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.
