NaNoWriMo – I Did Not Expect This.

So, when I signed up to do this crazy NaNoWriMo thing, I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. I just had this story idea in my head and it’s been there for a while now – I thought I should try getting it out. So I made the commitment to do it.

You know all that negative self talk you get in your head, like “You can’t write, what are you thinking, doing this” “You won’t be any good at this. You should give up before you start” etc. I thought I had done a lot of work in shutting those negative voices up but NaNoWriMo brought them out by the dozen.

The first day I wasn’t prepared. I hadn’t installed any kind of word processing program on the computer. The Other Half had gone to work and I couldn’t seem to find an easy way of downloading the latest version of Open Office. It was torrent this, torrent that. I just wanted the darn file like a normal person. I’ve never understood torrent. By the time he got home I’d managed to find somewhere to download the file I needed and I got it installed, but I was tired from a long day. I thought – tomorrow is still November 1 in many parts of the world. I’ll get up in the morning and get a fresh start on it, and I’ll write 2 days worth. It’s 1667 words a day, apparently. I wrote it on my to do list.

The next morning I woke up, got the other half out the door fed and clothed, and arrived in here ready to write. And write I did. It all came spilling out, so easily. They tell you not to edit and I haven’t, I am just writing the story. 3398 words tumbled onto the page – and two hours vanished. I woke up at the end of it sort of like waking up from a daydream. Have you ever read the Stephen King book Misery? The writer in the story talks about falling into the hole in the page and that is exactly what happened.

I ended up being happy I missed day one, because it was easier to write that part of the story in one sitting. Now the basis is there. A beginning is made. The hardest part is over – the hardest part for me at least which was starting the story.

So I got up today and The Other Half is having a day off. I thought this would get in the way of my writing but I found out that the story has a life of its own. About an hour later there were suddenly 5176 words. And the story had made me emotional. And a character appeared who I had never imagined being a big part of the plot. Again I woke up like out of a daydream.

I have no idea whether it is any good or not, and when the month is over I will want to give it to someone like Cugat who can read it and tell me yeah it stinks, or actually this is quite good. I can trust him to tell me the truth. :) Unvarnished and unbiased.
I never thought I would enjoy writing anything more than a blog post, but I am loving it. I remember other bloggers who said they wanted to write but they didn’t think they’d be any good at it. All I can say to you is – you will never know unless you try. Give it a go – you might be surprised like I have been.

I have a vague idea of where the plot is going, but this thing seems to have other ideas. We’ll see. All I know is it feels ok. Better than ok, to be honest. It feels fantastic. Those negative voices have shut up for now. I’m sure they’ll be back, but I have news for them and it is all bad. I’m not listening. I’m giving this a go.

I am sure days will arrive when I don’t feel like writing. I have to push myself to sit down and do it anyway. I might not feel like writing but the story wants to be told. I am just the typist at this point.

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11 thoughts on “NaNoWriMo – I Did Not Expect This.

  1. Crazy is the right word for it. I’m being quiet about my involvement this year, and just plodding along as best I can. Due to my advancing pregnancy now I’m spending more and more time “resting” on my behind, and in ten short minutes can churn out 300-500 words. 10 x 10 minute rests a day and you can guess what my word count is looking like :)

    I found it harder to put aside 2 solid hours a day to write, than to use my “resting” time effectively. But then, I’m easily distracted. This is my third attempt at writing this comment, and in that time I’ve written 200 words on my novel as well.

    You’ll get there :)

  2. Sometimes the words just come out so easily. Enjoy it while you can since, as you know, other days the words are somewhere else doing someone else’s bidding. They’re fickle those words.

    And yes, I will give you an honest assessment of what you’ve written when you’re done. ;)

  3. I didn’t hear about this event untill it had already started, so I’m ging to wait untill next year to give it a go.

    I’m glad you feel so great by the process of getting your story onto paper (or screen, as it were).

    Good luck with our novel, and I’m sure it’ll be wonderful to read, especially if it is already meaning so much to you.

  4. It’s amazing how unaware we are of those negative voices until we do something to challenge them. I’m glad you are. And it’s amazing what we can find when we start writing. Stories really do tell themselves to us as much as we tell them. It sounds like you’ve made an amazing start.

  5. Sounds amazing fun! I don’t think I have the time for it right now but hopefully one day i’ll so something like it.

    I hope it turns out great. You should make a blogspot blog and publish it 1 chapter a week for us all to read and comment on.

  6. That’s amazing. At this point, the numbers are daunting to me, and I have so much in my life that I am unable to complete, I know better than to set myself up for something so challenging. But I’ll file it away in my head for another time perhaps. What you describe is certainly what I would dream for, if I was serious about writing something.

    (Sorry I haven’t been around for a while – I somehow missed changing my feed, and it took several days before it started bothering me that I hadn’t seen any new posts from you to realize it had to be me, not you. :) )

  7. i’m so glad you visited my blog! and as a person who took 7 years before she finished her first novel (and i’m reworking it at the moment thanks to some helpful agent-y comments) i’m just cheering you on!!! heck, i’m not officially doing the nanowrimo, but i think i’ll take this opportunity to force myself to fix it up — in one month! thanks for the inspiration!

    oh, and one day, i hope i can visit! i used to work with people from down under, and i miss the tim tams ;-)

  8. I hope it’s going well – it definitely sounds like A Project. :-) This is the first I’ve heard about it and it sounds great to be doing this in synch with so many others – I think I’ll be wanting to have a go next time round. Wishing you the best for each day’s writing.

    Cheers,

    Juliet

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