NaNoWriMo Week One

I’ve been working on this novel for seven days now, and I’ve written 7,402 words. They’re not necessarily good words, but NaNoWriMo is about quantity, not quality. I try to remind myself: “That’s what second drafts are for.” The idea here is to turn off the internal editor and write furiously. I have a hard time doing that. I think I’m a competent prose stylist, but when it comes to character development, or dialog, or plot — my god, plot! — I’m really for shit. In fact I have been actively trying to turn off my stylistic concerns to focus on all this other stuff, which means that what I’m writing really sucks on every level.

I’m not even sure I have any interesting ideas. Every day so far has been a real challenge, a veritable emotional roller coaster. I get depressed, think it’s a waste of time, think there’s no way I can do this, but then I find inspiration. Today was the toughest day so far, coming right on the heels of my most productive day. It’s mysterious.

It might have helped if I’d started this thing with a clearer idea in mind. But I started vague, very vague. I may be getting vaguer.

It’s been very good for my health, though. I’ve gone out for a jog around the bayou every other morning, which seems to be a good way to wake up.

Rachel is planning Sunday write-ins, but I’m not sure she’s done the math. If you only write one day a week, you have to churn out 12,500 words per session. Which is a lot.

Then again, if you’ve done the math you’ll see I’m not on target to reach the 50,000 word goal by the end of the month either, so maybe I should shut up and write some more.

I’m sticking with The Vibrating Telemarketer as a title, but it’s an entirely different book than the one I tried to write in the summer of 2001. You can check my progress via my NaNoWriMo profile. I found Benn’s profile but not Rachel’s. Could they be ghostwriting for each other? Could that be a subplot in my novel?