Update No.2: My Writing Experiment

Writing is easy; all you do is sit staring at a blank piece of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead. ~Gene Fowler

[photo credit]

I’m become a writing machine.

I can’t believe not quite two weeks have gone by since I started my writing experiment.

I’m on track! And, since I started with a detailed plan outline, it’s been much easier to stay focused and write like crazy. I’ve also been able to continue posting three times a week, although I opted to accept Steven’s offer to guest post for me last week to help me lighten my writing load. Thank you, Steven! I loved the comic you drew for us; you are wise beyond your nineteen years.

OK, enough rah-rah news. To be honest, I experienced what could be termed an “incident” this week. I woke up, made my coffee, and then I had an epiphany. As a result—no words came out.

Nada. Zip. Period.

I emailed a confidant of mine to say, (in paraphrasing here), this is nuts!! Who would write a novel this way! I’m just spitting out garbage and this stupid novel will have to be re-written 1,000 times before I will expose anyone to the crap it contains! What a freaking waste of my time! What was I thinking?

Well, that’s pretty much what I wrote.

I took the entire day off of writing, which was a crappy idea. I had not padded any “rest time” into my schedule. But pulling back the reins was probably a good thing in hindsight.

To make a long story short—my email buddy immediately sent me a pep talk and later that evening I got another one from my spouse. The next morning I got up, dusted my self off, and rescued my tally adding ~5,000 words the next day. Ouch! My hands were actually sore that day.

What I’m learning from this writing experiment thus far

1 – All writers feel, at one point or another, that they are producing crap—it’s important to work through the doubt and push through. Thank you to Suzannah, for linking to Alexandra’s post!. These writer-women superheroines are lifesavers!
2 – To be the most productive while I’m writing, I need to shut off email, Twitter, and internet access.
3 – Prior to starting a session, it helps me to set a goal, either number of words or the time that I’m going to plant my buttkiss in my chair for that writing session. I highly recommended this strategy!
4 – This is my month of literary abandon—I should enjoy it! When will I ever have a chance to write like this again? I’m not thinking anytime soon. I am enjoying this and will no longer try to talk myself out of it.
5 – I’ve always brushed off the idea of finding writing buddies or friends to support one’s writing efforts (a lá Julia Cameron’s and other’s advice). Now I know better. If it weren’t for my email buddy and my husband, I’d be sitting here in a lump with an 18,000-word manuscript and a half-eaten case of Ben&Jerry’s ice cream.
6 –To me, NaNoWriMo is not about writing a novel in thirty days, this is about the joy of writing. The novel will begin to take shape in December.

Twelve days left! Thanks for your support!

Thanks for reading this update, too.

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