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lizvogelSo, it's official: I have signed up for NaNoWriMo this year.
When I started my second novel, I did not get the "can I do it again?" anxiety that many writers apparently experience. I'd done it, so I knew I could do it. But I am getting a little bit of that for NaNo: I should be able to do 50,000 words in a month, because I did it before... but can I do 50,000 good words? Can I make it as fun, quirky, and wacky-enjoyable as the first one?
It doesn't help that I'm coming into this one with the tail end of a cold, still recovering from a gauntlet of stress this year, and with a work schedule that doesn't allow me to clear the boards for nothing but writing (as I did last time). The mountain's not any higher, but starting from a deep hole isn't helping anything.
Still, doing it. What's life without a few challenges, eh?
When I did NaNo the first time, my goal was simply to up my writing speed. And it worked, or at least I proved that I could write that much that fast.
This time, I have two goals. One is to teach myself how to do that kind of output without putting everything else in my life on hold. Obviously writing will have to be a priority for the month, but I'll still have to go to work, there are house projects that can't be entirely abandoned, etc. Other people manage this with more on their plates than I have; time to suck it up and figure out how to do that.
The other goal is to remind myself that writing can be fun. Falling From Ground was a slog beginning to end, and hands-down the hardest thing I've ever written, for reasons I still don't understand. Kitchen Sink was, above all, fun -- to read, and some of the time even to write. Lightning Strikes Twice should be fun, too. A different kind of fun in some ways, being a revisiting of old friends instead of making up new ones, but still a fast-paced romp of absurdity, spies, and grammar jokes.
I can do this. I can even have fun doing this. Watch me.
When I started my second novel, I did not get the "can I do it again?" anxiety that many writers apparently experience. I'd done it, so I knew I could do it. But I am getting a little bit of that for NaNo: I should be able to do 50,000 words in a month, because I did it before... but can I do 50,000 good words? Can I make it as fun, quirky, and wacky-enjoyable as the first one?
It doesn't help that I'm coming into this one with the tail end of a cold, still recovering from a gauntlet of stress this year, and with a work schedule that doesn't allow me to clear the boards for nothing but writing (as I did last time). The mountain's not any higher, but starting from a deep hole isn't helping anything.
Still, doing it. What's life without a few challenges, eh?
When I did NaNo the first time, my goal was simply to up my writing speed. And it worked, or at least I proved that I could write that much that fast.
This time, I have two goals. One is to teach myself how to do that kind of output without putting everything else in my life on hold. Obviously writing will have to be a priority for the month, but I'll still have to go to work, there are house projects that can't be entirely abandoned, etc. Other people manage this with more on their plates than I have; time to suck it up and figure out how to do that.
The other goal is to remind myself that writing can be fun. Falling From Ground was a slog beginning to end, and hands-down the hardest thing I've ever written, for reasons I still don't understand. Kitchen Sink was, above all, fun -- to read, and some of the time even to write. Lightning Strikes Twice should be fun, too. A different kind of fun in some ways, being a revisiting of old friends instead of making up new ones, but still a fast-paced romp of absurdity, spies, and grammar jokes.
I can do this. I can even have fun doing this. Watch me.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-Oct-28, Sunday 07:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-Oct-30, Tuesday 03:38 pm (UTC)(The cold is doing that stupid lingery thing that colds tend to do with me, which is still sapping my energy levels, but with nasal spray and tea I'm functional. I don't promise not to give one of my characters a horrible head cold, however.)