire me to keep going. I'm sure some people work both into theirs, and that's great, but at the moment I just feel like I'm writing a glorified 50,000 word synopsis which lacks the linguistic deliciousness of a brilliant novel.
So I'm taking a few days out to actually plan my novel, stop floundering and get the bloody hell on with it. Seriously. And who knows, maybe by tomorrow's Write In I'll have partially caught up with the others, and won't be screaming at my laptop.
If anyone wants to buddy up with me and watch my continuing NaNoDesPair as I battle with the aptly named Untitled Generic Fantasy, my NaNoWriMo username is poppy_elizabeth,
