Why I Stopped...
After announcing that I'd once again write 50,000 words during the month of November—I stopped. Simply cold turkey. After 9,000 words I terminated my relationship with three characters. Why?
After all I left them in the lurch—unaware of the future, mired in one present moment. I just couldn't proceed.
I did not stop because 1600 words a day seemed too laborious. I did not stop because I ran out of words, nor did I cease because of time restraints.
I called it a day because I began to see myself as short changing three rather delightful characters. One can't go screeching across the page simply collecting words for a word count. I found myself wanting.
To write a novel requires some time spent thinking, some time finding the right word, the sentence that pirouettes rather than the sentence that simply accrues more words to add to a collection of words.
Certainly some people had spent time working out their novel, but I initially had one character who invited two more characters into the setting. These uninvited guests fell onto the page and I didn't know what to do with them once they arrived.
It isn't as if I hadn't proven to myself that I could take on the November challenge. I have a certificate from 2010 attesting to the completion of a 50,000 word novel in one month.
Where is the rush? What do we validate by this mad cap rush to an ending?
After all I left them in the lurch—unaware of the future, mired in one present moment. I just couldn't proceed.
I did not stop because 1600 words a day seemed too laborious. I did not stop because I ran out of words, nor did I cease because of time restraints.
I called it a day because I began to see myself as short changing three rather delightful characters. One can't go screeching across the page simply collecting words for a word count. I found myself wanting.
To write a novel requires some time spent thinking, some time finding the right word, the sentence that pirouettes rather than the sentence that simply accrues more words to add to a collection of words.
Certainly some people had spent time working out their novel, but I initially had one character who invited two more characters into the setting. These uninvited guests fell onto the page and I didn't know what to do with them once they arrived.
It isn't as if I hadn't proven to myself that I could take on the November challenge. I have a certificate from 2010 attesting to the completion of a 50,000 word novel in one month.
Where is the rush? What do we validate by this mad cap rush to an ending?
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