Mental Meanderings

Preparing for NaNo

This year I’m planning to enter the National Novel Writing Month challenge. I learnt of NaNoWriMo in December 2004 when it had, of course, just finished. But I remembered the incredible challenge in October the following year and signed up. It was a tough month with turgid emotions, the ups and downs of my cycles sending me crazy along with the anxiety of having so much responsibility. But my life was buzzing at that point and it was very exciting to be producing so prolifically. In the March before I’d managed to complete the first draft of my novel, The Dating Game in approximately six weeks although the first draft was fewer words it was a solid chunk of writing I was very proud of. I thought NaNoWriMo was an opportunity to produce similar results.

It was tough and I didn’t manage to complete the recommended daily word count. Thankfully there were many occasions I wrote over the recommended limit and so had caches to fall back on. In the last week I crammed perhaps 20,000 words on top of the 30,000 I already had and managed to complete the challenge. Of course, I’m terrified to look at the results as I’m very certain they are dismal. Perhaps someday soon I should read it cover to cover and see if there is anything worth salvaging from the debrie. I do recall that the first chapter was inspiring. I loved writing it. Perhaps if nothing else is redeemable that chapter could be put to use somewhere, sometime in the future.

This year I’m waving between subjects to focus upon. Last year I’d started it as Child of the Storm and the idea delved away completely from what instigated the topic. This year the dream that created the title of last years still visits me and I’ve considered trying again. There are other options however, such as something I started plotting late last month that is a drama of a woman who’s suppressed by culture and upbringing but yearns for more. It would be a story of her growth and the trials and tribulations in her life where she eventually breaks free of the restraints of her upbringing and achieves her dreams.

Those two plots are primary in my mind at the moment but I also wonder if I should focus on another romance. Romance is a genre I’d like to earn my bread in. I’d like to produce perhaps one romance novel a year and in between those focus on high fantasy. There is a romance publisher I adore that I’m sure would eventually take me up and they pay reasonably that one romance a year would probably give me a stable income to venture into other genres with a safety net of sorts. That’s assuming I can write one a year.

Meanwhile, November 1st is not very far away and between now and then I really should decide what to write about. Perhaps none of the above will be the final outcome. I know last year I went off on a completely unexpected tangent. I blame the lack of plotting for that and feel like it was a mistake to go in so unprepared. This year I’d like to have more preparation. Of course, there are so many other things I’m working on that need to get done first and foremost. I need to write more lists.

Sometimes I wonder how I manage to accomplish anything at all. I mean even this for example was supposed to be my Daily Writing Challenge entry. However I’ve rambled on and on so it’s way too many words. So I’ve tossed it in as a blog entry instead and will scrap and just write a basic NaNo entry for DWC. Meanwhile, hope you enjoyed my ramble.