In approximately twenty-four days, National Novel Writing Month will commence. Last year, I made it about 5,114 words into the event and stopped writing. I've been attempting to write a novel in 30 days as long as I've been attending the Maryland Renaissance Festival Regularly, a.k.a. since 2004. This will be my eighth attempt.
It's foolish really. I should be spending any extra time studying for the GMAT. (to be fair that is my focus for the rest of October, so hopefully I can get the bulk of that out of the way and just take practice tests throughout November.) I have cut back hours at Hallmark recently, in preparation for GMAT and eventually quitting to go back to school, so I should be able to write more than I have in previous years. Though, again, I am sure there are better things I should be doing with that time.
I'm not as motivated about it as my friend, K. I find I am very jealous of her ability to create continuously like that. I often worry that I have lost that ability or, at least, that drive. K finishes every year. She's told me that they are mostly post-apocalyptic adventures with her friends. I just get so caught up with characters and the "why?" of things that I find myself stuck in the creative mire. Or, halfway through, I realize I hate everything I've done and can't transition out of it. K always recommends killing all the characters and then moving on to the next story. Which, for word count, makes sense but I always want it to flow for some reason.
So why am I already thinking about NaNo and what I could write about? I never finish it. My ideas sit half-formed in dark corners of hard drives. But maybe this year...
jan and i are coming up with a web app to help struggling writers finish. the idea behind it is that it's basically just a simple notepad editor, only after every (we haven't determined how much) 500 - 1000 words or so, the app saves what you've written and "locks" it, so that you can't go back and edit.
ReplyDeletethe main goal behind this is to basically make it so that one of the things holding writers back is eliminated... that is, the desire to go back and edit. if you can forget about that, maybe it'll be easier to push on through. since the goal to finishing is really about word count and not really about quality at THIS particular point, i don't know. we thought it was a good idea.
not sure if it'll be finished or able to be given out by the time nano hits, but it was an idea we were kicking around. jan is coding it and i guess i'll go ahead and beta it, or we can maybe give you the address if you want to try it out?
don't give up! you can do it!