Writer's block, an owner's guide: NaNoWriMo: my report

I’m back. National Novel Writing Month was very good for me. No, I did not finish my novel. But I was coming along very well, very well indeed until real life got in the way. Yes, I know that you can always make time to write. All the same, I’m forgiving myself. I have a note from my doctor which says, “David had to be away from home for half of November, working into the evening and staying in a strange place.” So I excuse myself.

BUT I learned some great stuff. I learned that if the word count is your target you can reach it. Some people cheat by deliberately writing long irrelevant digressions and so on. I decided to take it seriously and write a genuine first draft of my next novel. And that’s what happened. My outline was still not perfect when November 1st came along, and I began to write anyway. And the story took off in surprising directions, and that was great - some of it may have to be deleted again, or maybe it’s where I was supposed to be going all the time!? Anyway I certainly got to know my characters better. And what I learned is that when I don’t know what comes next, I can jump to writing a different chapter, and later I have two places to start writing from, which I like, and I can fill in all the gaps somehow and sometime.

So it was good. And I have a long partial draft, and a head of steam (which, no, I will NOT be making time to use right now). It was good. I wonder if I can get up the same level of steam-pressure without waiting until next November.

Published on December 1, 2004 at 6:37 pm. Linking to this article? Thank you! The permanent address is http://www.todayiwrite.com/journal/nanowrimo-my-report.html

Today I Write