Guess who is behind?

Falling behind seems to be a common theme for this challenge. It is surprising, then, that so many who do fall behind still complete it. Miss a single day, or only halfway complete a day, and all those words left unwritten spread across the remaining time. Miss a second day, and they compound. Luckily, my word count is still doable. I’m just glad this year has a week in November after Thanksgiving.

The story I chose has not held my attention. In digging deeper, I discovered it was not as complete as I had thought. I don’t know what makes the bad guy act like such a villain, don’t know why the magic artifact is necessary, can’t draw a rough map of the kingdom despite the significance of several points of geography, don’t know how or if the rebellion is organized – you get the picture. Yet, when I look at it, I still understand how I reached last month’s conclusion that it has enough in it already.

This lack of interest, along with other things, caused my writing efforts to flounder. So, a third of the way in, and for the first time in my history with NaNoWriMo, I allowed myself to write in multiple stories for the event. I have a few new ideas, which are always easier to work on. They are fanfiction, but if history homework can count towards the fifty thousand words, so can fanfiction. I’m still making progress in my original fantasy draft, all the more so for having the pressure off.

So far, this season has taught me about how I write. I have not learned yet how to write when I don’t want to. Structure is not enough; a story needs a lot more background than I realized before it is whole enough to work. And, I personally need to switch my focus to November’s story a month or two beforehand.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!