Tuesday, November 27, 2012

A NaNo fiasco... and what I learned from failure

Ok, so... didn't even come close to hitting my word target for NaNo. I mean, yes I know there are still 4 days left and that I could probably write 6,000 words a day and reach the 50,000 word goal for the month... but I think that would be missing something.

I can think of a few REALLY good excuses for not meeting the goal this year (i.e., travel, company for the holidays...) but what it comes down to is, I got bored with my plot. I think I just hit a point around 25,000 words where all I wanted to do was end it, kill somebody off, or wrap it up nice and neatly... and so I stopped writing because I knew that attitude wasn't going to get me to 50,000 words. And even if I could have managed to pound out the word count, I would have been disappointed with the whole thing. That's not what I want!

I really like my plot/idea for this story, and I am taking this moment to acknowledge in front of my amazing writing community/followers that I want more for it than just the chance to say "I won NaNo 2012." So starting tomorrow I am going back to the drawing board and mapping out more and better scenes for my plot.

I hope you'll all hold me to finishing this project even though it'll be outside NaNo... especially BECAUSE it will be outside NaNo. I can use all the encouragement I can get!

Also, I'm jonesing for a developmental editing project. Anybody got anything they need worked on? I'll give you a deal you can't refuse! E-mail me at ekauffman (AT) writingrefinery (DOT) com.

4 comments:

  1. Ah, yeah, the "I got bored with you problem." I had a novel that I had finally decided to start. It had completely consumed my life with the planning and the thinking about it. Then I got two chapters in. Two. And I said... huh, it's not that much fun over here. Maybe I'll go back to that story.
    Maybe not.
    This year's NaNo is on the brink, but, well, things exploded over here and there isn't much writing time that isn't dedicated to other things.

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  2. Should've stayed with me the entire month!

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  3. I did the same thing with my book. Reached a point where I just thought, "I need to start over." Plot whisperer came in handy, there! I took a whole month and worked through her process. Might give it a try. Good luck!

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  4. I think you did the right thing. It's worth it to stop and give it some time to "stew" rather than torturing yourself to get 50,000. I wasn't passionate about my new idea for this year, so I opted to use NaNo to push myself to finish another novel that I was passionate about, even though that's breaking the NaNo rules!

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