NaNoWriMo to Conclusion (Almost)

I started this out hardly enamored with the idea.  I thought to myself that it encouraged people to think less of those who wrote for a living, making people think anyone could do it.  Devaluation.  I guess that, in part, came from the relative ease I find in the actual writing process under most circumstances.  To me, writing is generally easy.

But most of the people I’ve encountered haven’t found it to be easy.  Most have struggled with the 50k word goal.  To my surprise, that included me.  There were a variety of reasons explaining this.  I was writing in 3rd person exclusively for the first time (I usually write either only in 1st person or a mix of 1st and third).  I wasn’t “feeling” the story I’d decided to write.  I simply can’t write every day.  My head is so messed up with personal issues a shrink would probably have a hay day.

And all of those reasons were true.  I don’t know how much the 3rd person thing was an issue.  Sometimes were easier to write than others.  It wasn’t for lack of ideas, I knew that much.

I knew I wasn’t really feeling the story as I spent much of the intervening time watching fantasy movies, medieval movies, and reading stories about werewolves and vampires (none of which I was writing about).  Somehow, I think something was telling me it was time to start writing in Seize again.

And I’ve always said I couldn’t write every day.  Every source I’ve ever read said that if you want to be a writer, you need to get in a habit of writing every day.  That, in all due honesty, is bullshit.  As I argued quite eloquently in a Wattpad forum the other day, not everyone’s brain is wired the same.  We’re all different.  We all have different processes.  If I write every day, I can have pages of scenes outlined out, and have a hard time writing a few hundred words.  I feel like pulling my hair out.

So, yeah, as of November 25th, I’d skipped nine days of NaNo.  But I was also about 4-5k ahead of schedule.  And I would have probably done a lot better if I’d skipped even more days.  My biggest writing day was 4,140 words for NaNo.  My best writing day for 2013 was 7,259.  In May, I wrote 34k in two weeks in Seize.  No pressure.  And even then, I only wrote 9 of those 14 days.

By my estimations, I’ll lose the last three days of the month because of the holiday.  So my goal is to finish writing by end of day Wednesday.  I might be able to finish Tuesday.  Don’t know.  But I want to have this sucker done and uploaded to NaNo before I leave for my parents’ house.

In the end, my view is a little skewed from inception.  I think I got out of it what I wanted to.  I’ve learned some new ways of planning and writing.  I’ve learned some more what does and doesn’t work for me.  I’ve learned how valuable NaNo can be for children and teenagers, especially in a country where I’ve seen high school students who can barely read.  I can see it’s value, and I’ll probably participate next year.

I’m going to have to find a way of making it my own next year, though.  I know I can’t write every day.  I’ll have a year to come up with a plan for next year.