Halfway into NaNoWriMo and I’m Rebelling

I started November with a goal in mind – to write 50,000 words in the course of the month. I had achieved this goal before, both as part of camp and the mother-ship, but this year I planned to do something different. I planned to write a historical mystery novel. I had the characters mapped, the plot all loaded up and was raring to go. Come 17^th November, and I have only written 316 words. What happened?

A number of things in fact. Near the beginning of the month, I discovered that my writing style does not lend itself easily to a new project that needs a lot of research, 50,000 words of which need to be written in a month. I ended trying to do research at the same time as writing, which cut down my writing time and speed 10-fold. Then came something I saw far in advance bit did not think to do anything about before NaNoWriMo began – university essay deadlines. I had two of them. Due within a week of each other. Both of which were assessed. As a result I had to put my NaNo novel aside to focus on my degree, loosing much of the month.

Now there are only 14 days left. There is no way I can write 50,000 words of a novel in that amount of time, particularly the kind of novel I wanted to try. So instead I am saving that project for another month, and joining the NaNo Rebels. Rather than write a book, I am going to edit one. My novel from Camp NaNoWriMo is undergoing a sporadic edit treatment, something that is not doing it any good. So, by the end of November, I hope to have edited at least half of it to a standard I am happy with. It will be challenge, since my editing skills have not yet been tested to the full. But hopefully I will achieve it.

Rosie