I’m having a go at Nanowrimo this year. A proper go this time. I pulled an old idea for a novel out and have set to work on it. I don’t honestly think I will make it to 50,000 words before the end of the month, but I’ll give it a good go.
I got into the habit a while ago of trying to write 600 words a day. 600 is pretty manageable and it was going well for a while. I did it most days. I think I am a pretty committed writer, I have been at this for a long time, but some days just don’t allow for it. Sometimes other things have to come first, like the day job, or the washing up, or making time to look out of the widow and remember your childhood and things like that. Sometimes writing isn’t the most important thing.
So 1667 words a day, the amount required per day to meet the target, it a bit more than I am used to but I am just ploughing on. I like the carelessness required to do something like 50,000 words in a month. You can’t really spend too much time figuring out just the right way to say something. I can spend a whole evening on a single sentence. Nanowrimo doesn’t allow for that. Just say it wrong and move on.
But it has only taken two days for me to develop some serious doubts about the novel I am writing. Who has time for doubts? November will be over before we know it, hell, next November will be over before we know it, so I’m trying to just keep going. My idea of Withnail and I meets The Shining meets Apocalypse Now sounded good at the time, but now it just seems… wayward? I don’t know. I’ll just keep at it, see what it turns into. I don’t think I have ever written a novel that didn’t turn into something unexpected (and, I can’t help but feel, better) by the time I was done with it.
I didn’t even plan it during October. It didn’t even occur to me. (My excuse, very busy at work. You can’t prove I’m not. (I actually am.) ) I popped on to the Nanowrimo website and saw a thread on preparation and outlines and stuff and immediately felt off the pace. Next year I’ll write an outline. And then ignore it, probably. My first drafts always look like I loaded all my ideas into a blunderbuss and fired it at the screen.
Anyway, December looms. Back to work.
toby wallis 