Nanowrimo, or how I changed my life in 30 days

I had actually planned to blog a little every few days. Ha. I am hardly finding time to comb my hair. I must admit, I unwittingly set myself up. I actually believed that if I did general plotting of VM prior to starting Nanowrimo Nov. 1st, that I would be prepared. That was not the case. I found myself sitting in front of my laptop. I wrote the first scene. Then, nothing. So I decided to write the last scene. That was easier. So, as words finally began to flow, on the second day, I continued writing from the end forward.

I was comfortable and happy with myself, having met my desired number of words for the first two days without much struggle. Then I became over-confident. Family from out of town arrived for the week-end. I had a wonderful time with them all, and really, truly believed that I would be able to 'catch-up' after they left, late Sunday.

Wrong. Not only was I behind in count, I was nearly completely blocked, and by this time, starting to become mildly depressed. In addition, I kept having a need to 'look over' what I had written and 'tweak' it a bit. I knew this was a mistake, but I kept on doing it.

Then a lifeline arrived. A small book, recommended at the Nano site, called "No Plot, No Problem". I almost passed it by, because I did have a plot, and that wasn't my problem. I was curious enough to buy the book anyhow.

The first think I recall it saying that helped me return to sanity was to put all thoughts of editing aside and do no tweaking, no matter how strong the temptation. Then it talked about getting the characters set up and letting them do the work. Well, that is my interpretation of what it said. I realized that by working from the end toward the front I was probably missing out on unexpected developments that might occur from writing in the normal sequence.

However, in my end-writing, I had discovered a character who was not supposed to play a significant part in the novel in terms of being anything other than a catalyst for the climax of the book, who began to take on a life and form of its own. I decided to focus on developing this character.

At that point I began to realize that no matter how many books I owned or how many books I had borrowed from the library and read, that there was much more research I needed to do at almost every turn. One topic is Vienna. I have spent time there, but not long enough to have been able to go into all the nooks and crannies I am referencing in VM. So how was I to write without having researched? Fortunately, my laptop has wireless internet access, and I have found that I am able to put in [markings] for research that needs to be done, and then when I am taking breaks from actual writing, search and find much of the information I need to reference. Otherwise, I can leave the brackets, make a note in my notebook, and track down the book. Genius!

So today, still burdened with the fact that I am at most just barely where I need to be in terms of word count, anticipating another fun-filled week-end with lots of challenges and frustrations, I am exhausted, have consumed too much chocolate (the last round was oreo cookies preceded by a few smokes oysters...) I have pushed down the character that I developed, because he was threatening to take over the entire book, and focused on two characters at the beginning of the book. I just finished a scene and am done for the day. My head is buzzing with ideas for tomorrow.