Tuesday, October 12, 2010

It's Not a Race

National Novel Writing Month. We all say we're gonna do it. A lot of us probably will do it. I plan on doing so, but when I think about how slow of a writer I am, it makes me doubt my ability to actually write a whole novel in just a month. Hell, I've been writing The Deceased for about a month and it only has around 5,000 words.

So, I am royally screwed. Or am I? My friend and indie author, Stacey Wallace Benefiel, told me something yesterday that has been sticking with me. I told her about how slow of a writer I am and she told me "It's not a race. I have to tell myself that all the time,".

And it's not. I also talked to my pal Brent last night. He plans to do NaNoWriMo, too, but he is also a super-slow writer. His goal is to get 10,000 words written the entire month.

And even though my goal is to become a published author before I graduate high school, I still have time. It doesn't have to be right now. I can wait a little longer because even if it doesn't happen before I graduate in four years, it will someday.

I know it will because it is what I want to do and it is something I am passionate about. I will make it happen, no matter what.

6 comments:

  1. Good for you! Really though, try to write as fast as you can. You have no idea how stoked you'll be when you have an entire rough draft after just a month! It'll be like fast-forwarding a year, if you're usually pretty slow. And then you can take your time editing to make it really spectacular.

    I've been doing NaNo for three years now and I just loooove the breakneck speed.

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  2. You're only a freshman this year, too. You've got three more years after this one to finish a novel and get it published. :)

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  3. I'm with you on that! I'll probably try doing NaNoWriMo this year as well, even though I probably won't have time to write that much x'D But I won't give up before trying.

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  4. it´s right, "it´s not a race" i don´t ethier have enough time to write...
    i read the first chapeter of diseased and i really like it!
    it´s very good, you should continue wrtting it ;)
    and yes, you still have a lot of time to finish your book so, don´t worry :) be happy xD
    have a nice day!
    bye

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  5. I have to keep telling myself that, too. Even if you don't complete NaNoWriMo, or if your goal is smaller, then it's still a great starting-off point. I think the idea is to get you motivated to write your novel, and that's what I'm going to use it as this year. I don't know if I'll hit 50,000 words, but I'm going to write (and enjoy what I write!) even if I don't.

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  6. Seriously, Alex, do it! If you go for only 50K, you have to write like 1500 words a day. It takes like an hour and a half, assuming you can type pretty fast. You have an hour and a half each day, don't you??

    I wish they'd had Nano when I was in high school. I wrote like crazy, hours each day, but I never finished anything until I was 23. You can be ahead of the game. :)

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