The NaNo experience so far

I just finished a scene, and I have a few extra minutes, so instead of forcing myself to write more, I want to think a little bit about what this experience has done for me so far. Sure, it's only been a week, but it's also been over 11,000 words and 7 hours -- that's a lot!

So far, this experience has been so positive. And that really has nothing to do with the "quality" (heavy quotes there) of the writing I'm producing. Most of what I've written is pretty bad. I didn't bother to do some of the necessary research before I started (I got a bit too antsy and eager to start actually writing to focus on that) so it seems a bit flimsy or contrived in places, and in other places, there are inconsistencies and things like that.

My favorite example is that in one scene, between the two male protagonists, one of the characters tries to start a conversation and ends up disappointed because he wanted something out of the conversation, but it didn't really go anywhere. Well, shockingly, this is how I felt writing the scene as well. I kept trying to get something out of it, and nothing really happened. LOL. I'm sure I'll cut things like that when (if) I go back and edit this thing.

Anyway, no, this experience isn't great because of the quality of the writing. It's great because of the way I feel when I start my day at work having already written 1,000 words and planning to write 1,000 more during my lunch break. It's just so different! I feel so different having done that! I know that in some ways, this pattern isn't really a sustainable one. I mean, right now things are getting a bit busier in my office, and I find that, for one thing, my wrists are pretty sore at the end of the day after having worked in a word processor for about 9 hours straight. And for another thing, I'm basically giving up reading books this month, since I'm using my usual reading time to write, and I know that I can't give up books forever (shudder!). But on the other hand . . . if I do start another project after this one -- since I'm pretty sure that this is going to be one of those projects that you keep hidden in a box underneath your bed and hope to hell that no one ever finds it -- knowing I've done this will be a huge source of encouragement, even if I don't finish. And in a way, that's the whole point of this program. So I feel very connected with that overall goal.

And you know, I've written a few things I actually like. Here and there. One quote about writing that I love is from Hemingway: "I write one page of masterpiece to ninety one pages of shit. I try to put the shit in the wastebasket." Another that I just recently came across is by Cecil Castellucci, who is apparently a writer/director: "The best flowers are fertilized by crap." Indeed!

So even if things go horribly wrong with my novel, I'm really glad I chose to do this. It makes me feel good and makes life a lot more interesting. And I'm sorry if this post isn't as coherent as could be, but I've already been through 1700 words today, so you know how it goes.