As I had previously mentioned, I did not sign up for Nano this month. I didn’t figure I would have the time to devote to it, and well, all the other etc. etc. etc. And yet, here I am at day 12 of the month and not only have I stayed right on target with the 50,000 words (I’m at 19,300 as of this morning) I am really enjoying the write.
I wonder now, if I had signed up for Nano and committed to the contest and the words, would I be anywhere near the amount of words that I am now? I would say…Nope. Not hardly. Why? Well, to be blunt, I don’t work well under pressure. Oh, time frames are fine. I am great with that, just not the constant pressure to perform. It squelches all my creativity as well as my desire. Plus, I have to admit, that when I am forcing myself to do something, it kinda ends up on the stinky side.
I know Nano is supposed to be fun and it’s all part of the drive to have a first draft of a novel completed in one month’s time, but that’s a lot of pressure for someone like me. I never REALLY know when I am going to have quality time to just sit down, focus, and write. Too much stress for me, at least for this year. Maybe next year I will give it a whirl.
Am I the only one like this? I hope not.
As to my WIP (that’s “Work In Progress” for all you lay people) My book, Shadow Warrior (the sequel to Shadow Dancer) is going very nicely. Sunny is having a grand time in Acadia. Yes, of course I jest. If it were all sunshine and roses for her, why would you want to read about it? I hope that I can continue throughout this month to have Sunny’s story flow as easily. I would love to have the first draft completed by months end. I guess, Nano or no Nano, we will see.
Have a great weekend everyone. See ya Monday
Courtney, I'm a lot like you. I set a NaNo-like challenge for myself and it made me feel like all the creativity had been sucked out of me. I just don't write this way. Deadlines are fine and I can work well under pressure, but I set the task of writing 30 short stories and that's a lot of creativity to pull out of no where. 30 ideas? I'm crazy. Of course last month I wrote 20 stories in three weeks no problem. Why? Because I didn't force myself to. I wrote because the ideas came to me. Apparently that's how I work.
ReplyDeleteCourt,
ReplyDeleteI'm doing NaNo more to see if I can finish it this year than for any other reason. I've yet to manage that feat. But I also set myself up for possible defeat because I chose to do 3 WIPs instead of one. I get bored working only one piece at a time. This way I have short spurts on each piece.
I'm on track with the other two challenges I've taken on for the month. One is completed-PiBoIdMo for 30 PB ideas during the month. I'm on track with the PAD Poetry Chapbook Challenge. It's the NaNo where I'm falling behind and I'm not even working toward word counts, but project completion.
We'll see if I'm just nuts or actually acomplishing something worthwhile. Only a couple of weeks before the tale gets told to the end.
Good Post.
Claudsy