The road not taken

Hi everyone. Sorry I'm so bad about blogging. I did manage to ascend past 25,000 words tonight, so I'm more than halfway toward my goal of reaching 50,000 words by Nov. 30. Too bad there are only 8 days left in the month! I'm going to need to really step on it. Here are some thoughts I had recently, which I wrote first in an e-mail to a fellow NaNoWriMo author:

"I had thought, when I first started doing this, that this was no way to write a novel and that it would just be an exercise in motivation and time management, but now I think this is actually a really good way to write a novel. This way, when I go back to make revisions, I'll already know how it ends and where the characters are going, rather than trying to add in scenes that might not matter in the long run and focus on a character that I end up dropping later on. It gives me perspective, I think, and allows me to focus on the overall story and work out the details later."

Isn't it amazing the kinds of inspirational realizations that come to someone when she's writing her first novel in only a month? In previous attempts I've made to start some books, I've focused too long on every part, writing and rewriting it to make it perfect. Since I've had to rush through this novel, I, of course, have not had time to do that. In fact, I kept a beginning in there that I soon decided I hated, just because I didn't have time to go back and rewrite it. And you know what happened? A couple nights ago I decided maybe the beginning isn't so bad after all. I still have a lot of changes to make to it, but I'm going to keep some of what I would have deleted. If I had deleted it, I'd have to write all that all over again.

Something else I learned about a week ago as I was writing was that writing this story has reminded me of those "Pick Your Own Adventure" books. Every choice I make, every direction in which I take my plot, is the result of a path I must choose over dozens of other options I might have picked. That had not occurred to me until last weekend, but it was funny that a fellow writer (though not for NaNoWriMo) I met for dinner on Monday thought the same thing about her writing, even before I had mentioned it. We both basically had the same realization at the same moment.

I'm so glad I decided to take this risk and devote much of my November to writing this novel. Whether or not I make the deadline, it's still been worth the journey traveled.

As we approach the Ides of November, my luck begins to turn

Here begins the chronicle of my journey through the month of November 2008, the 10th Annual National Novel Writing Month, during which I will attempt to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I actually begin this blog on day 13 of my step closer to the brink of insanity. I have just surpassed 15,000 words and felt that now, at 11:45 p.m., it would be a good time to slack off and begin my blog rather than actually try to meet the goal set forth by the creators of www.NaNoWriMo.org and try to end tonight by celebrating having reached 20,000 words. Since I know that won't happen, tonight containing only 14 more minutes, I figured, what the heck. Why not join the rest of those so involved in making the most of the new millenium and throw my name into the hat of bloggers across the World Wide Web to see who finds me.

For those who are already confused by my rambling, please allow me to explain that NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, which takes place in November each year and challenges writers or anyone else who enjoys writing and someday hopes to write a novel to sit down and actually do it. Right now. Beginning on November 1, all of us who signed up made a vow (sort of) to write 50,000 words in 30 days. The creators of NaNoWriMo thought that 50,000 would be just about the shortest length a novel could be and still be considered a novel. It is meant to be an achievable goal, but still an admirable one. After all, if any of us can write a novel in only 30 days, what can we not accomplish?

This is where I find myself at this moment. At almost midnight on the morning of Nov. 14, I have reached 15,090 words. Those of you who can do math in your heads might have figured out that Nov. 15 marks the halfway mark, and that by the end of that day I ought to have reached 25,000 words. Right, not going to happen, considering I still have 10,000 to go within only 48 hours, I work full time, and I will be spending the majority of the weekend visiting with family, but I still have high hopes that I will catch up after Sunday and will hand over my 50,000 words, the result of 30 days of my life, on the evening of Nov. 30 and be able to shout to the world that I have completed the first rough draft of my very first novel.

Anyone reading along as I type, please wish me luck as I venture forth on my harrowing and sleep-deprived journey. My wish is that you will find inspiration in my cause and join me next year when I surely will not have learned from past mistakes and will sign up to do all of this again! Please visit www.nanowrimo.org for more information.