As of 1:35 am EST, on this fine Saturday, I am once again gifted with a green bar on the NaNoWriMo website. This is great, as I had a far harder to get this one than last year's. It is less great, as I was, according to my schedule, supposed to get it on Monday. Oops? *shrugs*
Every year there is a major difference between the current NaNo and the last. The second year I had just become a ML, and I believe the cheers of my region overstimulated me into greatness. The entire month was a strange, happy and tired daze. It was fantastic.
This year, the change is on another level than NaNo's. Between NaNo '09 and NaNo '10, I discovered the publishing world. I discovered Nathan Bransford's blog, and from there a dozen others. I spent a year editing, and learning what it really meant to polish a first draft. At least part of what it meant.
It was a lot harder to lock away the Inner Editor this year, to fall back into the blissful, no-holding-back writing frenzy of NaNoWriMo. I had to find a new purpose for this first draft, a meaning that was something else than a canvas to work from.
I am discovering my characters and my story. Things are happening that I had not planned for. Characters are adding a fourth and fifth dimension to what they had. The already complex outline is getting even more complex (it's driving me insane).
I feel that after I wrote this story, I will have a better idea of where it was meant to go. And that will make another draft easier to write.
Nothing is ever lost during NaNoWriMo. I knew that, and I learned it again this year.
I hope you are all doing well! And a shoutout to BookOwl, who I believe finished earlier this week, and was cheering me on twitter yesterday. You go!
*blushing* Thank you :]
ReplyDeleteSounds like your story is being like mine :P I had the whole thing outlined and everything but then I looked around and saw all these anthills (Aimee Bender's pep talk?)and, well, I just really wanted to write about them and so now the story is a bit off track from where it's supposed to be but hey, that's good!
I hope you continue having fun with your story! Are you aiming for a higher goal now?
I've always been aiming for a higher goal: 200k. I'm about 30k behind for that. Oh well, eh?
ReplyDeleteAnd yay, anthills. ;) I like to think of what I am doing at the moment as playing in the sandbox before I build a castle in it.
Congrats on the green bar. My characters are starting to dance a bit too, showing more of themselves. It's really starting to be fun. I hope to pass 40k this weekend.
ReplyDeleteCheers --- Larry