I passed the 35,000 word mark today, which means that (deep breath) I have less than 15,000 words left to write. It’s a crazy thought.
What is even more crazy, for me, is that even as I write at this ridiculous, break-neck pace, I can see that I will have a lot more work to do after the month is over, adding in new scenes, filling out flat characters, and generally boosting the story up from a list of scenes into a narrative.
And I’m over the clouds about it.
Over the last year, I’ve found it so easy to become discouraged, to feel like I wasn’t growing as a writer at all, because all I had to mark my trail was lots and lots of crumpled sheets of paper. But now that I’m back where I started a year ago, in the middle of NaNoWriMo, I can see that I have come so far.
At this point last year, I was just struggling to figure out where my characters should go next, let alone what I was going to do with the draft once I was finished with it. Now, I can look my draft straight in the eye, and say, “I know exactly what I’m going to do with you next.”
That’s one of the most joyful feelings I have ever experienced.
elisabeth anne writes things 