I’ll not convince anyone that I’m not susceptible to distractions: big and small. What I will say is that I’m yet to learn to properly navigate them or to better suppress the few I have control over.
The overwhelming reason I’m giving up on NaNoWriMo is that I’m not enjoying any aspect of the effort. I don’t like the words. I don’t like the pace. I don’t like the guilt. I’m not enjoying denying my family and self the pleasure of time well spent so that I can hack out shit words I’ll be happy to never see again. I have other and sometimes better things to do with my time that write throw away. I won’t be continuing in the traditional manner.
I’ll be returning to the prep work I began in anticipation of this month. Preparation I liked. Preparation I need to do more. As part of that prep work I’ve plotted deeper into Redolent Microscopy than any writing I’ve done to date. I’m going to finish plotting Redolent. Once I’m satisfied I may smear a few words out across that frame and polish them in, but slick shiny words aren’t my goal. Instead I’ll pounce another set of characters and construct their demise.
This space, this place of concocting, is where I need to be this month. You can see it in my last two slabs of nanowrimo beef from Tuesday and Thursday. I’m finding freedom and results in telling what my story will be more than telling my story.
How can I get this planning in front of eyeballs is a little of a wonder to me. I’ve not so far tainted 1000 Days with meta-writing like whiteboards or note cards or the like. I’ll figure something out.
Also, we got a puppy.