Thursday, November 10, 2011

NaNoWriMo: 10,000 Words In

When I started National Novel Writing Month 10 days ago, I anticipated there would be some obstacles I would have to overcome in order to finish.  I did not expect to immediately get sick with a lingering respiratory infection or hit a wall (figuratively) about 5,000 words in, but so far that is what has happened.  In spite of those things, I have reached the 10,000 word mark.  I'm a little over 5,000 words behind my target word count at this point, but I am comforting myself with the knowledge that I have never written 10,000 words in 10 days or less at any other time in my life.  Also, I'm not hopelessly behind.  I'll just have to step up my game a bit in order to catch up.

One thing I have learned so far is that writing is hard.  It is one of the most natural things in the world for me to do, but it isn't easy.  I confess I often read books and find myself thinking, "I could have written this better."  It's one thing to see ways that an existing story could be improved, but it's quite another to invent a story completely out of my own head.  It's a challenge, but it's a fun and exciting one, and I am loving it.  Most of what I'm writing right now is pretty bad, so none of you will be reading it any time soon (and you can thank me for that, trust me), but I'm confident that it will improve in the rewrite process.

Now that I'm starting to feel better, I'm looking forward to charging ahead and getting caught up, and then finishing this thing.  10,000 words down, 40,000 to go.  Obstacles?  Bring 'em on!

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