Was feeling really disheartened after yesterday's lackluster performance.
Not feeling terribly great about today's writing either, but I did make my daily word goal again today. A lot of what I wrote today was my main character thinking. It was a lot of mostly pointless worrying. I can imagine someone reading the book and reaching this point, and thinking, "What went wrong here?" It's all garbage. It's the first true garbage I've written, and about that I'm not happy.
This is probably a good thing. I need to write garbage if I'm going to finish 50,000 words. And at the rate I'm going, I'm going to surpass that before the month is up. For all that garbage is words, and enough words that I feel like I did a good job today, much better than yesterday.
I just have to keep telling myself. Write, even if it's garbage. I keep worrying that what I'm writing is good or not. Mostly I'm happy with it, but I've got to have some bad parts. That's what December's for. And I'm starting to worry that I'm becoming attached to my novel, that I really want it to be good. But, first things first, I have to finish it, and then I can worry about making it good.
Words today: 1,904. Total word count: 25,047. I have officially passed the half-way mark.
"Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted." - Jules Renard
I wandered over from Marc's Daily Writing Practice.
ReplyDeleteYou need to stop beating yourself up, Mr. Walker. The mere fact that you have committed yourself to NaNoWriMo says quite a lot. From what I've read, it almost seems as though writing garbage is the point. Without it, how are we to recognize the good stuff?
People like you and Marc are god-like to me ... the fact that you can take the time to do this makes me quite envious, not to mention I admire the fact that you're gifted enough to do it.
Keep on writing! At the very least, you can say you did it.
Monica,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind words. Mostly I'm really enjoying NaNoWriMo, but I definitely hit a slump there in the second week. From what I've read/heard from others, this is normal; week two is notorious for being difficult. All that enthusiasm and positivity from week one just can't last that long.
I plan on winning. I will have a rough draft of a novel when the month is up, if not before. It may not be a good novel, but it will be a novel that I wrote, and I have every intention of being proud of that accomplishment. But part of me wants to write a good novel too, maybe even one that could be published.
I think you're right about writing garbage. If I know that parts of it are garbage, then that also means that parts of it are good. December will be about editing.
But, first things first: write. Get it done.