nanowrimo

I've hesitated to say that I won't be doing NaNoWriMo this year, at least not in the traditional sense. I don't know why, but blogging the words has a sense of finality and though I'm not unsure about it, I guess I haven' wanted to carve it into the interwebs just yet. It wasn't a hard decision, though the more I think about it, the more love I feel for Nano. New stories are great. There's a rush of excitement and bursts of energy and I enjoy it. But, as author Susan Juby said today in a workshop at the Surrey Writers Conference, if you have too many affairs with other stories, it becomes a habit you can't break.

I want to finish my current story. Every time I hear advice on how plots are supposed to work I think of my novel and smile at how it all vaguely fits into the right places at the right times. Sure, I need more conflict and tension and my protagonist needs more goals and it's not quite there yet but it's a draft and I'm just happy that I feel it has potential. It's so nice to feel this story could really go somewhere--if I put the effort in.

So while I love that rush of falling in love with a new story and creating new characters and scenes and starting fresh on November 1st, it's not going to work for me this year. I need to stick with what I've got and hopefully I'll figure out how to use the motivational push of NaNo to my advantage in some other way. I'm still figuring out the logistics.

To all those attempting the challenge, I wish you luck. For writers who are not embarking on this sacred journey, is there any particular reason why not?