NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo - National November Writing Month challenge.
 
I made it.

For the readers that do not know about this challenge it is simply to write a book or part of a book in the month of November.  The only criteria is to submit 50,000 words.  The only rule is that you cannot use the same word 50,000 times or the same sentence or paragraph over and over.  You are supposed to write a novel or part of a novel.

50,000 words per month is 1667 words per day or about 5 or 6 pages per day.  At the beginning it doesn't sound alike a lot but for me 5-6 pages per day take 2-3 hours and I still work so I have to write in the mornings or evenings.  Normally I try to write one hour each morning and then may a short period of 15 or 20 minutes in the evening.  My mind doesn't work that well after  the long day.
On the weekends I try to write for 2 hours each day.

I figured it would be easy but it wasn't.  I should have known better.  This year was my second attempt.  I don't think I finished 25,000 words last year.  It is very easy to put off writing for a few days and then you are behind be several thousand words and pretty soon the task is very easy to put off until the next year.  I did learn from the first try that it is very important to have an out line and a direction and and to keep close track of your cast of characters and the time line.

The novel is called "The Bent Spoon" and is a murderer mystery based around the slaughtering of horses, an old miner's mule, the town pastor and three young people that are accused of slaughtering wild horses.  The three disappear and the old miner is the prime suspect of killing them for revenge and dumping them down an old mine shaft.  The trouble is that the bodies of the three have not been found and there is no evidence that they have even been killed.

When I submitted my 51,355 words I hadn't even named the killer and in fact I haven't even had the bodies discovered.  I have trouble with my time line and in order to reach my 50,000 word goal the story tends to ramble on in several places.

The big problem is that I seem to have written myself into a corner.  It is the corner of writers block.  I have not been able to even go back and try to finish the story.  In 2012 I wrote 3 short stories, 1 novella and finished the NaNoWriMo challenge and ran a writers work shop that entailed writing at least two pages each week and the weekly prompt.  I also attempted to continue blogging but didn't do a very good job with that one.

However, since Christmas and New Years fell on Tuesday this year and I had just finished the November marathon I was glad to take a break from writing.  Unfortunately is has been very difficult to get back into the swing of writing again.  I posted one blog this last week and hope to be more prolific in this area.   Tomorrow I start the writer's work shop again and I am excited about that.

This next weekend I am planing on getting back into the novel. It would be a shame to not finish it

NOTE: Only about 19% of the writeres who sign up for the NaNoWriMo finish