After Nano
So, it’s over.
Thirty days of literary abandon.
In its wake, over 50,000 words, more than 170 pages, and a sense of accomplishment paired with mental exhaustion.
A good exhaustion. Well, a bittersweet one at the very least.
There were quite a few days I believed I could not cross this particular finish line. Between an anniversary jaunt to Maui in week 1, the passing of my grandmother the week of thanksgiving, and a bout with the flu and a sinus infection this last week, I let myself entertain the possibility.
But, the saving grace of determination and a refusal to admit defeat helped me push through the last 2300 words yesterday, and I crossed the finish line a day early with 50, 258 words. Most of it will need to be reworked, reorganized, and very possibly hacked out altogether, but it gave me 50,000 words to work with on my rewrite project. And another sense of accomplishment.
Throughout this little adventure there have been epiphanies, feelings of loss, reminders of both what I love and hate about the writing process. Reminders, also, of the millions of fellow writers going through a similar joy and bittersweet agony. All for the love of words.
What I take from NaNo each year is that feeling of comradeship and the not so gentle shove to complete a goal. Two out of these four years have been a real blast. These last two have been more of a challenge, so I believe I might be getting to the nitty gritty of what NaNo could mean for me. I am not certain if I am journeying closer to a new realization of the determination we writers need, or something else. The journey is becoming very… interesting. Testing. Challenging. Putting me in a deeper place of dedication as I realize just how much I love what I do.
But this journey is also pushing me to dig. I want to find treasure, but that will depend on me.
My Precious
Do you know what is the most amazing and important aspect of NaNoWriMo? The dogged determination which arises within us when we come face-to-face with a road block.
For many of us writers, those first few pages [or chapters] of a novel are the most challenging and the most agonizing. We must not only hook our readers, but we must introduce the conflict and the setting in such a way that does not insult our readers’ intelligence. No info dumps. No telling the way it is. Discovery, that is what must comprise those first pages.
Those are our doom, as well.
The first pages/chapters make or break a novel. If I don’t feel it is going well, that particular project is shuffled off to the dreaded back-burner until a much later date.
NaNoWriMo forces us to push through that blockade. If we pay attention to that fact outside of NaNo, we come to learn an important lesson about ourselves and of what we are capable if we simply succumb to determination [or stubbornness] simply to meet a goal.
Why this epiphany took four years of NaNo-ing, I have no idea.
NaNoWriMo Daily Word Count
Fourth year (and counting!)
Searching for Sara
Inspirational Romance
- 1,941 – the first 400 words were THE HARDEST EVER
- 1,769 – had a full-day snorkeling trip and almost FORGOT about my word count!
- 2,431 – all written on the airplane on my way home from Maui
- forgot to get the count…
- 1,382 – recovering from the late nights, early mornings, and long travel after vacation
- 1,903 – took all day. i really need to hush my critic so i can hear my characters
- 1,671
- 1,762 – alot of drivel, but I can edit it out next month.
- 2,923
- 709 – we have a new puppy…
- 1,922
- 2,126
- 1,682
- 960
- 1,700
- 1,048 – need to brainstorm a bit to smooth the next flow of story
- 1,789 – introduction of the love triangle!
- 1,706
- 606 – the too early intro of the love triangle put me into a corner
- 3,146 – postponed the intro of the love triangle
- 1,913 – almost let my characters off the hook. =)
- 2,043
- 2,518 – we head out to Oregon tomorrow morning for a long weekend with family
- 1,915
- 1,898
- 1,769
- 1,723
- ?
- 2300
Total: 50,258
I am a writer. I adore the spinning of the unwritten tale – that lesson waiting to be divulged to others. Each day a new story beckons. One last happy ending. My characters have a life outside of my own, and I always learn from their destiny.
~ Nona ~
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." ~II Corinthians 5:17
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