Bigger Steps

Guess where all those baby steps from my last post led me this week? Straight to NaNoWriMo. For those who don't know, this is National Novel Writing Month. That's where writers, both professional and amateur, buckle down and write 50,000 words in 30 days. It's not too late to start, either - join us here!

In my last post, Wee Steps, I mentioned that the words were not coming easily. So I took baby steps in getting them out by writing letters to friends. That way I didn't have to worry about quality or quantity, I only had to get them out.

Well...

With nanowrimo, the emphasis is squarely and totally on word count. Quantity over quality. And it was the perfect next step to take.

I had a general story line in mind, complete with flexible log line and opening sentence. But beyond that, I have no idea what's going to happen. This is a total pantsing experience. Not the kind where some bully pulls down your pants in front of everyone, - though sharing what you write feels eerily similar - but the not having an outline kind. Plot vs Pants. For me, for this one, it's completely by the seat of my pants. Does thinking about it before I fall asleep count as plotting? Prolly not.

So I set a daily word goal of 2500, breaking it into a morning run of 1250 and an after-the-kids-are-in-bed-hopefully-before-midnight one also of 1250. And wouldn't you know? I hit it. And in just over an hour each time. It's amazing how fast you can write when you aren't shedding blood, sweat, or tears over every word (and then end up changing them anyway once you start editing). But that's the whole point of nanowrimo - silencing your inner critic.

I have never written so much in so little time. I'm actually starting to believe that I'll have a whole book by November 30th.

The best part is that under all those words, a story is starting to emerge.

And I can't wait to see how it ends!

¡Buen Provecho!