Meaningful Monday – Not Dead
December 5, 2011
Though I did fall from the face of the Earth for a while there, and from the face of the web. I went under for a while to participate in NaNoWriMo. This was my second year, and I’m proud to say that I won this time around! I reached 50,000 words, ahead of schedule even, though I didn’t complete a novel. Not really, I just added 50k words to my current WIP Heritage Blade: Awakening, and of that large chunk of literature, I may actually end up using…10,000 or so. It took 40,000 words to really get the story going, and I didn’t make any real progress until I neared the end. As a result, I’m about 78,000 words deep, and have yet to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
That’s right, where I should be tying up my story I’m just now cresting into ACT 2. I spent 70 pages in the same setting with my characters sitting around, talking, plotting and planning, but not actually doing anything. There was hardly any advancement, absolutely no growth, and the entire thing is just…stagnant. I’ve found that’s what happens when I focus on quantity and not quality. And that’s just for ME. While the method utilized in NaNo works for some people, I most certainly am not one of them. When I’m not allowed to think my writing through, I don’t get anywhere with it. I have something to edit, true, but most of it I’ll wind up cutting up anyway.
So, next year, when November rolls around, I don’t think I’ll be participating again. Of course, I say that now, but a lot can happen in a year. In the meantime, I’ll take what I’ve got and add onto it until I reach the end.
How was your NaNo experience?
