NaNoWriMo2017:
It's been a mixed experience for me.
My Novel is a Fantasy AU. Though I wasn't fully prepared, I had my outline ready, along with the character and place settings. I had a wonderful start with full of excitement and the words flowed like water (or I think so they did). But the unending inspiration which I dreamed of having was not there by the time I reached 500+ words. The word flow was stopped short as I got stuck.
I wouldn't say I wasn't disappointed, considering how I've been waiting a year for this day. In the name of a 'short break' (which I thought I deserved), I spent half of my day on SNS to have a peek at somebody else's NaNoWriMo status.
It took me a tweet from someone who wrote 3k+ words to put my mobile aside and start writing again. I was suddenly alarmed and worried. However, I was very determined at the same time. It was the day one for heaven sake! I reminded myself I gotta do this. I pushed myself to meet the first-day challenge of writing 1,667 words but surprisingly ended up writing more.
By midnight, I got my 2k+ words written and was proud of myself. The very next day, I failed to reach my goal. I got to write only a few hundred words. I sensed how my rhythm got slower and slower by the end of the week.
When the second week arrived, I started writing whatever scenes I could think of, hoping to sort them out later. It was fun to write like this. I wrote action scenes that have to be in the second half of the book before I even completed my first half. I didn't feel the pressure of having to write something I don't feel like writing. This helped me in getting my work done. I reached another 10k+ word-count successfully.
But this worked only until I ran out of scenarios to write. Hence, I decided to work on the plot and arrange my scenes. This was when my re-writing brain kicked in. I began to fix things on what I already wrote instead of writing anew. Soon, revising became a habit. I started falling behind.
If you happen to fall behind half-way because of editing, proof-reading, re-drafting, revising or whatever process (you name it), the sure thing is you will struggle to catch up later. November is all about writing, not about re-writing. Often times, we forget the aforesaid which keeps us from reaching our goal. And this was what happened to me.
The third week came and I was sceptical. The chapters seemed vague and were simply full of superfluous details and complex sentences. I was questioning my entire plot. My will to continue ceased to exist. I spent hours on a blank page without knowing what to write next. I couldn't catch up at all.
I was anxious, yet persisted. Prep Talks played a huge role in bringing back my focus.
My fourth week started with uncertainty, but it was a week of promise. I stopped constructing scenarios and began to create sentences. I ejaculated words as much as I could. At the end of the day, word-count was all that mattered.
Writing huge chunks in a day is not my thing. But I did exactly that in my last quarter of the month. As a result, I managed to get 20k+ in a week! I was amazed at myself for having achieved this huge target.
In conclusion, did I win?
Yes!. I won!
At present, I have 51k+ words. It was more or less a crappy unfinished first draft. I know I have to chip away the most part of my writing when I edit them later. Even though I wasn't satisfied with what I have and still have a long way to go, I now have at least something to develop. The winning moment was a pure elation. The process, nonetheless, was productive in every way.
Some people say NaNoWriMo isn't for everyone. I can't relate. For me, it was a little insane, but artistic and meaningful journey.
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