The relatives are safely back in Switzerland. I’ve nearly caught up on all the work I got behind on while they were here. November is rapidly ticking by. All this can only mean one thing: it’s absolutely, undeniably time that I got started on my novel draft for this year’s NaNoWriMo.
While other writers have been tapping away at their keyboard since November 1, I’m starting today. Since NaNoWriMo winners have to write 50,000 words before November 30, that leaves me with a daily target of 2,380 words (if you start on time it’s 1,667). Since in the past I’ve done such ridiculous things as write 15,000 words in one day, this doesn’t scare me too much, and I’ve decided I’ll make my daily goal 2,500 words to give me a bit of an emergency buffer.
What’s more, my solemn promise is to write these 2,500 words before I write anything else – before I write all the stuff I have to write to earn a dollar. There are two good reasons for this – one, that my mind will be fresher for the novel writing, which is the most creative writing I’ll do; two, if I know I have deadlines to keep with my paid writing and can’t do that until I’ve done my NaNoWriMo target, the procrastination problem should be less. Fingers crossed.
One of the things I struggle with most in fiction writing is finding my voice and having a good style, one that I think is appropriate for the story being told. Last week I heard yet another writer say that while they’re writing a novel, they don’t read other fiction, or at least no fiction that’s anywhere near the same genre, because then they have more trouble with voice and style.
Of course, other writers think otherwise, and me – I’m just not quite sure what I think yet. What I do know is at the moment I’m reading Zadie Smith’s On Beauty, and if a little bit of her style rubbed off onto mine, I wouldn’t be complaining. She writes so beautifully that I can even remember some of the lines the next morning, that’s how much they impress me. This morning when I woke up I was still thinking about this line which opened the last chapter I read:
Summer left Wellington abruptly and slammed the door on the way out. The shudder sent the leaves to the ground all at once, …
What a great image. If you haven’t read any of Zadie Smith’s novels (I also love her first two, wholly and equally – White Teeth and The Autograph Man) then you should. And with that thought, I’m off to begin the terrifying process of NaNoWriMoing.
I am in awe of the thought of writing a novel in 21 days! I am struggling just to get through NaBloPoMo!
Yeah but I get interrupted by two cats rather than two kids – I think that gives me a lot of extra hours in a day! Good luck with NaBloPoMo though, I’ve done it before and did some posting-ahead cheating to get through it, I have to admit!
[...] readers might have been expecting a bit of a report on my NaNoWriMo progress after I started 10 days late but with great [...]