{"id":289,"date":"2019-12-18T07:00:41","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T14:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/janetcrum.wordpress.com\/?p=289"},"modified":"2019-12-18T07:00:41","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T14:00:41","slug":"lessons-from-nanowrimo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2019\/12\/18\/lessons-from-nanowrimo\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons from #NaNoWriMo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NaNoWriMoSo I managed to write 50,000 words in November. See that shiny NaNoWriMo winner\u2019s badge? Yeah, I earned that. Yeah. I did. Me. Winner. [thumps chest]<\/p>\n

I won NaNo once previously, in 2014 when I was drafting a novel called Vanishing, Inc. <\/em>that still isn\u2019t quite done yet because I\u2019ve been revising it since 2015. sigh<\/em> Anyway, I was proud of myself then, but this NaNo feels even more satisfying, because it was so much harder. Some days it felt like I was doing nothing more than spewing verbal vomit all over my screen, solely because I wanted to get those damn 50,000 words (Which I did. Me. Winner. Thumps chest.) Sure, some days my muse showed up, and the words flowed like a mountain stream after a thunderstorm. Most days, though, my muse was holed up in her crappy, roach-infested apartment, swigging tequila and passing out on the bathroom floor instead of showing up for work like a responsible adult. My muse has issues. And therefore so did I, all through November.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t say I enjoyed NaNo this year, because, truth be told, I didn\u2019t. Most mornings I faced my screen and keyboard with a sense of mild despair. I\u2019d looked forward to writing this novel for years, and it Just. Wouldn\u2019t. Come. But each day I dutifully assumed the position and start typing. Sometimes I felt better after writing, but a lot of times I left my office more discouraged than I was when I started, because I was convinced that my muse had deserted me\u2013the drunken floozy\u2014and left me with only the Demon of Suckitude for company. I couldn\u2019t think of character names. I couldn\u2019t think of strong verbs. My vocabulary had been reduced to that of a baboon on \u2018ludes.<\/p>\n

But a funny thing happened as I went along. I still fought for every word some days, but other days I\u2019d read a bit of what I\u2019d already written and think, \u201cYa know, that\u2019s not too bad for a baboon on \u2018ludes.\u201d And I\u2019d write with a little less angst and a little more hope that I wasn\u2019t a huge failure permanently possessed by the Demon of Suckitude.<\/p>\n

So I learned some valuable lessons last month, the most significant of which were:<\/p>\n