Well, when the NaNoWriMo month started, I had a lot of energy and momentum in writing my novel. However, when Week Two was well under way, exactly what No Plot? No Problem! predicted had happened: my steam disappeared. The “wow!” factor of the whole thing had disappeared. Now what I see, instead of long expanses of happy writing, is 40,000+ words to go. And that’s a lot of words, especially when it’s the 20th of November, leaving me with 10 days to finish my novel in. When you break it down, that’s 4,000 words per day. That’s not too much writing, really, but it’s far more than I’ve been able to punch out so far (obviously!) When the month of November started and I signed up for NaNoWriMo, I honestly hadn’t though much about what was already on my plate. More specifically, I hadn’t taken into consideration that this month is the end of the quarter at college for me; meaning, I have finals.
A lot of my time lately has been eaten up by studying, particularly for my history exam (which is today, coincidentally). My math exam is tomorrow which, ironically, I think I’m better prepared for than I am for the history one.
And, truthfully, a lot of my time has been eaten up just doing things other than working on my novel. I’ve fallen victim, in a way, to Newton’s first law of motion:
An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by an external and unbalanced force . An object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an external and unbalanced force.
I stopped writing for a few days due to being swamped with other things. Essentially, my novel writing stopped. Then I took another day off. Then I took another. And then, I let me being behind affect me in a dumb way: I put off my writing some more. And now, I find myself at close to the end of the month with 8,300 words instead of 35,000. I haven’t given up though – there are plenty of NaNoWriMo tales of people who were dreadfully behind catching up in the last few days. Maybe I’ll be one of those people. Maybe I won’t. We’ll see.
(Oh, and for those who are keen discerners of truth: yes, I know. I could have been writing some more of my novel instead of writing this blog post. Shhh…)
Comments 3
Don’t give up! Just write lots and lots of lengthy descriptions and philosophical ramblings. That’s what my whole “novel” is, pretty much.
Posted 20 Nov 2006 at 5:39 pm ¶Haha. Thanks for the advice. I’ll keep it in mind.
Posted 20 Nov 2006 at 6:00 pm ¶“(Oh, and for those who are keen discerners of truth: yes, I know. I could have been writing some more of my novel instead of writing this blog post. Shhh…)”
You could do both. Your fantasy Vikings could somehow end up in a conversation about how little of their intended tasks they accomplish, how they wish they had access to news of foreign lands, and the merits (or lack thereof) of eating rotten fish.
Posted 21 Nov 2006 at 4:19 am ¶Post a Comment