Goatmoose

Sadly, an entire month has passed since anything was updated on this site.  It started out a busy month, as the NaNoWriMo competition was occupying all my free after-work time.  I was making solid progress and by the second week I was nearing 20,000 words.  Then, after a few days of being busy with other things, my grandmother passed away.  That took up a few days’ time and now I’ve found myself at the end, November 30th, having no more words than I did on November 15th.  The contest officially ends here in Pittsburgh in 4.5 hours, and I’m 30,000 words short.

Fortunately, I don’t feel like a loser.

The point of NaNoWriMo isn’t to create the perfect novel in 30 days.  As the pep-talks from published authors and contest organizers constantly remind us, it’s not even about writing a good book in 30 days.  In fact, writing a good book in 30 days is nearly impossible.  The purpose of the contest is to get words on “paper,” out of our minds and into a place where they can be worked with and altered.  It’s about the community that helps motivate people to write, and to keep writing.  It’s about getting people started doing something that is so easy to procrastinate with and put off.  Trust me, I’ve been putting off seriously working on a novel since I was ten.

The fact that I got as far into my story in 15 days as I did was a great accomplishment for me.  It changed tone and altered its plot several times from when I started, and I still have no idea where it’ll end up.  NaNoWriMo got me started, and being as far into the story as I am, I have a great deal of motivation to finish.  People know I started the book.  I told them.  They were interested.  To stop now would be failure.  Not finishing by November 30th has nothing to do with it.

So, while I would have loved to have hit that golden 50,000 word mark within the next four hours – it simply won’t happen this year.  Perhaps next year things will be different.  Either way, I’ve got a solid start, and I thank the competition for the boost.  Now I can set a personal goal of finishing by Christmas.