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NaNoWriMo Winrar!
14 years ago
General
So I signed myself up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month- write a 50k worded novel in a single month) in the final week of October due to some prodding from a good friend of mine, and I thought ehh, why not? I had a vague idea of what I wanted to write, how hard could it be to spin it for 50k words?
Lord how naive I was.
But I'm happy to say that, even though the story doesn't have a definitive beginning, and all the scenes I've written till now either don't link/transition properly or remain at 75% completion, I managed to 'win'!
Clocking in at 50,595 words, I beat the damned challenge with 5-6 days to spare.
All I can say is I'm relieved that its over and I can go back to doing my usual stuff, but it's taught me a lot of valuable things about myself.
I've come away with the knowledge and pride that yes, when really pushed I can meet what seems an impossible target on such a short deadline.
And I've also learnt that I'm definitely capable of writing much more than the short stories I'm used to writing. I always thought that I never had the knack or the time to write a multi-chaptered novel, but I've come to learn that yes- with some discipline and time management/sacrifices on my part, it's achievable.
Oh sure, the quality of it is absolutely terrible to the point of humiliating, but that's OK- Draft 0 is the ground work, it means I can now freely edit and rewrite to my hearts content and happy with the quality.
The hardest part, or the biggest obstacle? Trying to keep my inner editor bound and gagged so I could write without judging myself. That and writing through the rough phases- many days I felt too tired to write or hit a creative brick wall, but pushing through it and just typing till the flow returned surprisingly worked out more often than not.
Oh, and not forgetting the fact that you found giant plot holes, or realised part of the idea you had wouldn't work, or a better, more appealing idea comes along part way through your writing. This happened to me today, there I sat at 45k words with the finish line on the horizon; struggling to come up with a plausible plot to help draft a beginning despite all my planning, when I was hit from out of nowhere with an idea I hadn't even considered before- and it was an idea that not only fixed all my beginning issues....it also made everything I'd written to this point absolutely moot.
Aka an entire rewrite lol.
So, that is my new agenda- to tweak what I have, rewrite and adapt to this new idea in hopes I can use it later on and share with people.
Would I ever do it again next year?
Who knows, if I end up getting another idea for a story and plan it far in advance, then I may very well end up doing so :)
It's been a fun, if not exhausting and frustrating journey.
But I'm chuffed. proud and happy to pieces :D
Lord how naive I was.
But I'm happy to say that, even though the story doesn't have a definitive beginning, and all the scenes I've written till now either don't link/transition properly or remain at 75% completion, I managed to 'win'!
Clocking in at 50,595 words, I beat the damned challenge with 5-6 days to spare.
All I can say is I'm relieved that its over and I can go back to doing my usual stuff, but it's taught me a lot of valuable things about myself.
I've come away with the knowledge and pride that yes, when really pushed I can meet what seems an impossible target on such a short deadline.
And I've also learnt that I'm definitely capable of writing much more than the short stories I'm used to writing. I always thought that I never had the knack or the time to write a multi-chaptered novel, but I've come to learn that yes- with some discipline and time management/sacrifices on my part, it's achievable.
Oh sure, the quality of it is absolutely terrible to the point of humiliating, but that's OK- Draft 0 is the ground work, it means I can now freely edit and rewrite to my hearts content and happy with the quality.
The hardest part, or the biggest obstacle? Trying to keep my inner editor bound and gagged so I could write without judging myself. That and writing through the rough phases- many days I felt too tired to write or hit a creative brick wall, but pushing through it and just typing till the flow returned surprisingly worked out more often than not.
Oh, and not forgetting the fact that you found giant plot holes, or realised part of the idea you had wouldn't work, or a better, more appealing idea comes along part way through your writing. This happened to me today, there I sat at 45k words with the finish line on the horizon; struggling to come up with a plausible plot to help draft a beginning despite all my planning, when I was hit from out of nowhere with an idea I hadn't even considered before- and it was an idea that not only fixed all my beginning issues....it also made everything I'd written to this point absolutely moot.
Aka an entire rewrite lol.
So, that is my new agenda- to tweak what I have, rewrite and adapt to this new idea in hopes I can use it later on and share with people.
Would I ever do it again next year?
Who knows, if I end up getting another idea for a story and plan it far in advance, then I may very well end up doing so :)
It's been a fun, if not exhausting and frustrating journey.
But I'm chuffed. proud and happy to pieces :D
