Let it be known from this day forward that I, who have in the past said (or at the very least thought) that I 1) did not want to be a writer, and 2) did not want to write fiction or 3) long works of prose, am 13, 769 words into the challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. You know that saying, “If you want to make God laugh tell Him your plans”? I think it should be changed to “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him what you don’t want to do.” And the thing that just makes me shake my head in wonder at God, is that, not only do we wind up doing what we’ve said we don’t want to do, but we end up liking it! I think He must have a good time with that.
So anyway, yes, I’m attempting to write 50,000 words in 30 days, which is probably more that everything I have ever written in my life collectively (excluding letters. I have written a LOT of letters. Long letters). I am making no claims and no promises to myself or anyone else about this project, because I have no clue whether or not I will finish. But, surprisingly enough, I’m kind of having fun with it, 🙂 and I’m amazed that I’ve written this much so far. But, before I get into too much more about this, let me give you the back story. Once upon a time… 😉
I was praying one morning, possibly about what area of writing to pursue – I am open to any area (but there will probably be some journalism in my future as well since I’ve said/thought I didn’t want to do that. 😛 ) and have been asking the Lord to give me wisdom to know how to learn more about the different genres of writing and also to get the teaching/guidance I need. The idea of participating in NaNoWriMo popped into my mind, out of “nowhere”. Heh. I’m learning that things don’t pop into your mind out of nowhere when you’re praying – sometimes. Oh and by the way, this was somewhere around the end of September, which you probably knew if you read my last blog post. Anyhow, I began mulling it over and realized that I actually had a potential storyline to use for this project. About a year ago, I had a snippet of an idea for a story, and I was going to write it and it was going to be a fun story – just what I want it to be without apology; simple, predictable, whatever. I was just going to have fun with it. However, aside from a couple of scenes I hadn’t gotten far with it and it’s just been sitting on the shelf in the dusty recesses of my mind while Christmas plays and other such things took priority. October came and I still wasn’t sure I was going to go for it or not, but I figured that I’d better start preparing, just in case. I took my notebook to work with me and worked out a general progression of the storyline, expanding on my original idea and trying to get the flow of action down. I continued to pray about it, as this would take a pretty big chunk of my time for a month, and nothing else really came to mind that I should be working towards in writing this month, so I tentatively decided to go for it and signed up on the NaNoWriMo website on October 31st. November 1st arrived and I was up at 5:30 as planned and finished my devotions and began writing by 7:00. That first day I met my goal of 2,500 words. I haven’t met it since, but my average per day is somewhere around 1,300. It’s been so good for me to have to just get the words out there and move on. I tend to edit as I go and overthink things the first time around. I find myself stopping to try and figure something out as I’m writing and I have to tell myself to “Just keep writing!” I am about 5,000 words behind at the moment (more if I don’t get at least 1,500 done today), but I’ve been encouraged to discover that it takes me about an hour to write 1,000 words if I’m focusing well. However, I’m hoping that I’m not going to start running into some plot snags soon, because right now Chapter 1 is over 12,000 words long. Oopsy. That was the “introduction”. And I’ve just introduced something that really could take the whole plot a completely different direction. I could really split the whole idea into two separate novels. But I’m going to try to stick with my original thought, because I really want to get some of those scenes down! I’m finally getting to the fun part. 🙂
Well, I need to end this before it gets too long. Which it already is. But I’ve wanting to write a blog post all month and haven’t had time because I’ve been trying to keep my word count from getting out of hand. This may be the last you hear from me this month, so bear with me. I will leave you with a brief synopsis of my novel (which is as yet unnamed) and an excerpt from one of the scenes, which you may or may not think is funny but I giggled over it as I was writing. It’s part of the word count, so for now, it stays. 😉
Synopsis (sort of): Margaret’s life has changed in many ways since the start of World War Two. During this time she has taken on many responsibilities which have matured her from a teenage girl into a young woman. Now the war has ended, but she doesn’t feel the happiness and optimism that she expected. As life moves along and the nation adjusts to post-war living, Margaret struggles to find God’s will for her future. Before she can find the joy and contentment she longs for, she has to first learn from Whom she should be seeking them.
Unfortunately, copying and pasting an excerpt is not working like I expected, so I’m going to have to take the time to type it out sometime. So I’m just going to have to leave you hanging. 🙂
The most interesting thing about all of this? I have no clue how the story is going to end.
Sounds like your story is coming along wonderfully! It sounds like a really good one, too. 🙂 And I think it is cool that you have no idea how it’s going to end yet–kinda fun to figure that out as you go!