Monday, December 10, 2018

Roller Coaster

This year was my first time participating in NaNoWriMo. My goal was to get my first draft to 50,000 words. I ended up with 39,000 words, and I am proud of each word. It was difficult to carve out a section of time to write each day, especially around the Thanksgiving holiday. I got through some critical plot points, and added details to minor characters to give depth to their personalities.

Last May I began expanding a short story, which has turned into a novel. My highest monthly word count prior to November was 9,000 words. Even though I did not hit the 50,000 word goal this year, I did substantially exceed my monthly word count. I am in a rough patch now. My creative reserves are low, and I’m fighting off thoughts of worthlessness. I am not sure what’s triggered this episode, but I’ve had enough times like this to know that if I wait it out things will come back around. 

It is peculiar to go through the process of writing out a novel. I have no clue where this journey will take me. If I could tell the youngest version of myself that one day I will begin to write a sci-fi story, I would have laughed. The longest piece of writing other than this was writing out the first three chapters of a thesis for school. That assignment was 10,000 words. A year ago 10,000 words was intimidating. Six months ago 10,000 words was still intimidating, but it was a word count I wanted to surpass. Five months ago I exceeded 10,000 words. Now I am at 40,000 words. 

This process has been a wilder roller coaster than I anticipated. I am determined to get this draft finished and see it through edits. On more than one occasion, I’ve thought about jumping off mid ride. During those moments, I choose to put the story away for a few days and take time to recharge. 

Does anyone have any advice or kind words to share? I would appreciate some encouragement in the comments. 


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