Howdy,
#NaNoWriMo (550) — Day Done
Well, Happy December to you!
I know I’m a day late on saying it — but, trust me, I’d been very aware of the calendar flopping over with a lit puff of magical Holiday dust … Christmas!!
End of National Novel Writing Month!
Thanks for following this last month: here’s my recap and reflection of my #NaNoWriMo-lite foray.
Stated yesterday: amazing how 30 story-writing days blazed by so fast.
This, though, is not to say there weren’t days to slug through (I do and I don’t mean slog, because we’re about to talk throwing punches! Like slug bug, but being bugged slogging like a slug — sorry, allowed to type on this keyboard without oversight, I can’t help it): those sit-downs feeling like both sealed in a concrete cell and flailing to punch through oft-said bag of wet paper.
Weak wet paper bag butterfly dance — avoiding the fight more than setting up striking — because I’d already busted through many consecutive days: reaching the far side of a day written shouldn’t stand so resistant.
In the ring of the writing, though, for only a few of the days, the punches against story and the words to write it turned into a mental hunt and peck push.
Man …
Check the words count …
Check the clock …
Man …
“Sorry, Babe, I’m almost done.” Then I thought, I said that a bit back. “Goodnight.”
Man … keep pecking away.
Aside from all the other life, which I write about, the only clock was the month, National Novel Writing Mo. That, and word count within story.
And I hadn’t set my timer for a full novel.
Which is why I’ve called this experiment experience my own version of NaNoWriMo, or #NaNoWriMo (550), or the Hawes version of NaNoWriMo, or NaNoWriMo-lite.
Lite, however, was just right.
And why I unabashedly call it a success. A month’s triumph, and as I wrote yesterday when wrapping, by word count I’ve reached a legit novella. Woo-hoo!
The month of composing story was a good push, a good practice. It was an experiment with storyboard: with real work ahead for shuffling, cut, keeping, smoothing out, etc. …
November drafting pace and goal was freedom for mistakes.
I engaged a test of trying to believe that I couldn’t make mistakes. Not in this format. Taking on the #nanowrimo mojo granted me, myself, and I permission to write fast, chasing story on the fly, able to push any idea, to “jumple” (that’s a typo which now means jump and jumble, an apt description of what I became willing to do.)
Typos are mistakes … YET such rushed sloppiness can be cleaned up. Or used.
Character leaps in sequenced posts are mistakes … YET sequences can be changed and leaps sanded into a smoother storyline. Or used later.
All this, clearly part of the deal.
It’s not that I didn’t make mistakes; it’s just that with my mistakes made I now have material and directions to pursue and — not to perfect — to polish.
Maybe I have one story in the making: maybe seeds for five. With future mistakes, maybe five times five.
No doubt this craft callings for periods of more time for deeper thought and development, but it’s also been good to go for it with #nanowrimo permission to let it fly.
And, yeah, I’m a day late, but Happy December to you!
Oh, and our kitchen calendar is magic … Magnets!
Sliding onto a new month.
—Billy
Reading. Writing. Living.
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