NaNoWriMo 2013: The Sophomore Slump

So I did it again. I subjected myself to 30 days of committed writing on a singular work, and I wrote a large part of a novel. I went into NaNoWriMo this year with a few different goals some of which I achieved and some of which I failed to fulfill. My main goals were as follows: 

1. No literary fiction this time. I wanted to try something outside of my wheelhouse.  
2. 2000 words a day for total of 60K (last year's goal was 50K)
3. A multi-perspective story

Things Shouldn't Be So Hard

This makes me smile. 

I think I'm nearing the completion of my first novel. I don't really know when to stop editing it or when to start sending it off to try and to find a publisher or an agent (I'm obviously floundering). I've slowly made my way through the novel a few times, I'm getting feedback from friends--who are too positive with their comments, and I'm getting sick of working on it. But I know I have to push on. After beginning to research the publishing process, I've quickly become overwhelmed with the idea of selling my novel. Because publishing is not about my lofty aspirations, nor is it about some semi-autobiographical theme in my book; it's about sales. And I don't know if what I've wrote is marketable.

I don't even know if it's good.

I've been away working on my novel...and other stuff

So I've been away from my blog for a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been writing (I say that so that my imagined readers will stop judging me for not posting anything as if you're all just dying to read my thoughts). Most of my writing time has actually been spent editing my NaNo novel, which is currently a second draft. When I wrote that last sentence, it made me sound as if I've been diligently working on my novel since I started editing it in January, but that I would be a lie. I've worked on it in spurts, and I've been living life, playing (too many) video games , watching (too much) TV , and reading (too few) books.

NaNoWriMo - IT IS FINISHED

DAY 22, 23 & 24

So I've totally been keeping up with my NaNo daily goals all Thanksgiving Break, but I've been doing all the family stuff and traveling that goes with Thanksgiving. So if you're one of the few who are interested in me writing a novel and how I'm going about doing that, then I'm going to give one big update for the last five days. 

I've pretty much solidified how many chapters are in my book and how I'm dividing those chapters. I've decided to use the days of a week as an organizational structure following my protagonist through his seven day vacation home. I've drafted the first five days completely. I've outlined the last two days and I'm just writing the days as they happen.

NaNoWriMo - Week 3 is my B

DAY 15

Morning: My morning writing is pretty much the same everyday. I wrote about 500 words.

Afternoon: After school, I stuck around and typed about 1,100 words. I worked on some flashback stuff from the father's perspective. I actually wrote the scene from my protagonist's perspective, but I wasn't paying attention because I wanted to write from the father's perspective. So I had to copy and paste and do some major edits to flip the perspective.

NaNoWriMo - Week 2 is Over

DAY 8

Morning: I kept up with my normal 500-600 words during my planing period. I do some of my best writing in the morning. I wish I had more time to write before school. I'm developing my first female character which is nice. I find that writing as fast as possible is the best way to find out how a character really thinks. It's funny how sometimes my own characters surprise me. I had one of those, "Okay, so that's how she's going to be. I can work with that" moments.

NaNoWriMo - Week 1 is Complete!

So I started writing my novel today. I actually started a few days ago just to get some ideas down. But I want to chronicle the victories and defeats of my first attempt at writing a novel (in a month, no less). So a lot of this blogging will be concise. I want to keep up with the when and how and what I'm doing during this month. I'm writing this in conjunction with the goal of 1667 words a day, so things may get a little sloppy or a short. Forgive me. I will not be editing this much. Also, I normally don't try to post mundane occurrences on my blog, but I think a lot of this will be a little on the mundane. But maybe I'll have some cool revelation or something.

NaNooooooooooooooo!

I'm doing it. I'm going to participate in National Novel Writing Month. I've avoided it for the last 2 years. I've sidestepped students who do nothing but encourage me to participate  I've excused my way out of doing it. But, hey my pal Derek said it best, "Worst case scenario, you write one page, put it down, and none will be the wiser. Best case scenario, it's the motivation you lack and you become a best-selling novelist." I've got nothing to lose and it would be nice to become a best selling author, but I'm getting ahead of myself. I want to write a novel. I've wanted to write a novel for a few years, but I've never mustered the internal strength, nor I have been able to silence my fears of sucking, to move forward. So here is my attempt at making it official. I'm doing it.