NaNoWriMo 2023 - Week 4 (THE END!)

Yeah, yeah, I forgot to do a week three update. Is anyone really surprised?

It’s over. Thank God.

I haven’t exactly made it a secret on here that this year’s NaNoWriMo has been a struggle for me. Even just staying on par was a challenge. I read a quote from a writer of a short story contest once who said that writing can be like pulling teeth. Sometimes the teeth are loose and fall easily, other times the teeth won’t budge and it’s a bloody mess to get them out. This NaNo was definitely the latter.

At least I was consistent.

The second half of NaNo was just as much a struggle as the first half. I managed to stay on par for the most part when looking back and reworking on some stuff I had worked on earlier in the year with this story, but once that ended I realized I really had no clearer idea for how I wanted the story to go.

Again, when I write I typically take the panster approach, but this year’s NaNo made me realize that even then when I work on a story it’s usually been on my mind for awhile. I’ve thought about the plot or I at least have a very clear voice in my head (in a healthy way) to work off of. But the voice for this story, aside from a very rough opening chapter, has been hard for me to hold onto. I don’t know the character well enough yet. Usually when writing, my characters aren’t this much of a stranger to me, but this one is and continues to me. It’s frustrating.

I turned in an owl which is a vibe but was also very stressful and not a vibe at all.

I think I pushed myself too soon with this story. It just wasn’t ready to be written yet, maybe it never will be. I usually like to fill up a notebook for each NaNo and I’m annoyed I didn’t do that this time. Maybe I’ll scribble ideas every so often, work on some monologues for some of the characters. At one point this month I thought of writing it as epistolatory so maybe I’ll experiment with that. But not right now, that story needs a break for now.

Final word count baby!!!

So it’s on to the next project. I just finished a book review that will be published either later this month or next for the Literary Review of Canada’s Substack (read my previous review for them here). I plan on going back to what I was working on before NaNo started, of finishing it because it seems to be taking shape (knock on wood). I also asked my dad and sister to look at a manuscript I’m working on so I’m planning to work on the edits for that, as well as writing a short story for a contest I’ll be submitting to before the year is done (or in the New Year since the deadline isn’t until January 2024, depends on how much I want to second guess the final piece).

And I guess here, let’s see if I can actually keep this Substack active!

What I’ve Been Doing When Not Doing NaNoWriMo:

Reading: Finished Penance by Eliza Clark and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins (literally just finished). Currently reading Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth and about to start End of Story by Kylie Scott.

Listening To: The Ballad of Lucy Gray Baird, Using You by Mars Argo, Dopamine When The World Is Mean Playlist, Indie Christmas, and my Spotify Wrapped Favourites (apparently)

Watching: Season One of What We Do In the Shadows and A Murder at the End of the World

Also had a fun early birthday dinner with friends! And attended the Writer’s Trust Awards which was fancy and fun!