It's Day 1 of NaNoWriMo, something I've successfully participated in 4 other times. What does "successfully complete" mean in the world of NaNo? It means finish 50,000 words Yep. That's it. Not edit. Not even write the whole thing. Just 50k—getter done!
This approach has never been a chore for me. I'm a "pantser" by nature (definition: one who goes by the seat of one's pants when writing, ie. doesn't plan), so this has always been fun for me. But what it hasn't been is...well...successful. Here's what I mean by that: Yes, I can finish 50k words. Not a problem. BUT those manuscripts from the 4 other times of NaNo-ing are still sitting unfinished (except for one, which is totally done and at one time was in the hands of well-known editors for consideration but that didn't work out so it is sitting in the proverbial drawer waiting for me to resurrect it again). It all boils down to this: I want to try a new approach to this whole process.
So, today, Day 1, I’m at the library because my original plan—what do they say about making those?—was foiled, so instead of going up finally to What Cheer Press and use their shared worked space like I thought a real writer would do for the first day of NaNo, I am here at the library, and, well, this isn’t ideal. I am in a cubical with the sunlight pouring in (not a bad thing), but it’s very noisy because it appears that someone is helping another individual VERY loudly, and also I am way too close to the check-out desk where the idea of quiet seems to have eluded them all…
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Title page of my WIP for NaNo |
It’s 12:07 and I am not spending a lot of time on this diary
entry. The point of it is to keep me accountable during this month. I don’t
have the hard and fast goals that I have had in the past, the same ones you all
have, the whole premise of NaNo—to complete an entire draft in that messy and
pantser-y way. Not this time. I want to go slow and steady and try something
different: my goal is simply to get a few chapters out of this new novel…chapters
that I feel good about, which means edit as I go. Since all I ever do in my
approach is pants my way through things, I need to change it up.
In all the years I’ve been a writer of novels that’s how
each one was approached, and since I’m not exactly on the best sellers list
(yet?), I figured I’d try the opposite (it’s kind of what they say in this mode
of therapy called DBT,
do the opposite as in if what you have been doing isn’t making things
better, let’s try the opposite, as in the thing most likely that you are afraid
to do because you are afraid you will fail.
So…
No pantsing this time. In fact, I spent all of September
using the snowflake method to prep for this NaNo. I’ve never in my life
outlined an entire novel BEFORE even writing the opening scene.
It’s 12:10. So I am stopping this diary entry now. I’ll
publish this later and add to it how much I actually got done, and since I basically
only have until 1:30, I better get going! Or as I tell my husband, I better get
fishing…that’s what we are calling my writing time this month—going fishing—because
that’s what he does with whatever free time he can carve out, and in case you
don’t know, it’s been fishing season since June. Now that it’s November, it’s
MY fishing season.
Goin’ fishing!
It’s now 3:10. I managed to get 2000 not terrible words in.
This is a shock to me. I edited as I went—not obsessively—and I didn’t write in
that frantic way I typically do for NaNo. I feel good!
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