One Week Into NaNoWriMo

As of right now, I am writing at roughly half the speed it would take to have 50,000 words on November 30. Part of that is that I haven’t been feeling well, and some family things have come up. Part of it is that I’m writing longhand, which well, it takes longer than typing, and it’s been a while since I wrote anything of any length longhand, so I’m consistently overestimating how many words are on that piece of paper.

I’m right about five thousand words.

The good news is that writing on ONE piece of paper at a time has forced me to focus on the scene that I’m writing, and not jump all over my outline. (If I had one.)

The process is working.

What I have is a lot smoother and more complete than what I would wind up with typing.

The problem is, there’s also a whole lot less of it.

I feel like I’m missing something, right now. I feel like I’m not sinking into the layers of the story the way I would with a little more scene hopping. I have a couple–maybe three really good, really thorough scenes, but I don’t have a grasp on the big picture the way I usually do.

The story is taking longer to start feeling like one of “My” stories than it usually would. I don’t have a sense of most of the characters, and I still haven’t found that one, central relationship–you know, the weird and freaky one–that would catch my muse’s imagination. In fact, I think I have fewer characters, in general.

So, Day six, and the process is working, and not working. I think I’m writing better, and definitely cleaner… but being quite honest… I’m losing interest.

4 Comments

  1. Reply

    Thanks for sharing your fascinating experiment. Maybe linear just isn’t the way to do it for you. Perhaps it will get better if you stick at it, perhaps not. The last thing you want to do is cause yourself to lose interest.

    • Reply

      I think maybe I am trying to cram myself into a box that just isn’t quite Karen shaped… I’ll keep pushing until the end of Nano, or maybe even the end of this project, though. I still want to see how it does work out.

  2. Reply

    It’s always good to try a new method, but if it’s not something that works for you, that’s okay. I always say give a new thing at least two weeks. Even if it’s not something that will work for you, you could still learn something useful. Good luck!

  3. Reply

    Losing interest – hmm. Always good to try something new, but . . . good to know when its not working. Sometimes its like a new flavor, not quite right in the beginning, but grows on you. OTOH, if, at the end of your project, you just don’t like it – well, you won’t order that flavor next time. Looking forward to the final verdict. Hope you’re feeling better soon.

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