I hit the fifty thousand word mark plus on November 20th, quickly uploaded and verified my novel to be proclaimed a winner. Now as the end of the month draws near, I looked back over my month of furious writing a brand new project. What shifted the most this time around was my actual writing process. Before this month I would have assured anyone that cared to ask that most productivity for me happened at a cafe, with my own music, snacks to munch on and coffee, in long six hour shifts, on the weekends.
With NaNoWriMo 2015, I found myself drawn to the quiet and comfort of my own home. I did most of my writing in the late afternoons, usually after getting in from work. I'd make dinner, put it in the oven and write for thirty minutes in the quiet. After dinner, if I watched TV, I'd mute the TV on the commercials and write some more. Surprisingly these small adjustments kept me on track. It was reassuring to find, I didn't need to go anywhere, where particular clothing to just sit down and write. Too often writing changes from a creative endeavor to yet one more way to fail at a personal goal. For the month of November, National Novel Writing Month organization encourages the writer in us all to sit down and take a good long look at their life. What's essential? What can be switched? Changed to write 1,667 words a day? How much time does that take you personally?
At the beginning of the month, a voice asks, as it always does, is this worth it? Emerging once more on the other side of the writing frenzy and looking at the editing before me, I have to take a breath--before answering yes. Yes, what I am doing is worth it. Worth my time, my solitude, my energy, my efforts. Yes, I will continue slogging away in the trenches to try and craft the best story possible through meticulous work and time.
It was a needed reminder this year to put the time in each day and at the end of thirty days have the first draft of the story written. Pretty incredible each time I sit down at a computer and actually finish a novel.
Happy Holidays Writers!
With NaNoWriMo 2015, I found myself drawn to the quiet and comfort of my own home. I did most of my writing in the late afternoons, usually after getting in from work. I'd make dinner, put it in the oven and write for thirty minutes in the quiet. After dinner, if I watched TV, I'd mute the TV on the commercials and write some more. Surprisingly these small adjustments kept me on track. It was reassuring to find, I didn't need to go anywhere, where particular clothing to just sit down and write. Too often writing changes from a creative endeavor to yet one more way to fail at a personal goal. For the month of November, National Novel Writing Month organization encourages the writer in us all to sit down and take a good long look at their life. What's essential? What can be switched? Changed to write 1,667 words a day? How much time does that take you personally?
At the beginning of the month, a voice asks, as it always does, is this worth it? Emerging once more on the other side of the writing frenzy and looking at the editing before me, I have to take a breath--before answering yes. Yes, what I am doing is worth it. Worth my time, my solitude, my energy, my efforts. Yes, I will continue slogging away in the trenches to try and craft the best story possible through meticulous work and time.
It was a needed reminder this year to put the time in each day and at the end of thirty days have the first draft of the story written. Pretty incredible each time I sit down at a computer and actually finish a novel.
Happy Holidays Writers!
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