Baulking At The Brink Of Success
This may be my first day this month that I have not successfully written words for my story. On the plus side, I passed 50,000 by the end of the fifteenth of the month, so as far as the basic challenge goes – nailed it. I’m now at 52,696 words!
Completion is ever a thing of fear and evasion for me. Having done the 50K and not completed the story I’ve felt my motivation nosedive. It’s probably not coincidental that the day after I hit the target we finally found a new kitten. That’s its own world of distraction and competing demands. Not least that a new housemate needs time to settle in, and those here already have to get used to them too. It hasn’t all been a smooth transition, I think we’re very much in the early days of it. For a start, we’d planned to get a ginger and white girl kitten, but have accidentally ended up with a ginger and white boy. He is adorable, feisty, clumsy and has the most amazing purr. We may call him Geiger, after the purring radiation monitor. He’s a big adjustment after so long.
But the story – what about the story?
Well, I’m quite pleased with how it has progressed. The slowness appeals to me, and I’m told by (people who are obligated to say nice things) that it’s not terrible. That’s satisfying. It has been lovely to have people read it and to have written so much of it so quickly. I didn’t have a plan for how the story would progress. I had a handful of ideas, most of which have been discarded, but no particular end in mind. That’s probably what is bugging me now and demotivating me. There are a few images and scenes which I’ve still got in my head and which I think follow the story I’ve established so far. I just need to write them…
I was very happy to finally do the one image that I’d had since the start of the month – what happens when the person and Watcher is combined. I felt it was a cool idea, possibly not that predictable and it shifts the story into an action-finale arc. I reckon that’s going to take me up to just under 60K. It feels weird to think I know what has to come next. Everything so far has told itself; the story has unfolded for the protagonist and me at the same time. Cool!
I know, I just need to write the damned thing. But there’s a kitten here…
NaNoWriMo Word Business
