Sunday, November 1, 2015

NaNo or Bust

If you’re anything like me, you attempt to do NaNo each year with all the intentions of a zealot. Passionately plotting – declaring yourself ready, willing, and able – determined beyond belief. But inevitably life gets in the way. And while the mere attempt has merit in and of itself, there’s something to be said for finishing.

As writers, we so often start new projects. Ideas are never in short supply for the creative mind. It’s the road to completion that’s paved with stumbling blocks, distractions (hello, Internet), and the lure of moving on to the next best thing.

Sure, there are times when an idea just doesn’t have the legs to go the distance, (good, luck NYC Marathon runners) but most of the time we surrender just before the magic is about to happen. This is my attempt to get out of my own way, to get out of my head, and jump into the plot.

Hey, a bad novel is still a novel. Plus, as the saying goes…you can edit bad writing but you can’t edit what’s not there.

So I’ve decided to blog this journey, mostly to force myself to face the page no matter what’s going on. This will be my mirror, my chronical of NaNo, and in the midst of the chaos I hope to learn more about my own writing habits.

After all, the creative life is a process… and revisions are part of the plan.