You Know It’s Serious When You Lose Sleep
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.
This is my first year doing NaNoWriMo, but I totally get this. I had a very complex and elaborate idea for a novel that I wanted to plot out and develop the characters for carefully before I started. It turned out I wasn’t able to get all of that plotting done by November 1st and I mentioned that to people. Their response was, “Write it anyway!” There was no way in hell that was going to happen, but then I thought to myself, “Self, knowing that we suck at consistency if we have no plan, what kind of book would we be able to start writing TODAY without having to worry about setting the details up in advance?” And the answer came back, “Dude, put it in a setting that uses dream logic. Then we can totally get away with the inconsistencies.” So I’m now having an awesome time hammering out a story even though I have no clue where it’s going.
Jim Ryan
November 8, 2011 at 1:27 am
Glad you’re continuing to find inspiration! Stepping away from it for a while and getting some fresh air usually works for me.
Palm Trees & Bare Feet
November 8, 2011 at 7:19 am
That’s a very good approach to any writing block. I’ve been struggling w/ my NaNo too. I’ve got 2 kids writing w/ me, and none of us are reaching daily goals, but little man is reaching his weekly. I’m still stuck in another book so my head isn’t producing what I need to. Instead of stressing, I know when the words come, they will flow like water, so I’m working on the books that are flowing like that, but NaNo stays up and I do goal to write *something* in it daily, but so far I’ve not boxed myself in, yet.
Great job on finding the words again!
Catrina Taylor Rudd (@theladywrites)
November 8, 2011 at 7:21 pm