November is National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo. This is the second week of NaNoWriMo, and I am fighting hard to stay motivated. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words of a new or existing novel by months end. To reach this goal the writer has to write on average 1666 words a day. Thats a lot of words!
The first week I found to be REALLY easy. Each day I was looking forward to writing, and I didn’t fall behind once. In fact most of the week I was ahead of schedule. But then I had one day where I just didn’t have time to write. I was busy from sun up to sun down and before I knew it day was over and I was 1666 words behind. I havent caught up since.
I have written every day, and I have been writing a lot, but I simply am not making my word count. Currently I have 12,888 words. That means I am behind by 3,772 words. Its killing me!
On the upside my story is going VERY well. Although a few of my friends dont like that I have redefined what it is to be a Zombie. I have a feeling I am going to have a lot of people feel that way, but since I am making it all up as I go along I figure I will stay with it.
Anyways, back to writing!
So you have some friends that don’t like you redefining what it means to be a zombie? Jason, that means you’re doing a good job of being a writer. I got some advice from Stephen King when I was a teenager first embarking on a more serious exploration of my creative writing talents. He suggested that a writer needed to write what THEY wanted to read, not what they’d think others would want to read. If you’re changing things up a bit, then more power to you, my friend.
Regarding this month’s goals, I think they’re commendable, but not necessarily something that every writer’s going to be able to adhere to. So far, I’ve had a sprained ankle that has distracted me sorely (pun intended) from wanting to dive into the sci-fi novel I’ve been pondering for the past year. Yet, for what it’s worth, I haven’t given up at least pumping out something resembling a 50k-word novel by month’s end. And you have a full-time job, not to mention a lot more going on in your life that is just as important (if not more so) than your novel for November.
Don’t be too hard on yourself. So an artist must suffer, but then writing won’t do anybody any good if it isn’t fun. %^)
i think redefining can work, the other day i was talking with a friend and we decided that zombies were just people with and incurable hangover and vampires drink blood because they want the warmth(because they don’t drink from dead people) just a random thought i wanted to share 🙂