Thursday, November 5, 2015

No No NaNo

Go ahead, Olivia. Admit it. @NaNoWriMo’s a bust. Today is Day Five and already you are four days behind.



The problem? I can’t seem to summon the oomph to take the leap forward, to write the second half of Book Two until Book One rewrites are complete.

Dagnabbit.

This was NOT the plan, but the more I lean in to the (overly-optimistic) @NaNoWriMo plan – to complete beta edits/rewrites on Book One, then pound out the second half of Book Two – the harder it is to comply. Hell. The harder it is to even get NEAR my laptop. And the more frightening the scope of my story becomes.

What to do? What to do?

The logical? Remove the NaNo chains, forge ahead with Book One rewrites, then tackle Book Two with whatever month is left.

The star-reacher? Keep the NaNo commitment, forge ahead with Book One, then continue on with Book Two, driving myself in front of the NaNo whip to pound out 50K words in whatever time is left.

I could do this. Time-wise, I could. But my muse (and apparently the stars) are not on board. I’m not feeling it. Writing is torturous. Plodding. One paragraph at a time. The joy is gone. I want to see a movie. Go shopping. Anything to avoid both manuscripts.

So now what?

I've been writing long enough to know the answer. Whether I like it or not, I must give in to the muse. Without her, this writer is nothing. Without her, the story languishes. So “logical” it is.

To wit: I hereby (unofficially) remove the NaNo chains and give my muse free rein to do as she will. AND in that vein, I will keep showing up to Book One rewrites until more is revealed.

~ Olivia J. Herrell

4 comments:

  1. Sounds like you made the best decision. I hope your Muse appreciates it.
    ;)

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  2. I think so, she's been hanging out some, so yay for that. Slow headway is better than no headway. A lot better!

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  3. I debated this as well. I decided to do NaNoWriMo *if* I finished my rewrites by November 1. I finished them November 18. "Oh well," I thought, "it is as it was meant to be." Then my friend Clare Flynn blogged about how much fun she was having, plowing ahead with her story like a drunken sailor on payday. Oh well--next year (fingers crossed).

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  4. I think it should not seem to summon the oomph to take the leap forward, to write the second half of Book Two until Book One rewrites are complete. Thanks for the post and everything will run smoothly next.

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