As Catey has been saying lately, Oy!
NaNo is over. I won, in case you did not see the widget on the right, and it feels like I have more free time on my hands. I know it only seems this way because I have stopped devoting several (more) hours a day to sitting at my computer, typing furiously, ignoring my friends when I see that they sign on to MSN, and ignoring my family. Despite all the antisocial-ness, the whole experience was rewarding; sort of.
I made the 50,000 word quota plus a bit of extra. This is the rewarding part. I won! I even beat my friends Alyssa and Carrie who were competing in it with me. This is huge for me because I have failed in my attempts to reach 50,000 words in the two years I have previously done NaNo. I feel like I have written so much! It feels great!
But...
My story is nowhere near completed, storyarch-wise, and nowhere near any level of professionalism in terms of syntax and what-have-you. I had to cut out scenes to allow myself to reach the ending of the story before I hit 50,000 words (which I didn't actually do, but I did get close to the ending so it sort of worked.) These scenes that I cut weren't just unneccessary scenes though, they were entire sequences during which major character and plot developments took place that were just skipped over in my frantic race against the calender.
Why did I do it?
I knew that if I didn't reach the ending of my story (which I still haven't completely, but whatever) that it stood a great chance of never getting finished. It still stands this chance, especially since I've started to read Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, a novel that began as a NaNoWriMo novel. I realize that there would have been a lot of time and editing between the original NaNo draft and the published draft, but it still depresses me how inferior my writing skills seem to me now.
What can I do about it?
I have implemented a nearly fool-proof way of making sure I will at least finish writing in all that I skipped during NaNo; making a certain friend swear that she will pester me and, if needed, harm me bodily if I do not finish it all up. Thanks, Alyssa, let's just hope I don't retaliate :P.
On another note, I feel extremely odd tonight. I don't know what it is . . . I feel like I'm in some sort of lull. Maybe it's just post-NaNo blues. Or maybe it's because I finished watching the last hour of Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King right after I came home from school. . . It's kind of epic first thing coming home.
Toodles.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
SHAMELESS BOTHERING *WRITE*WRITE*WRITE*WRITE*
right... so yes, interesting post.*WRITE* made me think a lot about my own 50,000ish words and consider how completely horrible they are...*WRITE* character development, i have none, i have to make my character less like me. *WRITE* then she can develop, plot development, i have no clue about that...*WRITE* i suppose it could be good.. but how the heck would i know.*WRITE* so anyways, hmm, now i feel as though I should *WRITE* a blog reflecting on my nanoing experiences.*WRITE* oh, how did you get get your winner widget on there! i want one! *WRITE*WRITE*WRITE*WRITE*
farewell *WRITE*
Hahahahaha! Alyssa, I shall never doubt your bothering duties! lol *BOTHER* Thank you! I think I will go write now! Oh, and I'll explain the widget thing to you sometime...
Hello Dani!
This post has inspired me to write my own post on reflexion on Nano! I will get right on that. Anyway good luck with adding to your story! Now if only I could get back to mine!
umm...this is about nano, which i did not participate in. we just watched return of the king on our snow day, snow day! snow day snoooow daaay! i'm sorry, i just really needed that...
and this is the only blog of yours i missed responding to! do not say alyssa is the only one who checks your blogs! what about my blog?! does anyone check that? i actually haven't checked yet...but...probably not.
Haha, sorry, I didn't really realize that you had actually commented on all my other entries. Yeah so having watched the original cut of Return of the King a week before starting to watch the extended version for the first time was odd, but cool. I must see the rest of them extended! Snoowww Daaay!
Oh, and I just checked your blog :P
Post a Comment