NaNoWriMo Update: Day One

Words Written Today: 1030
Total Words Written: 1030

Well, here we go again. As per my previous novel writing month endeavour, I'll be doing my best to update this daily with my progress. The idea, in case you're not aware, is to write a novel of at least 50,000 words in length in the space of one month. It requires (to begin with and already blown by me) a 1667 word count on a daily basis through the month. It can be about anything, in any style. It's not judged by anyone, nor do you have to actually show it to anyone (I still haven't shown anyone my last one). If you finish over the 50,000 word mark by the end of the month, you've "won". And that's it.

Now, that may sound like a waste of time. Chasing a daily word count is hardly going to garner anything of quality, and what's the point if you're never going to show anyone? Well, it's an exercise. An exercise in discipline, in pushing past the paralysis imposed by self-criticism and, of course, in writing. At the end of the month I'll have something that's rubbish. But I might, just might, have salvageable elements and when all's said and done I will have probably done more creative writing than I will have otherwise. Plus, y'know, it feels good. It's a bit of a rollercoaster, but when things start rolling along, it feels great.

So, that's what I'm doing! Each day I'll post about how the day's writing went, and how I'm finding the process as a whole. Interestingly, this is the first time I'm doing it during the official month, so I'll see how the networking aspect goes. Maybe I'll rock along to a writing session or two. We'll see. One thing I've noticed already: seeing people in the forums who have knocked down over 4000 words on their first day is a little disheartening. One guy wrote over 2500 between midnight and 3am. While I was shooting zombies. Still, I kicked some fucking ass.

So, today. Well, it was a tough start. I haven't been writing at all lately and in that situation it always takes a while to warm up. I had one of those writing sessions where it felt like I had been working at it for ages when suddenly the first page break came up. Hardly the marathon it felt like. This first day, especially after a lack of activity, is also where the self-confidence issues really start to kick in. Can I do it? Am I actually any good? Maybe I should just give up on the idea. Alla that shit.

But I managed to push past it and just force myself to keep writing, though once I got to the 1000 word mark I felt like there was a good stopping point. One thing I learnt from last time is that it's always best to leave it for the day when something exciting is about to happen. That way my mind is drawn to the subject throughout the rest of the day and when I sit down to write the next day I've got something fun to jump into.

With regard to the subject, I'm doing a fantasy thing again, although on a much smaller scale than last time. Of course, after the first page I immediately decided that, no, I wanted to do a horror instead. Or that young adults post-apocalyptic series I've been thinking about. Or the great New Zealand novel (it would have lots of birds as a metaphor for something). It's an easy trap, so I stuck with my first thought. I do wish I'd planned more though. I have some idea of where this is going - more than last time, certainly - but I would have liked to have fleshed things out a little more. Oh well, keeps me on my toes.

Fortunately I've got the next two days off, so I'm hoping one of them will give me the cracking breakthrough I'm looking for. I'll let you know. Keep an eye out for updates (which will be shorter than this, I promise), and hopefully the news will be good!