NaNo Gutcheck
By Kathleen Bolton | November 19, 2007 |
These are the times that try men’s souls….
If you made it this far in Chris Baty’s annual National Novel Writing Month experience, you’re probably at the point that I am at. I reeeeeally want to quit.
My novel sucks. My prose stinks. The pacing’s off. The characters…ugh, let’s not go there. It’s all so painful now.
Early in the process, I was flush with love for my new project. I’d clack away happily every morning, lalalalala I’m writing, look at my word count climb, lalalala, ooo, juicy bit of dialogue just flowed out lalalala.
Then I hit the wall. Two days spent with nary a clue how to go on, with the nagging suspicion that in December I’m going to have to chuck what I’d just spent two weeks writing.
My soul’s being tried.
This morning I gave myself a pep talk. I told myself the following, and I’ll share it with you in case it’ll help you dig deep for those last few days of slashing away at your NaNo project:
You can’t edit a blank page, Kathleen, so slap some crap down to fix later.
First drafts always suck, Kathleen, so better to have the process over quickly than to spend six months at a sucky first draft.
At least you know now how you don’t want the story to go, Kathleen.
So what if the word count has dribbled down to about 250 a day. That’s 250 words more than you had yesterday.
First drafts always suck. Bears repeating.
I’m going to drag myself through NaNo to the bitter end. I figure it’s better to lament a horrible first draft than lament the fact that I couldn’t finish the challenge for lack of intestinal fortitude.
How’s your NaNo experience going this year? Hellish? Or heavenly? And what are you doing to get through these last excruciating weeks?
I’m ready to try anything. Seriously.
Kathleen Bolton is co-founder of Writer Unboxed. She writes under a variety of pseudonyms, including Ani Bolton.
She has written two novels as Cassidy Calloway: Confessions of a First Daughter, and Secrets of a First Daughter–both books in a YA series about the misadventures of the U.S. President’s teen-aged daughter, published by HarperCollins, and Tamara Blake, for the novel Slumber.
Heavenly for the first two weeks and hellish since the start of week three. You’ve said what’s been running through my head for the past few days :).
I spent all day yesterday trying to find some way to salvage what I have and continue, but no light bulb’s going off.
I think what I’m going to do at this point is open the draft, start at the top and every place I think I’m missing a transition or a piece of the story I’m going to type the info…kind of weave an outline into the document.
Well my kids and I all got this nasty sinus thing about Oct 30 so I’ve spent some of what could have been writing time doing research on the Napoleonic wars. Watching Sean Bean in the Sharpe series counts, right?
Having the kids home for Veterans Day and parent/teacher conference day didn’t help. They’ve promised to be good and let me write over the Thanksgiving break so we’ll see how that goes.
I’m still not hopelessly off the 50K a month pace (at about 23K right now). Maybe I can make it all up in a mad spurt the last week. It’s a crummy plan but it’s all I’ve got right now. :)
Hang in there and keep the faith! If you come out of NaNo with new ideas it doesn’t matter so much if there’s little salvagable prose.
I’m doing okay this year. I haven’t got to the juicy middle yet, even though I’m over the 25k mark. I’ve been consistently one day behind in my writing goals, since I just haven’t been able to get a big word day in. I hope that once I get to the juicy part things will go faster. I also have no idea how this one is going to end, so it will be kind of a crapshoot leading up to Nov 30…oh, and my laptop screen is slowly going dark. I just hope it lasts until Dec 1 when I can take it in for repair (still under warranty, thank goodness).
Anyway, I’ll tell you what I tell the folks in my region: There’s still time, and the only way to get ahead is to write. Write like little plot bunnies are nipping at your heels, like those zombie/vampire ninja pirates are coming up behind you, like this is a first draft and no one will care. Take breaks and keep your eyes open for new ideas. Do something else creative and sometimes that sparks a plotline. Hop on the NaNo forums for a word war (in the Making 50k thread).
And believe that you can do it. Good luck!
You have to fail to succeed.
I just wanted to congratulate you on being named as one of Writer’s Digest Top Writing Sites. My own community The MuseItUp Club made it once again as well so I know how thrilled you must be.
If you have no objections, I’d like to post your blog link in my FREE Links PDF I offer to my readers four times a year.
Once again, congratulations.
I haven’t done great on pacing, I write slow, but I’m giving myself the same pep talk you are, especially the “You can’t fix a blank page” and the “Hey, that’s (fill in the blank) more words than you had yesterday” parts.
Hang in there. This is my first novel, but from what I understand, slogging through the middle always sucks.
Oh, man, I really feel your pain! Thanks for the encouragement! Neil Gaiman’s pep talk was great, wasn’t it?
I finally figured out what’s been holding me back (besides Real Life): the fact that last year I chucked everything I wrote during NaNo in a re-write. This year I was kinda hoping I wouldn’t have to do that.
Who’m I kidding?
Thanks, everyone, for sharing. It helps to know others are out there clutching their hair. Lea, link away. Eric, wise words as usual.
Ok, enough stalling. Back to work!