15 November 2007

NaNoWriMo, Day 14: Treading Water

I'm feeling a real gripe with NaNoWriMo building. I tried to voice it in a conversation with my niece tonight, but I can't find the words to quite describe it. But part of it has to do with the fact that I wonder right now if the event isn't killing all the enjoyment I have for writing.

Yes, as you can probably tell from that statement, I'm pretty down in the dumps right now. Today is the final day of Week 2, and I am a serious novel-hater right now. I'm feeling like I need to throw my characters either into bed together or in front of a car. Or to really make things interesting, throw them into a bed standing in the middle of a busy highway. Anything to get them off their butts and do something.

I hadn't bothered to read any of the pep-talk stuff from Week 2 in the Chris Baty book or in the emails I received (via NaNoWriMo) from Tom Robbins and Sue Grafton. But I think I might have to resort to that stuff. The thing that worries me is that I was even well-rested the last couple of days . . . and I still haven't been able to find my way toward loving this part of the story. I mean, my two main characters are getting to know each other. This should be the crux of it. Flirtations, barbs, debates, camaraderie, etc. . . . Shouldn't this be more fun?

I can't believe I added better than 1,000 words to my total tonight. It felt like maybe I typed 10 or 20. That's probably just the word count on the parts I loved.

I'm getting together with a coupla fellow NaNoers for lunch on Friday. If there is inspiration to be had in such events, Friday can't get here fast enough.

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