NaNo Uh-ohs

About this time last week, I grudgingly admitted that this year’s NaNoWriMo attempt was again going to end in failure.  Disappointing as this is for me, I had a ready-made list of reasons why this year’s endeavor was not going to work.

• No planning time.  I spent most of the spare moments in the month prior to our move packing and getting ready for the move, not in plot or character development.
• Late start.  We were moving during the start of NaNo and did not get into our house until the 7th due to various delays.  During the next week, it was spent getting the house in order rather than sitting down and writing.
• Uninteresting characters and a non-existent plot.  When I actually did sit down to write, it was purely from whatever was going on in my head at the time.  Some people may believe that a writer can sit down and whisk off a story over morning coffee and spend the rest of the day in a contemplative reverie or trading witty bon mots with other writerly sorts.  Maybe this happens somewhere, but I need a bit of structure to work with.  A blank page is not a good place for me to start writing a story.  I need lots of wobbly bits of paper with weird phrases or character names, scribbled nonsensical words and an outline of some sort.
• An amazing amount of paperwork that needed to be done for our move, most of it unanticipated.
• Doctor’s appointments that had to be attended, and also the birthing classes which recently started this month.

Add in the trips to the Cities which needed to be made and a couple of hockey games for me to play, it all added up and whittled my time away, an odd thought seeing that I would have this time to actually work on a book.

Except it’s nearly all bullshit.  They are all excuses of why I didn’t get to the magic 50,000 words again this year.  If you think about it, there are a lot of other writers out there who find the time between their jobs, kids, other obligations and just get the job done.  I really admire those people, the people that can just write something from sheer force of will, find the time and sit down and write.

This weekend, I began to think of what it was that held me back from getting to the goal this year.  Part of what I wrote above is true.  A blank page is very intimidating to me.  I need to plan out what is going to happen to a point.  I often deviate from the plan, but the structure is there and I can work from a mere shell of a story.  I sometimes need to do something for character sketches, but with me, the character often reveals itself during my writing.  It isn’t the area in which I need to concentrate.  My attention turned from what might be the problem to what actually works for me.

And the one thing that works for me is making sure that I’m writing with other writers.  I can’t deny it.  My first few years were successful because I got lucky and found three people who I connected with, understood and made great progress toward just getting something on paper.  I did not have that these last few years.  Ironically, if we would have stayed in D.C., I could have written with my friends Grace and Annie (and some others that I hadn’t met yet but were giving it a go) and that might have been the support which really could have come in handy.  Moving to a familiar area, but yet an area in which getting together with other writers would have taken a significant investment of time in the drive alone was pretty daunting.  Nearly three hours on the road was just too much for me to take from the day.

However, as November draws to a close, I do not consider this a complete failure for NaNo.  I know my weaknesses now and what I must do to successfully write.  One of the things that I don’t do well is write stories by myself (blogging doesn’t count as I never have a problem with writing stuff that is just personal opinion), yet it is the thing I have to do.  To do this, I have a daily time in which I will do my writing…no matter what.  This is now my job.  I’m going to treat it like a job as well.  I have to be at my “desk” to get to work and put my time in.  I will have good days and I will have bad days, but this is what I need to do.  Part of this time will also be spent just churning ideas, plots and characters.  Never should I be for want of a character or idea.  They’re everywhere and for my taking.

Starting today is the start of a routine for me.  I have a unique opportunity which allows me to actually pursue a desire which would have a longer path if I were working my normal nine to five.  I’ve had my month off and it is time to get back to my work.