1,667
Currently reading:
It Came From the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror, edited by Joe Vallese
NaNoWriMo word count: 9,231
[As of Saturday, November 5, at 11pm]
Library updates:
I have a book review due this coming week and another two weeks after. Work has gotten incredibly busy after a fairly quiet summer. I just agreed to do a freelance edit on a project. For the first time in my adult life, I have what I would call “a social life.” And it’s NaNoWriMo, and I have a story I’m working on with the goal of publishing it somewhere on the internet (exact location and drop date TBD).
So, I don’t foresee finishing very many Library books over the next few weeks. And, oh, but I do miss reading for pleasure.
On the upside, as of this writing, we’re four days into NaNoWriMo; it will be six days when this posts on Sunday. For those who don’t know, NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month, an annual event I was introduced to way back in high school. The aim is to write 50,000 words in the month of November, typically focusing on putting a dent in a novel manuscript. If you can get 50,000 words on a page or into a Word doc, the world is your oyster, right?
And——at the risk of jinxing anything——I’m enjoying myself quite a bit! I’ve updated the word count above with my latest number and will continue to do so on each weekly post for November, but if you want to follow my day-by-day progress or just commiserate, find me on the WriMo site here.
I cheated a little and started writing this story before November, though I didn’t have very much by the time NaNoWriMo began. As I mentioned above, my hope is to finish this manuscript—both writing and editing it, with help—and get it online sooner rather than later. It’s just a fun idea that I think (or, rather, hope!) will be able to find traction in the webnovel world, and I’m my main goals for NaNoWriMo 2022 are to: 1) meet the 50,000-word goal and 2) enjoy the ride.
It was not the most auspicious of beginnings on November 1. For one, I was very hungover. For another, I . . . forgot it was the first of November. I only got down about 500 words of the necessary 1667——that’s the number of words you need every day to hit 50k by the end of the month. I figured I would find time to make up the lost ground, but, like many things in my life (things I am in therapy for), “failing” in some capacity on day one almost felt like a reason not to continue at all.
Thankfully, Day 2 was a Wednesday, which meant it was time to make my triumphant return to my weekly writing group! I hadn’t been able to go in quite a long time, thanks mostly to work and also having to see The Faculty on the big screen. I was glad to find that I hadn’t lost my ability to focus and go once we started our quiet hour. I made up the words——and then some (brag)——and have worked hard to keep that enthusiasm and energy going over the last few days.
Again, not to jinx anything, but I feel prepared for NaNoWriMo this year, much more so than I have in years past. And I don’t just mean in terms of the story idea or how much prep work I’ve done, though I do have a long and winding and not very sensical outline ready to go. I just think that the last few months of writing every week at my group, plus my years of editing, have gotten me ready to put my head down and do the work.
Some people might say that “creative work” is an oxymoron. Your creative pursuits or personal hobbies shouldn’t feel like work; they should let you express yourself and free you from the shackles of responsibility. For me, I’ve learned that I need a challenge——or, more commonly, a deadline. I need a goal post to aim for, even if it’s just the end of the outline. I need to get out of my head, stop thinking about what comes after that final date or page, and get the story down.
Editing for so many years now has helped me with this. I just need to get the shit down. I need to shut up and do it. I can worry and refine later. I’ve always left notes for myself in the margins of whatever I’m editing (or in a notebook when the doc is shared). My first editing pass is usually a little more surface-level: cleaning up grammar and punctuation, noting big, obvious problems. I leave so many notes to myself that just read KATIE: ? or KATIE: check later. I try not to let myself stumble on these bumps in the road; I make note of them and move on, so I can give them more attention later.
That’s what I’ve finally learned to do with my writing, too. I used to overthink everything and get bogged down in details, very much unable to see the forest through the trees. If it wasn’t perfect on the first try, why bother continuing? I lost so many NaNoWriMos, abandoned so many projects, because of that mindset.
Now, if I can’t remember exactly when two characters met, or if I’m not sure I’m using quite the right word, or if I think I might hate what I just wrote, I just flag it with a (probably self-deprecating) comment and move on.
The time to fix is later. The time to do the work is now.
Closing thoughts:
Tell me what you’re working on! I mean it. I want to hear about your writing or your sculpting or whatever you’re doing right now. You know where to find me. (Or maybe you don’t——I’m @katielizmcguire everywhere you could possibly want to find me.)
