Well, this month was very difficult for me to get into my writing mojo, but I started several projects, wrote more for some over others, so I’m interested to see if I’ll continue with any of them.
I think this is an extremely important point to remember when writing: don’t feel rushed or pressured to finish in a certain amount of time (unless you’re on deadline, then good luck to you!). When writing for a competition like this (even though it’s not really a competition), it can get overwhelming to write a certain amount of words in a month if you’ve never done so before.
If you’re like me and a lot of other people, you’ll expect perfection and everything to flow smoothly your first go around, and that’s just not the case. Even seasoned writers and well known authors don’t even have that luck. I think it’s fairly common to get into the mindset that your writing is the best or maybe it’s not good enough, and you end up comparing yourself to another writer.
Stop that. Because there will always be someone better than you, but you have to remember: what you do is your best at this moment. You can, and will, get better with time and practice.
This past month I’ve barely written anything toward my goal. Well, okay, I’m a little over half way to my goal, but if I had actually written the past two weeks instead of derping around then maybe I would have actually reached that goal this month. But the reality is that I struggled a lot with my original idea, I wrote three or four other things before finding one that I really enjoyed writing, and even that changed in front of my eyes as I wrote it and got to know my characters more.
But there’s something important that I realized while I was writing this new idea: I can’t rush it.
I want to take my time to get to know my characters, to learn who they are, what they like and don’t like, what their mannerisms are, their backstories. And I can only learn that by writing them out and letting them lead where the story needs to go. I can only interfere so much before I know that something isn’t working and my characters take the lead again.
Writing isn’t about rushing or having the most perfect piece of work ever, but it’s a slow process of learning your characters, your story, and most importantly, yourself as a writer. Keep your chin up, fellow writers, because even though Camp NaNoWriMo happens twice a year and NaNoWriMo happens once a year doesn’t mean you can’t write throughout the entire year.
Take the time to slow down, reflect on what you’ve written, and keep going because YOU created that new piece of art. YOU created something only YOU can tell. And that’s the most important part.
So this last month was less than stellar for my writing, but I still made progress on several stories, so that’s really what matters.
If I had stuck to it I definitely could have reached my goal, but life and other things got in the way, unfortunately. I still had fun and will probably participate again.
How was your writing month? Did the words flow or did you struggle like me? Did you find out anything new about your characters when you were writing that you weren’t expecting? Let me know!
This entry was posted in NaNoWriMo, Writing and tagged 2016, advice, Camp NaNoWriMo, NaNoWriMo, novel, recap, week 4, wrap up, write, writing. Bookmark the permalink.
I completely get you. I didn’t hit my goal – I abandoned my project for Camp NaNo and wrote fanfic instead. I mean, I still /wrote/ but it wasn’t what I set out to write and I still didn’t hit my target… Here’s hoping May is better for us both?
*raises a cup for better writing in May* Here, here!