Here we are at the end of November. The month where millions of writers all come together and attempt to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. Yes, I participated. I have done the challenge five times now. No, I have not been successful every time. I’m not even sure I’m going to make it this year. But I’m close! I have 10,000 words to go and three days to do it.
For this week’s post, I thought I’d share the ‘Emotional Phases of NaNoWriMo’.
Phase 1: Excitement It’s the first day of the challenge and you have a great idea. You crack your knuckles, gather your snacks and drink of choice and picture typing The End. The words come easily and you let them flow.
Phase 2: Worry The words start coming slower, you start adding the word very in every sentence because you are afraid that it won’t be long enough.
Phase 3: Calm You start feeling better about yourself and your story. You figured out the story sequence and have some idea of where it’s headed. You can picture your characters in your head and hear them talking to each other. You start to imagine scenes when you are away from your computer.
Phase 4: Panic Because it is a holiday month, you have family that decides to drop by and stay for a few days. You feel guilty going off by yourself to write, so you don’t. All the time you are visiting, you are imagining the number of words you will have to make up. Or, you have a big project at work that requires you to stay late and put in extra time, which causes you to be mind-numbingly tired at then end of the day. You don’t have the energy to eat, much less type.
Phase 5: Loathing You get back to the computer and reread the whole thing because you’ve forgotten all the details. The more you read, the more you dislike what you’ve written. You think that a kindergartener would have done a better job. But it’s too late now to start over, so you have to keep slogging on. Or give up.
Phase 6: Determination After looking yourself square in the eye (using a mirror, hopefully), you decide to buckle down and DO THIS THING. You give yourself the pep talk of the century and sit down at the computer. The words don’t come easily, but you persevere and keep moving forward. One sentence at a time.
Phase 7: Confidence The more you type, the more you get your mojo back. There is nothing holding you back now. You are on fire and keep adding words, pushing yourself to do more than the minimum required to finish. To beat your word count from yesterday. You keep reminding yourself that you can always edit later, but you can’t edit what you haven’t written.
Phase 8: Dread You’ve been pumping out the words. You’ve hit all the beats of the story. Your character has an arc that could double as a rainbow. All the loose ends are tied up, but you are not going to have enough words to hit the 50,000-word goal. You are going to have to go back and add more description or an extra scene somewhere. But you can’t think of where.
And finally:
Phase 9: Euphoria! You did it! You wrote a novel in a month! You type the end and look at your masterpiece. You carefully back it up three different ways and grab your favorite somebody to go celebrate! At least that’s how it’s supposed to end.
For all the head banging and frustration, it is all worth it. I love seeing my stories on the page and sharing them with all of you! Here’s to hoping this one turns out successfully, too.