NaNoWriMo has been a real boost for my writing in the last couple of years. Simply because of the fact that I’m participating in a challenge, there’s a deadline, and I want to win, I’ve been able to complete it successfully 2 years in a row.
I’ve been working on the same project in these two years and decided to use the Camp NaNoWriMo April 2020 as the motivational boost I need to complete it at last. I have something like 20,000 words left, and it will be finished.
Well, I prepared the frying pan while the fish is still at sea. That Bulgarian proverb is said to correspond to the “Catch your bear before you sell its skin”, so I hope you get it.
Between One NaNoWriMo & the Next
My biggest problem when writing is the lack of focus. Between NaNoWriMo 2018 and NaNoWriMo 2019, I wrote somewhere around 50,000 words. What I’m capable of writing in 2 weeks or less, as was the case in 2018.
I really want to work on my most current project, but something new always comes up. I’ll get to writing reviews, open a blog (here we have a website), start a bookstagram out of nowhere, think over old or newer ideas. And I lose the drive.
Another problem is that terrible exhaustion I feel after completing a NaNoWriMo challenge. I would refuse to write for weeks, and everything goes stale.
NaNoWriMo in April Doesn’t Feel the Same
This April, I didn’t think it through. I was so hyped to do that last stretch of 20,000 words and do it while my significant other participates for the first time, as well. I was looking forward to sharing the experience with him and support each other.
But in the last few days of March, I wrote relentlessly for a short-story competition in Bulgaria. And it drained me. Literally. I’ve never felt so devoid of inspiration after completing a piece, as I did at the end of March.
Maybe it’s the 6,000 words I wrote in 2 days, maybe it’s the zero time I gave myself to carefully edit it. Everything happened so fast, I couldn’t gather my thoughts on the 1st of April.
And I tried. I opened up my notes, the document I work on, grabbed a pen and paper. Since April 1st, I have written exactly 3 sentences. And not very long ones.
I Forfeit the Challenge
I’ll keep trying to work on my book. I don’t want these some 150,000 words to be for nothing, just another dumped idea. I like it, I lived and breathed with it for nearly two years. There are still more things I can explore in the world, I have a whole plan for the future.
But I’m dropping the count altogether for this Camp NaNoWriMo. I’ll be closing the project ingloriously and disappointed. I’m tired of creatively pushing myself when I don’t feel like it.
I’m so absorbed by the info-streams for the Coronavirus outbreak, I’d rather stare blankly at a point than stress myself further. I was hoping that the little additional free time I have would come at handy. Alas.
Have you ever felt that? Throwing it all out the window for the sake of taking a breather? Do you bull your way through moments like these or let yourself feel ready again?
How do you focus with all that noise around us? If you have such experience, I’d be happy if you shared it with me.