NaNoWriMo: My Incomplete Success

First the bad news: My novel remains unfinished. I didn’t meet my goal of 50,000 words by November 30. And I’m alright with that. In fact, I’ll be fine with it but not yet—hat’s coming.

And the good news: While I was disappointed in myself for not finishing, I know what stopped me. Now, it’s not that I have good excuses because I don’t. I just learned more about me and the land mines I allowed to stop me. Tells me a lot about what to look out for next time. Yes, there will be a next time.

The other good thing that came of this effort was that I learned that I still have the passion to write long pieces of fiction. And, my biggest take–away is that I have the beginning of a novel that I really like. So, while I didn’t make my deadline, I’m still going to write the novel.

2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge

The poems are done! I finished them on time even though I got a little behind a few times in the month. That was quite thrilling for me but that’s only half the project.

The rest of the challenge lies in completing the poem edits and submitting them before January 5, 2010. If you would like to read the poems visit the roundup on my page the 2009 PAD November Chapbook Challenge, under the Poems main tab.

This project was very much worth the effort. I learned that I have the strength to let poems go out into the cosmos of cyber space. I trust my editing more. Not that it’s all that good, but that I know how to carve out and leave in what reflects me. I make what works for me and offer it up to others to enjoy or not.

Making changes on the fly, working to find the right words came easy and hard depending on different factors—but the changes came. I’ll be exploring in more detail what I got out of these activities. Come back and check it out. Tell me about your writing project experiences.

By the way, I would have finished this post yesterday but my brain was a lot fried from the challenges. I didn’t have my sea legs back yet. Or would that be sea fingers? As a bonafide landlubber, I’m not even sure I have permission to say that. At any rate, I’m better today.

©2009 Shari Lynne Smothers

This is a short Haiku to convey my rising anxiety about the projects I’ve taken on.

I can deal with being three poems behind–on  a regular day. But, because I’ve taken on NaNoWriMo and I’m very far behind, my anxiety is reaching  a feverish pitch.

My writing could well be over for NaNoWriMo, except the characters are still alive in my head. I’ve got all these ideas and twists and I let time get away from me. Well, I let family and events get in the way, cardinal November sin.

Ultimately, I’m not out of the game until November 30th. So, with ideas still to record, creativity still flowing, I need to open their creative outlet. I’ll take these last eight days and make the best of it.

Some people say that they don’t write with an outline. I get that. It was great fun letting my characters meet new characters, and watching them evolve. However, I’m learning what I can and cannot do regarding leaving them their own devices.

In short order I’ve managed to get a good bit behind in my writing. However, I have good reason. I needed to go back and do some mapping. It turns out that these characters with lives and personalities still need some guidance. Especially if I’m going to get them to the point of fulfilling my ideas.

Even if it turns out that the story ends up someplace different from my idea, I still need the frame to work in. If a story line more plausible than mine presents itself, then I’ll just be grateful.

Brainstorming

To further my novel before getting hopeless behind, a few days ago, I worked up a frame to give me the structure I needed. It includes things that I’d never thought of before, and possibly over-thought for this. We’ll see.

My brainstorming yielded:

• a time line
• calendar of events
• useful characters to make sense of the plot
• details to flesh out the story

Benefits of brainstorming at this point:

• I see events to develop and characters to make it happen
• Knowing what events and activities may be left out
• Confidence to go forward because I know what forward is

Everything is fluid and therefore negotiable. This novel writing is an interesting experience. At just over 10,000 words now, this is the farthest I’ve ever gone in writing a novel. And even unedited, this is exciting and satisfying.

Still, I thought of things that I want to change and am really fighting not to go back and change them. I’ve made notes of what to change and if I finish early, then I’ll go back to revise. Otherwise, I’ll leave the notes for revision time, starting December 2009.

So, this is my update for now. I still have a few thousand words to write this afternoon. And I’ll likely be writing into the night because family is coming over soon. But, since I’m still having a blast, it’s my pleasure to keep going—to learn what comes next.

Are you having as much fun as me? Learning new things about how novel writing works for you? I invite you to share, leave a comment.

Poets know that poems are songs, but few of us realize that novels are too.

~ from Walter Mosely’s book, This Year You Write Your Novel

Although I don’t hear it quite clearly, I’m definitely going with the flow of something. There are rhythms to the actions of the characters. Even as I try to steer them, they move those individual cadences. So, I have to let them go in hopes of keeping them believable.

Otherwise they are contrived and unbelievable. Contrived characters in stories can be painful to read. Characters that are made to do things contrary to their nature, just to make something else fit, are really annoying. As my story works itself out, I’m on guard to respect the rhythms.

What do you look for as you write a novel? Are there sticking things in books that put you off?

