I wrote my 50,000th word at about 9:30am on the morning of November 30th – the last day of the Nanowrimo competition. I honestly couldn’t believe I had done it. three days earlier when I still had 5000 words to write I wasn’t confident that I could do it without resorting to tricks, like really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really sneaky tricks. But somehow I pulled it out.
You cannot sit down and read what I wrote and understand the plot. I wrote it in fits and bursts. I had written the ending before i ever understood how I would get there. Everything is out of order. I introduced one character who by day 15 had been deserted in favor of another character – but they both still exist because I learned one (of many) very valuable lessons in Nanowrimo – don’t delete anything. ever. And don’t edit as you go, even yesterday’s writing. Just keep it moving forward. Editing can wait until December.
I spent nearly 4 years writing and rewriting the same 30 pages. I couldn't move past it. Once I let go of ‘getting it right’ before moving on – the rest of the story found it’s way out.
I learned that if I wrote every day some days would be challenging, but if i just put my fingers on the keys words would appear. Some of those words are so, so badly written. Some of those words are true gems.
I will spend the next couple of months organizing, rewriting and editing what I’ve written and then we’ll see where I end up. I won’t know until then if this is a story that I want other people to read – I think it is, but I will let you know.
If you have a goal of writing – of writing anything longer than a few pages i strongly encourage you to give any of the Nanowrimo events a try. Get out of your own way and write something, dammit. I, for one, would like to read it.
