Another Year, Another NaNo...

(If I start every post with yes, it's been a while it'll get old soon. So I guess I'll just post whenever I feel like it without apology)

So yeah. My third NaNoWriMo already! Heck, the years go by quickly. I intend to win again this year, and to be honest, I'm well on track. This makes me proud, I would say deservedly so, but maybe my ego needs slapping down a few notches. Since everything seems to be going so well this year, I guess I should talk about my struggle last year, and the progression I've been going through with regard to writing. Here goes.

When I first started NaNo, I had only been writing as a hobby for about 2 years (2 and a half? I can't be bothered to work it out). As a result, my longest piece of writing was 20,000 words long, and needless to say, very generic. All I was doing was copying the themes and styles of my favourite writers and projecting them in a manner that I thought worked. And it did, to some extent.

Fast forward a few months. I had finally written something that came to 50,000 words. It was also not very good, though the writing itself held water. It was the storyline that needed fine tuning, for it quickly went to a place that was unsatisfying and hard to resolve. I told myself I would try again. Flush with the success of my first NaNo, I wrote several new things over the next year (the chronology is a little messed up in my head; there are some things in my folder I'd forgotten I'd written). All the while, my story lines grew more coherent, and I grew more confident.

NaNoWriMo 2013 was a tiny bit of a mess, which may come as a surprise to you, reader. Even with all of my newfound experience, I found that the story I'd chosen to write didn't come out quite right for my tastes. I lost my enthusiasm, and though I still won NaNoWriMo, by the end of the month I was writing because I had to, not because I wanted to. There was a short story among the last of my writings that year, a Doctor Who one, because I'd run out of inspiration. I don't really consider it cheating, because it came from my storyline and involved one of my major characters.

This year is a whole other kettle of fish. My muse is bright and bold. The difference, this year, is how I went about it. Every year I write with no plan; this year I wrote with one. While I did stray from my plan quite considerably, I found that by having an ending that I could work towards, I eliminated silly plot things that  might mess with my novel. I usually think of my novel's ending halfway through. This time, I had it at the beginning. It didn't solve everything, but I think as I gain more experience and confidence as a writer, I grow closer and closer to something I think might be worthy of publishing. And that, my friend, is a heady thought.

(P.S. Now, if only I could add this to my word count...)


(P.P.S. Doctor Who story to follow)