being a nanorebel

It's been a few years since I attempted Nanowrimo  but I thought I'd use the pressure of an end of November deadline to get my novel finished.

The 'Novel' has been a work in progress for at least 5 years. I've written over 200,000 words and had until recently only 50,000 words to show for it. Crazy. I know it's crazy. Stop saying that.

So, rather than start a new novel in November, I was determined to sit down and kick my existing work into shape. Armed with a copy of the beta version of Scrivener (now out of beta), I worked out what was going wrong and got rid of all the sections that were bogging down my writing.

The novel feels like it might finally get finished. I'm now back up to 85,000 and on target to get to at least 100,000 words by the end of November. I don't really see any reason why I shouldn't be able to finish it by end of November.

I suppose some good has come from this.

• The pressure of Nanowrimo has taught me that I can actually write fast if I know what the characters are meant to be doing. In one half hour writing sprint, I managed 1000 words.
• I shouldn't give up on something.
• My muse only cooperates if I show up to work every day.
• Walks are good at working out specific problems.
• When I don't know what's going to happen next, I shut up and listen to my characters. They've surprised me a few times by telling me exactly what they would do in certain situations.

I'll check in on 1 December and share with you where I've got to.