Tuesday, November 2, 2010

National Novel Writing Month

It's Day 2 of National Novel Writing Month and, yes, I've been writing! It's been a challenge for me to forget all I've been taught and just write. I know, boo hoo hoo for me. But in having a BA in English with a concentration in writing, there are certain things you're taught to do. And certain things you're taught not to. Like what I just did. I'm used to tightening up my prose as I go. When you're writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, you're going for quantity and not quality. Someone on the website joked that December is for editing. The entire point of doing this is to prove that it is possible for anyone to write a novel. 50,000 is technically a novella, but they wanted to make it doable for people that had full time jobs, children, were students, etc. could participate without killing themselves.
I was very upset on November 1st when I woke up with a cold. Well, I was actually upset during the night when I couldn't sleep because my nose wouldn't stop running. At one point I fell asleep with a tissue propped up against my nose. But I was still able to churn out over 1,000 words. In order to stay on track I have to produce around 1700 word a day. Today I made up for yesterday by bringing my two day total up to 3445. I'm actually hoping to finish a week early (glutton for punishment) so I don't have to worry about working on it while home for Thanksgiving.