Over the last six months, work on my novel-in-progress has ground to a halt. After banging out the first hundred pages between January and April of this year, I’ve since managed to add about five pages. Without having found divine inspiration or six extra hours a day, I have been seriously considering outsourcing my notes to Craigslist and editing the results down into something I can slap my name on.
My friend Guy sent me a link last week and asked if I would be taking part in National Novel Writing Month, a ‘write your ass off with abandon’ program that encourages participants to finish a 50,000 word book in the month of November. Considering my average monthly word count these days is around 75, it seemed preposterous.
Then again, what the hell. I know my habit of writing, revising and staring at the same sentence for days at a time does not equal progress, so why not throw it all at the kitchen sink and see what gets left behind? NoNoWriMo offers no prizes or awards for hitting the target, but I am quite susceptible to bribery and impossible tasks. Here’s a running account of my progress.
November 1st – 1,500 words
Got together with my Saturday writing partner Grace downtown. Writing with Grace is always easy, so I’m curious to see how tomorrow goes when I’m on my own.
November 2nd – 2,000 words
Snuck out of the house after brunch and before the end of the Cowboys/Giants game. Tucked in to a local coffeeshop. In about 90 minutes I scribbled down around 2,000 words. Things are going so well, I am thinking about going back to the computer tomorrow to see how I do there.
November 3rd – 20 words
Left my writing until the end of the day and tried to typey type. Too many distractions. Watched the stock market move around and highlights of yesterday’s games. It’s back to long hand tomorrow.
November 4th – 805 words
Many many barriers to writing. Had a head cold. Work ran long. Spent the evening with Mikey and his gamer wife Darryl playing Resistance 2. I excused myself for an hour to try and get a few pages done. Wrote a couple of nice paragraphs, but had to leave a blank space where one scene transitions into another. Boy is there going to be a lot of clean up on this.
We also watched election returns. Shortly after Obama was declared the winner, I got this email via my friend Pierre:
We no longer suck it.
Love,
America
November 5th – 300 words
Head cold matured and had to run an errand out of town. Then went to an event reception my wife co-chaired and came home early. Wrote a few words before passing out. The word count trauma is less surprising than how busy I seem to be. I could have sworn I never do anything…
November 6th – 1,500 words
Waited until the end of the day to really get into it, but at least added a few pages to the tally. I’ve noticed that if I write when I’m tired, I use the end of a thought or an upcoming break in the action as a goal. When I’m writing without any specific deadline in mind, I tend to move all over the place, which sometimes leads to some new ideas. Nothing earth shattering here mind you. Just sharing.
November 7th – 865 words
Internal dialogue: “You’re not taking this seriously.” “Yes I am.” “No you’re not.” “I plan to write more next week.” “The point of this exercise is to write as much as you can in one month, not catch up in a week.” “I’m going to bed now.”
Week One Total – 7,000 words
November 8th – 2,200 words
Thanks Grace!
November 9th – 1,579 words
I could have written a lot more today. But sometimes you need to get groceries. And scrub the tub. And dust off the night table. And change the sheets, and fix the drawers, and broken windows, oh my.
November 10th – 1,600 words
Started off on an unknown path that ended up somewhere good. I’m pretty sure the framework of this scene will make the final cut, but most of the dialogue will probably have to go. Again, could have written more today, but was preparing for…
November 11th – n/a
Rock and Roll Means Well – Toronto
November 12th – n/a
Rock and Roll Means Well – Pittsburgh
Pls. note: I am posted under paperlion. Any board references to Canadians in this thread generally means me. I verify the accuracy of just about every show review. Especially Nightclub Dwight and the double fingered dance.
November 13th – n/a
Returned triumphant and injury-free from our trip to the Unified Scene. But six hours of driving and 3rd degree dehydration don’t contribute to a creative environment. Thanks for the visit Richard!
November 14th – 942 words
Was in a very foul mood. Started off at a good clip, but was very distracted by other thoughts. I did write about 1,500 words, but many of them were in unrelated exercises so I’m not counting them here.
Week Two Total – 6,321 words
November 15th – 1,779 words
Half writing session / half social get-together as Liam came out to join me and Grace for the first time in three weeks. I came up with and wrote a set piece that felt really strong. It wasn’t part of my outline, but I think it will make the final cut with few revisions.
November 16th – 1,957 words
Finished a scene that was half good / half something else. Would have liked to have written more, but didn’t want to be late for the matinee of Dirty Dancing, the Musical. No one puts Baby in a corner!
November 17th – 2,907 words
What an odd day. Felt lousy, but wrote a lot. Biggest day in terms of volume, but probably the worst in terms of quality. Not much will remain from today’s writing, yet I have managed to solve a plot point that has been bothering me for six months. I guess you’d better love the process, ’cause there ain’t much else.
November 18th – 2,291 words
Today, arrived at a scene that I have been envisioning in my head for years. Didn’t come out as beautifully as I hoped, but with over a decade’s worth of anticipation, there’s no way it could have. But it’s out there now, and it’s real. That has a certain beauty all of its own.
November 19th – 0 words
Client meeting. Snow. Flu bug. Bah. Would have had to end up writing in the evening, but by that point just couldn’t find the strength.
November 20th – 0 words
New client pitch for Mikey’s start-up company. Spent most of the day riding the transit, or at least it felt that way. By the time I got home and took care of work-work, it was evening already and by that point…well, I wasn’t surprised.
November 21st – 1,684 words
Snowy and -17 degrees with the windchill, yet I fought my way through the elements for two hours of afternoon writing. I think that this project, like Scrabble, should allow double word counts for certain conditions. Like braving temperatures below -15 with the wind chill.
Week Three Total – 10,618 words
November 22nd – 0 words
Flu.
November 23rd – 0 words
Flu.
November 24th – 2,422 words
Flu and I made a temporary truce and I got some writing done in the evening. Not the best time to write. My head was so pumped with ideas, I didn’t end up falling asleep until nearly 3:00am. This predictably led to…
November 25th – 0 words
Return of the flu.
November 26th – 2,321 words
Wrote on my own for a bit, then did a session with Liam and Grace. Was so close to finishing a big section that I picked up the pen when I got back home and wrote until about 12:30m. Another bizarre moment. I’ve known for 10 years how I wanted to end this section of the book, but to see it written out is just surreal.
November 27th – 1,495 words
Finished an outstanding scene from Chapter 2, and then got ready to start Chapter Three. Here’s the thing – I don’t have any notes on how the book ends. I mean, I know what happens in my mind, but through all my years of scribbles and printouts, I have no overall outline for the last third of the book. So I started working on this tonight. I’d like to have this done before continuing.
November 28th – done
Continued working on the outline for Chapter 3, but there’s no way I’m going to finish it this weekend. So I’m calling the NoNoWriMo experiment complete, and a huge success.
Over the last four weeks I have written 80 pages, finished the middle third of my book, and have brought the once dormant novel project back to life. This weekend I will finish the outline for Chapter 3, and go back to writing it daily beginning on Monday.
The lessons learned here were pretty simple. I can write consistently without the fear of writer’s block if I:
- work away from home
- write in long-hand
- set aside at least 90 minutes each day
Thanks to Guy for the suggestion, and thanks to Liam & Grace for inching me along.
Final Word Count – 30,117 words
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