The 6 characters I met on the first day, must have been waiting in the wings, because they were not on my first list. One of those new characters emerged as a possible transformation subject, which would make her a major player. Needless to say, it was really nice to meet her. She was very round right off the bat so I’ll definitely let her do her thing.

Day 2 revealed more about the plot and the big news and big secret (yet to be revealed to me).

Day 3 is working out to be a transition day. I’ve learned useful things about my writing process. Some of them I won’t be able to use until tomorrow:

1. Writing for hours, chasing my imagination across the page is fun
2. It’s easy to let other important tasks get my attention, (case in point, yesterday’s short progress – only 1,024 words)
3. It helps to de-claw my inner critic by saying I know this will suck but I’m moving forward anyway
4. Writing before work requires early rising that I’m still struggling with (should’ve practiced that in October)
5. I still get distracted by a good Saints football game, (gotta be on guard for that)

I’ve got more work assignments to complete, then get a late lunch before I get to writing. I definitely want to flip this order for tomorrow. When do you do your first writing of the day?

I’m excited about my first day’s progress! Having written 3,001 words is a good sign. And although the writing still feels foreign, I’m getting more familiar with the characters. They have traits and quirks that are filling out the frames I thought up for each of them. My new character are interesting, too.

While I managed to think of some ideas before today and started in that direction, the characters have places to take me. I’ll follow them for a bit and see how it plays out. Today they took me to a Deli near their office, and I met two office workers that weren’t on my list and one that was in my head. So, two and a half came through, plus some minor characters showed up to round out the personality of my lead character. What an adventure!

Shortly, I’ll post my poem for today. I looked for a prompt but didn’t see one. So, I’ll just post random poems like usual, increased to one a day, of course.

Tomorrow, work will intrude on my writing, and other life stuff that I must allow. To keep up with the demands of these writing projects, I’ll sacrifice daily updates on my progress. So, watch my progress meters in the sidebar to see my progress. For those of you who are participating, enjoy!

If you need to track words, pages, poems (my other endeavor in November), these are customizable enough to let you post the color and the titles you wish to use.

The other meters I found are over at The Word ‘Mage Blog, my work blog site. Check them all out and see which works best for you. Novel writing word count and the poem count, my giant emoticon counting character; what more could I want?

Whether you call them progress meters or word count trackers,  take advantage of these tools and you’ll covered for November and beyond. Have fun getting ready!

What I was going to tell you before my distraction was that I’m going to try NaNoWriMo again this year. Last year I signed up and didn’t get much further than that. Last year, I signed up on November 1, and fell apart shortly thereafter.

This year I gave myself a little more warning, little more time for self-talk, tools and ideas. Time to play around with the endeavor and sort of slide into next month like it was any other November.

Since November 7 is my birthdate, and that’s so close to the year’s end, I try to set goals for conclusion by that date. I figured that it’s so early in the month, my novel writing can be minimal (1666.67 daily to meet the 50,000 requirement by November 30) until the 7th and then I can go all out. That was the plan.

Poetry Interrupted

This blog is a hodgepodge of my less constrained proclivities and inspirations. The main reason I started it was so that I’d have a place to put the more random machinations I claim. First on the list is poetry. I enjoy writing poems, and this is my place to put the ones I’m willing to share. Pictures are included and writing in other genres, but poetry got me started here. And poetry is the reason I’m adjusting my plans for next month.

I read a tweet from @inkyelbows and had to check it out. Here’s what I found: Poetic Asides: 2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge.

Yes, November—2009—next month. Overlap city, right? Here’s the thing though; both can suck. It’s not about achieving final-draft quality in a first draft. It’s about reaching the quantity goal. There’ll be time for editing after November.

Poetry is the stuff that sustains me. I give myself the task of writing a poem a day sometimes for weeks or months. So I know it can yield some useful material. Besides, it was on my list of stuff to do this year. And, although I was planning to postpone a new collection again,  I’ve had a second thought.

Just Do It

Without giving it too much room to scare me, I’m committing to both! C’est la vie, c’est la guerre. If I have to avoid family and friends in my spare time for one project, I may as well do it for the other too. Besides, it’ll be great to see just what I’m made of. [I could use a smiley face here.]

And I’ve been practicing and preparing to get it done. I’ve been working on my typing stamina, and playing around with ideas and scenarios. I’ve never written a novel, so the wow factor is good for a few boosts throughout the month. So it should work out.

Coming soon is my Writing page. That’s what was scheduled for today. On that page, I’ll post the cool meters I’ll be using for my progress. Here’s where you can add me at NaNoWriMo: Shari Lynne Smothers. Come check me out, cheer me on, or tease. I’m doing this! What are you doing for November?