Friday, November 18, 2011

NaNoWriMo update

It's Day 18 of NaNoWriMo (read this if you don't know what I'm talking about) and I'm staggering along, keeping up (barely).


This was my status as of this evening, when I finally got the day's word count done:


My friend Patty -- whose fault it is that I got involved in this project in the first place -- had this very intelligent thing to say about her progress:

"One thing is for certain, this process has revealed HUGE story holes and motivational problems. This is a good thing. If I wrote the book slowly, I'd likely never have seen these holes, but consoled myself with plodding along. Rushing forward like this forces you to see when you are running on empty, that is no plot, no characterization, and sucky scene setups."

She is SO right. There is no finer way to see the flaws in one's plot than to rush past them, unable to fix them right now and knowing we'll have to go back and re-do a lot of stuff. But it's invigorating, in an exhausting sort of way. After all, we can't fix what's not written, right?

I'm pleased to report that Patty is not only keeping up, but her word count is regularly exceeding my own word count. I couldn't be happier for her!

How are other NaNoWriMo participants doing?

2 comments:

  1. All the things you mention here are exactly the same things I experienced when I did this last year. It's all why this is such a great exercise.

    Who cares about the plot holes? They can be plugged later. Who cares about continuity? That can be fixed later. Character development will happen by itself.

    The rush of the deadline is what makes the story intrinsically exciting. The rush comes across in the story itself. That's the value of this exercise.

    I was told once by one of my art teachers that raw creativity comes when our limitations are clearly defined and strictly imposed. A steadfast deadline is a pretty clearly defined limitation, don't you think.

    just Me

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  2. I hit 39672 last night. Just chugging along. I try to hit at least 2300 words a night once I get my toddler to bed! You are doing a fab job!!

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