NaNo Week Five: The Finish Line Breaks

I hit my 50K earlier this evening. I'd been a little behind, largely thanks to Thanksgiving and family commitments, but fortunately managed to hit my stride again at the end of last week. Overall, as always, I'm glad I did it. And, as always, only part of what I took away from the event was my manuscript. NaNo's a learning experience in more ways than one. Of the six of us who started the NaNo march together, three of us finished. Along the way, we became a bit closer and hopefully developed a cheering section/feedback loop which will benefit us in the future. And, of course, there was the self-discovery.

When I describe myself as a writer, a lot of the adjectives which come to mind are not flattering. I am slow. I am self-conscious to the point of crippling myself with decisions and revisions. I never feel as if my ideas are creative enough, my dialogue sparkling enough, my prose readable enough. Many times, I scrub at my work with the editorial brush until the gleam and shine is gone. Then I pitch whatever I've done away into my electronic 'under the bed' file and start over. Stories do survive this process, but not often, and not nearly as many as I'd like.

NaNo, however, is different. To me, it was getting permission to just go. I ended up with crazy patchwork quilts which will need serious re-editing, but I also noticed I was more relaxed this month than I have been for the past several months about my writing. It's not so much that my internal editor took a vacation; she was right there encouraging me to write scenes from alternate points of view, to take five or ten minutes before diving into the day's writing to glance over what I'd written the day before and to tweak any accidental mechanical flaws. It was more that I felt as if I had permission to be creative and different, and she knew it, too, so she sat on my shoulder and kept her mouth shut. I didn't miss her at all.

For the past several months, I've been editing old stories for re-publication, so I haven't been doing nearly the amount of original writing I prefer to do. NaNo gave me a chance to stretch my legs and run, and I'm glad to have had that chance. I finished feeling not as if I were winded, but as if I'd just hit a good, steady canter. I'm tired from the press of the last few days, but I wanted to keep going, and I will. I won't continue at the NaNo pace, but I can easily drop back into my 1K a day routine. At the moment, I feel the way I imagine marathon runners feel after they've crossed the line – tired, elated, a little euphoric, but ready to wake up the next morning and run a little more.

To my fellow NaNo winners, congratulations. To the friends and family who formed our cheering sections and enablers, deepest thanks. Even to those who questioned what we did or threw stones in the path served a purpose; after all, obstacles only give achievements extra savor.

And tomorrow, it'll be 365 days until the creative madness begins anew.

(Cross posted to http://The finish line breaks!

I hit my 50K earlier this evening. I'd been a little behind, largely thanks to Thanksgiving and family commitments, but fortunately managed to hit my stride again at the end of last week. Overall, as always, I'm glad I did it. And, as always, only part of what I took away from the event was my manuscript. NaNo's a learning experience in more ways than one. Of the six of us who started the NaNo march together, three of us finished. Along the way, we became a bit closer and hopefully developed a cheering section/feedback loop which will benefit us in the future. And, of course, there was the self-discovery.

When I describe myself as a writer, a lot of the adjectives which come to mind are not flattering. I am slow. I am self-conscious to the point of crippling myself with decisions and revisions. I never feel as if my ideas are creative enough, my dialogue sparkling enough, my prose readable enough. Many times, I scrub at my work with the editorial brush until the gleam and shine is gone. Then I pitch whatever I've done away into my electronic 'under the bed' file and start over. Stories do survive this process, but not often, and not nearly as many as I'd like.

NaNo, however, is different. To me, it was getting permission to just go. I ended up with crazy patchwork quilts which will need serious re-editing, but I also noticed I was more relaxed this month than I have been for the past several months about my writing. It's not so much that my internal editor took a vacation; she was right there encouraging me to write scenes from alternate points of view, to take five or ten minutes before diving into the day's writing to glance over what I'd written the day before and to tweak any accidental mechanical flaws. It was more that I felt as if I had permission to be creative and different, and she knew it, too, so she sat on my shoulder and kept her mouth shut. I didn't miss her at all.

For the past several months, I've been editing old stories for re-publication, so I haven't been doing nearly the amount of original writing I prefer to do. NaNo gave me a chance to stretch my legs and run, and I'm glad to have had that chance. I finished feeling not as if I were winded, but as if I'd just hit a good, steady canter. I'm tired from the press of the last few days, but I wanted to keep going, and I will. I won't continue at the NaNo pace, but I can easily drop back into my 1K a day routine. At the moment, I feel the way I imagine marathon runners feel after they've crossed the line – tired, elated, a little euphoric, but ready to wake up the next morning and run a little more.

To my fellow NaNo winners, congratulations. To the friends and family who formed our cheering sections and enablers, deepest thanks. Even to those who questioned what we did or threw stones in the path served a purpose; after all, obstacles only give achievements extra savor.

And tomorrow, it'll be 365 days until the creative madness begins anew.

http://elizabethdaniels.blogspot.com/2011/11/nano-week-five-finish-line-breaks.html)