Winter is here, it’s cold but things are staying hot in here

Posted by Frank Cote on December 14, 2017
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: , , , , .

It’s NaNo day +14.    There’s good and bad news, but the good news outweighs the bad because the bad isn’t that bad really.

I’m not finished my first draft.

BUT…I’ve been writing.

It’s been a hectic two weeks at the Basement Office and at where I earn my money.  It’s as if the universe was politely waiting for NaNoWriMo to finish before starting to throw stuff at my head.

The bad:

I’m not finished my draft.   To be honest, this isn’t critical.  I don’t have a deadline.  I got my 50K for NaNoWriMo, the rest will happen when it happens.  I don’t know at what point the story will finish.  I’m closing in on 60K and I’m not out of my middle yet.

I have not written every day.  That one stings a bit.   I did try and commit myself to a 500 word a day regimen and I’ve pretty much failed at it in the last two weeks.   I figured posting an update and a mea culpa would help re-focus my efforts (and it does).

The good:

I’m still excited about the story.   I’m in a good place right now.  The action is flowing and things are happening.   I’m not stuck wondering where I need to go, I know where I need to go.  I just need to write.   I might have some minor hesitation about twists and turns here and there, but I can see which stars I need to follow to sail to port.

I’m still writing.  This is a big one.  I’ve written as many days as I’ve not written.  This is huge for me.  I didn’t just stop.  I didn’t quit.  I still have that nagging feeling most days where I don’t want to let the day go by without at least trying to get to 500 words.   Now, some days I only write 100 or 200, but that’s better than zero.

So what’s next?  Keep trying to get that daily writing goal going.  Keep trying to get a streak going.   Get to the end of the story and slap “The End” on that first draft.   For the first time in a long time (if ever really) I’m eager to start doing some real re-writing and editing.

I’m also planning to keep writing here.  This thing is just one of a million writing pages that are basically writing diaries, but you know what?  It’s mine and it helps.  The cost is minimal and I enjoy it.   I plan to maybe evolve the format a little, find my space and put up some more unique and interesting content other than just how my writing is going and I hope that will resonate with some folks out there.   We will see.

Baby steps.