NaNoWriMo PDX Yada Yada Yada

So I finally started by NaNo novel. I wasn’t sure it was going to happen, but I have managed to log over 9300 words, even though I only started last Friday, and I didn’t work on it all weekend.

Last night I attended a local write-in. It was great since I haven’t been able to attend the write-ins in Seattle I set up with Writer’s Cramp. It was fun to meet some of Portland’s writers and get a good chunk of writing done.

My suggestion for people who may be behind on their word counts (like me), to get out and write in a crowd. Group pressure helps. Even though we didn’t chat much, getting a little break was great, as was the pressure to write when everyone was furiously typing.

Also, another important thing is that even if you never even get close to 50k words, you tried, and that’s what really matters. So don’t stress, just get a few words down, and don’t give up. Even if you type “yada yada yada” for a few lines, at least you are moving forward. It WILL come.

I switched from first person point of view to third person, and the first several pages of my novel are utter garbage that I have spent the next 15 pages reworking into something else completely. But I didn’t stop, and I didn’t go back. Just keep typing. I inserted a “—–” to show that there was a break in the flow these and I just kept on writing.

I hope everyone is making headway, and most importantly, enjoying the process, since that’s what is really important. The 50,000 word mark is just the goal not the point of the exericise, so don’t give up even if you have zero words so far.