By Day 3 of NaNoWriMo I had already accumulated 29,376 words. My fingers were flying across the keys at lightning speed and I was excited. Ideas were pouring out of me, my plot was chugging along like a freight train, and all of my characters were behaving. As a writer, you couldn't ask for much more. And then it just stopped....
The fire in my brain just blew out. POOF!
I woke up on Day 4 and I decided that since I was already so far ahead, I'd take the day off and spend time with my Tiny Tyrant. We spent the entire day watching My Little Pony, scarfing down Halloween candy, and pretending that dinosaurs were knocking on our door for dinner. I didn't even think about my story or writing. Once the TT was in bed, I sat down at my computer ready to start typing and nothing happened. Every idea that crossed my mind sucked and my villain was now deciding that he DIDN'T really want to be the villain. He was trying his hardest to help me set up someone else in the story who has the personality of Mickey Mouse. There was no way I could make THAT character my villain. I already had one! He was just being an asshole! After a few hours of arguing with a fictional character in my head, I called it quits and decided I was start again on Day 5.
The morning of Day 5 came and I suddenly decided that I was bored with my story. Everything was going SO well that it felt like something was off. It didn't feel right anymore. And I didn't know how to fix it without going back and editing. But I knew that as soon as I started editing, I'd destroy everything I have written now and I'd lose my word count which is ultimately the most important part of the NaNoWriMo process.
I haven't edited anything. I have resisted. (So far.) But it is now Day 7 and I still haven't written anything. So, until I can get back into the swing of things, I am going to post excerpts of my story here for shits n'giggles.
If you like it, please let me know. If you hate it, PLEASE let me know. Or if you have any ideas on how to get over this slump I'm in, I'd be glad to hear them.
Happy NaNoing!
:( I have tried NaNo and have mixed feelings about whether that length of writing sprint works for me. I have had exactly the same thing happen to me -- I'll write a big chunk and then it will occur to me that there's a big structural problem and at that point I wonder if it's better to just keep going, knowing that I have a problem, or if I need to stop and regroup. And ... whoosh .. there goes my momentum.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand ... all the thinking that I do is what makes me such a slow writer. Which may be my biggest problem....
Jen @ YA Romantics
It's been an interesting experience. And even if what I write is horrible, I'm still proud of myself for doing it because I'm so terrible at finishing things, especially stuff that I write. At this point I've decided that this is basically just a skeleton of the actual story I want to write. I'm going to get all of the ideas for this story that I can out on paper now and hit my word count goal. After November, I'll start heavily editing and see if it's even worth saving. If nothing else, it's gotten me out of my comfort zone and helped me to have more confidence in myself as a writer.
DeleteThanks for stopping by!