Hello, all! So let me tell you guys about my novel like I promised.
It is a struggle every day to get my daily word count. At the moment, I am close to 4000 words behind, and while I am enjoying the process of crafting my characters' lives, I will not pretend that it is all fun all of the time. Nor is it easy in any way.
Into week two, I have come to realize that where I was wading last week, I am slogging this week. Slogging uphill. Probably in ice cold water with bare feet. (Okay, so it's not that bad!)
Part of this has to do with the fact that I have other things to do every day: I attend 16 hours of class weekly, I have tests to study for, food to cook, and homework to complete. And on top of this, I want to write a novel?
On the one hand, I can always drop out if I feel like it is too hard. I would receive no bad grade and there would be no lasting side effects from dropping out, except the desire to do it again next year, and actually finish.
On the other, if I am anything I am determined. I feel like getting to 50,000 words, while a crazy goal, is a totally attainable goal. I do not want to be a participant of NaNoWriMo, I want to be a winner. For once, my inner voice telling me "Giving up is failing" might come in handy rather than be a nuisance.
I refuse to get so far behind that I can never recover. Thanksgiving break will be my time to at the very least catch up.
In the last 12 days of November, I have picked up an interesting habit or two because of NaNoWriMo. Things like becoming obsessed with eliminating all contractions from my writing. Contractions cost words, and therefore they are my enemy. Since then, even when I am doing things such as writing emails or taking notes, any apostrophe makes me pause and ask myself "Wait, does this matter?"
Another habit is eliminating hyphens from my syntax nearly altogether. Words like "time-saving" and "low-budget". Words that are hyphenated are considered one word, and are therefore my enemy.
A third, more amusing habit arising from NaNoWriMo is my new tendency to create names of characters that include more than one word: names like Mary Beth. While hanging out with Karynna yesterday, she suggested I should create a Hispanic character with a ridiculously long name... and thus, Kerri Ann Marie De la Cruz Gonzalez Lopez Salazar the Second was born. She refuses to let people shorten her name, and she is my new favorite character. I think I'll include her in every scene I write. And never use pronouns.
(Okay, maybe I won't. But it's funny, right?)
I have developed a certain love-hate relationship with my word count. I have also developed a crazy obsession with Word Wars. The idea behind a Word War is that a timer is set, and at the end of that the participants tally up how many words they wrote and the person with the most words wins. What they win is often nothing... but it works. In 20 minute word wars I can usually knock out 700-1000 words... which makes me a very happy girl!!
I have been hosting write-in/study-ins (since Katlin is not doing NaNo, and Ally has grudgingly dropped out - poor girl has 20 hours of workouts in addition to class every week!) at my apartment every week. Karynna, Katlin, and Ally have been coming by and I have cooked. It is a lot of fun, and I hope that even after November ends I can continue doing this. It is nice to cook for people once a week and have my friends over!
Well, I need to get back to my novel! Words won't write themselves. (Unfortunately... or else my novel would be made.)
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