NaNoWriMo

I'm participating in NaNoWriMo this year, and 24 days in, I know I'm not going to be a winner.  For those who don't know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and it's held each year in November.  You sign up online, with the goal of finishing a novel in a month by writing about 1660 words per day.  That's it.  There are no fees, no check-ins, nothing except the solidairty of working with other writers struggling to finish those words counts.  You "win" by getting to the 50,000 word mark by the end of November, and having it verified by uploading your file onto the website.  There are no actual prizes although several companies are offering discounts on products/services to the winners.

First of all, I think NaNoWriMo is a great idea, and run very well.  It is just loose enough to keep you from feeling as if you have added yet another adminstrative/reporting task to your day.  But through pep talks delivered to your inbox, charts to track your progression and a healthy online forum, you feel a strong sense of connection to everyone else going through the process. 

So, sometime around Halloween (nothing like waiting until the last minute!) I signed up with the hopes that I could finish a draft of book two of "Fame, Love and other Lessons".  Which I imagnatively titled "Book Two". 

I did great for the first three days, but then life intruded.  Now, the NaNo folks prepare you for this.  I've also done a modified version of NaNo on my own (reading founder Chris Baty's book, "No Plot, No Problem") so I knew what to expect.  But I have to say, this past November was the month I hit my limit.  I started an intense, accelerated Master's program in the Fall, and began working full-time; two huge changes in my life from the first book.  Either one would have been enough, but coupled with the typical Murphy's Law reality of my life, I realized very quickly that I had hit a wall. 

I love the Food Network and Pinterest boards showing beautiful 1%'ers homes in the same way I love time management books:  because they allow me to imagine a different version of who I am.  A well organized, efficient and creative woman comfortably ensconsed in a home where I have nothing to do except write in my beautifully appointed home office and concentrate on my work whilst gazing out at my peony garden through large, spotless bay windows.  Except this time, I realized that no amount of time management was going to save me.  This wasn't a time management issue, it was that I had jammed pack my life so full that there wasn't enough to find an extra two hours each day to crank out 1600 words.  I know that there are a lot of people who can do this, but I'm not one of them.  I'm neither well organized nor efficient, and I just can't get that much done in a day.

Now having said that, I'm still glad I went through the process.  In fact, even though I'm not going to finish, this month was invaluable in getting the ball rolling on Book Two.  I'm now over the beginning hump, and most of the plot points are now in place.  I'm no longer struggling with the the structure of the story, so it's much easier to pick up the laptop and just start writing.   Another difference is, I'm now more aware of what I did wrong in writing the first book (like, um, procrastinating and then rushing through the process…) and I want to avoid that with the second. 

In fact, the website allows you to just keep tracking your word count even after the month has ended, and I think I'll continue to do that.  Writing really is a lonely profession, and the beauty of a program like NaNoWriMo is that it holds you accountable.  It's no longer just me and my discipline battling it out in a room that doesn't overlook a peony garden. Instead, it’s a community of writers gently prodding and supporting each other, holding us accountable to just finish the damn book already.