I don't get to do it very often, mostly because I'm working on homework, in class, or distracted by the internet (and occasionally because I have a life*). But, this year I am more determined than ever to complete the great writing challenge known as:
National Novel Writing Month**
aka NaNoWriMo
I've attempted two times in the past (that I remember) and both times I gave up very early on. The idea is that you spend the entire month of November, and November only, writing a 50,000 word (at least) original story! Last year I got up to 8,000-ish words before I accidentally deleted almost all of it and gave up.
This year, I'm already at 11,500 words! And I'm almost caught up on meeting my normal daily word count of 1,667 words a day!***
Anyway, that was my plug for my ability to do NaNoWriMo. My point for writing this post, really, is to talk about motivation, and what it takes to get me to write****.
I come up with a lot of stories. A lot of them are pretty well developed in terms of plot and character, but many of them never escape my brain to be written down. My major problem is that I always get ahead of myself in my head. I imagine "Oh this is the beginning of the story and this is how it goes OH MY GOODNESS this scene I just imagined would be great but it doesn't come in until further in the story."
Essentially, I imagine a bunch of scenes from different points in the story that I think are brilliant, and then have to go back and write all the connecting parts so that I actually have something coherent. Those connecting parts are the hardest for me.
And so, I try to help myself write. Sometimes, I'll spend the day imagining the scenes I want to write. What exactly do I want to happen? And not just a general plot, but I'll actually envision the scene like I'm watching a movie, mostly on silent, but every now and then a phrase or part of conversation will pop into my head that I know I want to include.
It helps doing these "exercises" so to speak, for me, because it allows me to be creative in my head and then just take everything I've thought up, and transfer it to the document I'm writing on. Because there is nothing more daunting than a blank screen and the blinking cursor staring back at you while you try to write.
And, I guess that's what I want everyone to know. If you're having trouble writing, or transferring thoughts, or whatever, give yourself some time to think first. Imagine your story, watch it in your head, and then write down what you think would naturally happen. Don't try to force something out without the creative juices flowing! You can't make literary lemonade that way!*****
I better end it there, I've still got 3,000+ words to write tonight to catch up, plus Darren Criss is on Glee and I am not missing that for the world!
Off to writing-dom!
--R.
*I can't believe I had to use the adjective "occasionally"
**Website here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/
***Except I'm behind, because guess how much I wrote today! (Hint: 0)
****For instance, it took me three days to write this post
*****I should be banned from making analogies. I apologize for that one.
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