The ups and downs of NaNoWriMo
November is National Novel Writers Month. I’m not going to go into what that is or why people participate. I’ve done that before on various blogs. Instead I’m going to give a “Day 2″ update.
November 1 I was on a role. I’m not sure if that’s because all the stars were aligned just right or if it being the first day of deer season was a contributing factor. Whatever the reason, the house was quiet and I was able to crank out more than 600 words before lunch. Another 1100 followed and I ended the day with 1700–almost 40 words above the daily goal. Not a lot of wiggle room, but I was feeling good about it.
Then came November 2. This was a day that saw “The Mighty Hunter” start to butcher his kill. And he was just so darn proud of himself that he wanted lots of pictures. It was also a day that one of my web design clients needed some timely updates to their site, but didn’t have the formatting of the documents correct. I spent hours getting the documents to format correctly.
I only wrote about 600 words all day. I’m disappointed in the total, but not the effort.
NaNoWriMo is about getting those words out. I’m fully aware some (if not all) of what I spew this month won’t be worth saving. But that’s truly what the editing process is for. I don’t care how quickly or how slowly you get those words out, the first draft isn’t going to cut it. Editing is crucial.
NaNoWriMo 2011 will be, for me, the time to re-build the writing habit. And that’s a promise to myself.
Nichole
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