Jessica Ralston's Blog

I absolutely loathe Week 2 of NaNoWriMo. All the advice says to push through it, and so push through I shall endeavor to do.

At this point in the month I’m clueless: I have no idea where I’m going with the plot and with the characters ensconced in the plot. One thing I should probably do is step back and say, “Okay, I’ve come this far, where does this go next?” I know by this time next week I’ll feel a lot better about things and say to myself, “Now was that freak out necessary?”

I’m using any means to push through the awfulness that is always Week 2: Write or Die, writing longhand, closing my eyes and just writing whatever comes to mind concerning the scene.

Hopefully everything comes through in the edits and rewrites in January.

How are you all doing on your wordcounts? Are you just as frustrated with Week 2?

I am a terrible blogger. And I completely failed the Post A Day challenge. I should just call it Post A Week (Until Further Notice).

You know, I had a feeling that when NaNo started, I would suddenly not have time to blog. It turns out I was right. Or I should budget my time better, but I see next to no chance of that happening. So.

I think I should explain what happened to me a few days ago. I posted in my wonderful NaNoWriMo Google+ circle that I was having some troubles writing (more trouble than usual a.k.a., I was losing sleep over it) and I got some great advice, from killing a character, to “relax,” to stepping away from it for a while. What happened instead was I started to write whatever I wanted to write, and my mind went back to an idea I’ve been toying with for a while. And guess what happened? The words just started to pour out of me. It was magical.

I distinctly remember my first NaNo, and how much fun I had writing it, because I knew how it began, and I knew how it ended, so I just wrote the middle with no idea how it was going to go. And I had a ball. Even my mother mentioned how much fun I had with the first one (and it’s the only one that’s complete!), and now I just stress out about my NaNo novels. Am I really a pantser at heart? This so goes against my nature, but I’m willing to try it, if it means writing is fun again and I actually finish instead of getting to the climax and stopping.

Considering the plot I started November with, I believe that I plotted myself into a box that I didn’t know how to get out of. So I’ve put the original idea on the back burner, to give it time to boil down to the idea it started as; go in fresh when it’s ready and when I’m ready.

But for now, I’m just going to work on the thing that’s actually working for me.

Well, it’s heading towards 11 p.m., and I’d say I’ve had a pretty productive day! I’m not as far along as I wanted to be by the end of Day 1, but I’ll take when I can get. I’m stopping for now, because I have other things I need to do before a midnight deadline, namely 750words and a guest blog spot elsewhere on the Interwebz.

My goal this year is 80,000 words. I don’t know if this is a psychotic death wish, wishful thinking, or what, but I’m determined to do it.

OK, off I go again!

Hope your NaNo adventures are going well!