NaNoWriMo Update & Doing New Things!

Let’s just rip the band-aid off quickly, shall we? I haven’t written nearly enough for my NaNoWriMo project this year. Considering it’s already the 14th, and I’ve barely scratched the bottom of 12.000 words, I’m not hopeful about “winning”. Last year, I did it all in a week, and though I wasn’t planning on doing the same again this year, I was hoping it would go a bit better than this.

But hang on. I’m not saying I’ve failed. Because I absolutely love the story I’m working on. It’s so great, I can’t wait to finish it (whenever that’ll be).

One of the reasons it might be going a bit slow though (even if it’s great), is that I’m doing things quite a bit differently:

1. I’m rewriting something I started on ages ago. I’ve never done this before. Usually I stick with it and finish, or I actually just trash it and forget and never go back to it. This was something I started in the middle of the night once (I think), because the idea just didn’t want to leave my head. I wrote 7.000 words before I kind of just… forgot about it. I didn’t intentionally stop, I just… forgot. As it stand now, at 12.000 words, I’ve just managed to squeeze the life out of those 7.000 words, and I’m on to new things. And it’s exciting.

But wait, there’s more.

2. I’m also writing in first person. I’ve also never done this before. I often find it awkward to read, but the fact that it’s in past tense helps, I think. (First person present is super weird to me. It would be like reading some blog post from a crazy guy on WordPress rambling about his writing habits). It’s making me challenge myself, but it’s also letting me discover this whole new way to do storytelling. How to pain a picture, how to pull the reader deeper in. And it’s truly exciting.

And lastly,

3. I’m also writing something personal. There’s more than a few grains of truth in this story, and though it’s terrifying it’s also very cathartic and emotional for me. I hate and love it at the same time. And I can’t wait to finish my story.

So even though I’m lagging behind on my NaNoWriMo this year, I’m loving every second of it. Best of luck to you and your project! And remember, don’t worry about how it goes. Just write it.