Thoughts as we near the end.

One week ago today, I drove myself to the store to buy a case of Diet Mtn Dew, then I shut myself in and wrote. And wrote, wrote, wrote.

It's not a method I would recommend trying to employ long term but if you're way behind on a deadline, it's surely effective. There's nothing quite like spending a solid 15+ hours immersed in your story. My dog hated it, of course and she's been edgy ever since, barking at me if I go too long without paying attention to her.

On Sunday I struggled to write anything at all, though I managed a thousand words or so. Yesterday it was the same thing. So there's that to consider as well before you go out and decide to write a novel in three days. I suppose that's why they give you a whole month.

My experience did reaffirm in my mind that bailing on my bad idea was the right decision. I don't think I could possibly have banged out 17,000 words in one day if I were still working on the first idea.

Now Thanksgiving has passed and I'm trying to get back into a steady writing routine, which is hard since I'm not at home and thus none of my other routines are in place.The deadline of November 30th is looming in my mind, terrifying all my muses into hushed murmurs but I know that I'll get there.

I wrote before about it being okay to edit while you write. I hold fast to what I meant by that but I've been experiencing the other side of the coin this past week. Wanting to delete instead of alter. Don't delete! Keep your words. You may completely abandon the scene later or you might find something you can salvage from it. In the middle of your first draft don't just go slashing and burning because you don't like something. Especially when you're participating in a word count challenge.

Clearly my thoughts are kind of scattered today and they have been ever since I fried my brain with my write-athon. I think there are important lessons to be learned from that kind of experience and I'm still trying to sort them all out and see how best to apply them in my every day writing life. Hopefully it will all make sense to me soon and I will be able to write about it with some coherency.

How's your NaNo coming? Are you going to make it?

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