Wow. I’m not sure how the month (and thus NaNoWriMo) snuck up on me this quickly, but tonight is the kickoff!
Halloween was weird, because of social distancing. We had about half the normal mid-week visitors, which is about a quarter of what I would have expected for a Saturday Halloween. The kids enjoyed it, but the neighbors set out trays with candy rather than handing it over directly. I wasn’t sure if we’d get anyone at all. (Some of the kids especially appreciated picking which type of candy they got.) Only one kid grabbed more than one piece, which was a surprise.
It’s time to start a new draft. This is my eighth year, and my seventh doing this event with this particular region. I’m thrilled to be working on this particular project, and I’m sure I’ll have a draft at the end of the month. I’m confident I’ll hit the 50k, and then some. After all, I’ve made that goal every November I’ve tried.
I did not finish the prep work I wanted to do. I was working through the second half of the second act, and I had a really nice idea. All the potential for Act One and Act Three, though, are things I wish I could realize now rather than wait until writing the words begins, which would have allowed me to focus more on the planning once these parts of the story were committed.
It has made me realize that my process might be more iterative. Make big story decisions, draft things out, iterate on the unsettled parts, draft them out, until there’s a full first draft. I’ll have to try a project like that (and, in effect, I am doing that now because half of Act Two is still a giant blank with a big, blinking question I need to answer). If that’s my process, it’s going to make future NaNoWriMo participation more difficult. After all, the idea is to focus solely on the words for the month, and that’s a solved problem. For me.
You know, this should be under a category called “NaNoWriMo Whining”.
Anyway!
I hope that if you’re participating, you’re as excited to get started as I am. And maybe a little terrified to embark on this wild adventure! It’s worth it! You learn a lot, about yourself, about writing, and about your story. If you participate in a region, you’ll probably meet some fun people, too!
Welcome aboard! Full speed ahead, 50k is not as far away as it looks right now!