(Almost) A Week Into NaNo

Since I get a four day weekend thanks to the Fourth of July, the days have kind of blended into one. I've never been very good at remembering the date, anyway, and having nothing to do each day does not help that. Yesterday, I realized that it was Friday and that we still had two days left for fun, so I'm sure that I spent my entire day writing and made it over twenty thousand words, right? Hm...not so much. But I have made it pretty far into The Walking Dead: The Game, and that should count for something.

This is where I'm supposed to say, okay, Bree, we're going to buckle down and get back on track! Well, I mean, sure, yeah, I could do that, but...I'm ahead. So much ahead that it gives me a nice cushion to finish, say, a game and then get back to it this week. Not that I haven't been writing every day. I have. Just not as much as I should be. But it keeps my hand in the story and I know what's going on, and that's the important part. Authors usually say the most important thing is to write everyday, and I usually follow that, but now I know, more than ever, why that is the number one piece of advice they give out. Let me tell you a little story that explains why.

When I started the story, I wrote a few hundred words in the middle of June. After that, I left it alone because I thought it would be my Camp NaNo story. So I took two weeks away from that story, not writing, but coming up with ideas and sketching a slight storyboard, but nothing concrete. So, on July 1st, when I finally made up my mind about which story to use, I proceeded to write thousands and thousands of words, words that I thought were beautiful and poignant.

And then I went back to read the beginning of the story...and none of it made sense.

I had repeated things from the beginning, and then had gone off on an, apparently, completely different story. So I spent most of my day figuring out what I could salvage and what I had to toss in the trash bin. It was disheartening and angering, but it taught me a valuable lesson, so I guess there's always that, right?

So even if it means writing a hundred words and not sixteen hundred, that's something. It helps keep storylines in check and remind me who exactly these characters think they are. It's not a mistake I'll make again. Okay, I probably will, but hopefully I'll be able to catch myself before I have almost ten thousand words of confusion.

This is all just at the beginning of NaNo, too. I'll have more difficulties and more complaints and more fury-inducing moments. NaNo is nothing if not emotional. But isn't that what writing is supposed to be?