Nanowrimo Fail? A (REALLY Late) Writing Update

Basically, this entire post could be summed up in one sentence: I am terrible at doing stuff I plan on doing.

Or alternatively: I failed real bad.

Well okay, technically I didn't fail. I actually wrote upwards of 35k words in November which is a whole lot more than I've written that entire YEAR.

And also, even more pressingly, it's been about three months since it's been November... In fact, it's been three months since I've written a blog post... Yikes. And, even worse, in all that time, I've barely made any progress on any of my WIPs... Double yikes.

There is a LOT I have to update on, but I'm going to limit this to more writing related things. First of all, I'm currently off school for four weeks due to corona virus so I'm looking to finally prioritize writing now that I have a long break to do so. I have tons of outlines and ideas but no motivation or time and hopefully these next weeks will change that.

But back to what happened with Nanowrimo. I didn't exactly fail my goal...

The only thing is... I wrote 35k of a story that was not the story I was planning on writing. Hence the first sentence.

I actually didn't even register on the Nanowrimo website this year (the first time doing that literally ever), and in fact, I kind of forgot about Nanowrimo until about day 5.... Yikes. That's where the failure part kind of comes in.

So in case you didn't know, the goal was to write 30-50k (the actual goal was never set because like I said, I forgot) of RoA, my main project and WIP for a lonnnnnggg time (like about 3.5-4 years at this point). Except I obviously didn't do that, nor did I ever really have any inclination to do that.

See the thing is, I've kind of lost my motivation to write this story, at least for right now. And that kind of sucks because this has always been my main idea, my main project, and what I've been most dedicated to. I don't think this is permanent or I at least hope it's not because of how much effort I've put into this project over the past few years, but who knows?

However, I was really motivated to write a new story that had popped into my head back in September and which I love to pieces even now (it's nearly finished actually, over 100k words) but I'm not sure it'll ever see the light of day... as in I wouldn't publish it. Like, probably ever. I'm proud of it and I love the story and characters but there is no way in hell it's breaching my laptop and being spread to other people. There is a lot of reasons for that but that's an entirely different blog post to tackle (if I could only tackle this one first), but there's also a whole load of personal reasons I don't want to publish it. The point is, I didn't write what I intended to write... But writing is writing. Words are words. Technically, I didn't fail the goal- I just went a little off course.

A LOT of course.

Despite that, I had fun. And I wrote a lot more than I had in previous months so I definitely don't regret that. That's a basic overview of what happened. Following November, I continued working on this project which I've sort of just nicknamed, "Heartbreaker." It's kind of a long story, and the name itself doesn't actually represent the story even a little bit, but that's the nickname that stuck (it does actually have a title, but since I'm not too eager to get it out there, I'm going to withhold that detail).

It's almost finished. Nowadays, I just write it for fun whenever I have a bit of free time. It's been a surprisingly easy story for me to draft, but that's because it's a 'for-me' story- I'm writing it for fun, for my own amusement and enjoyment. The manuscript itself is sort of a mess but the important part is that it's motivating me to write more and actually enjoy the process of drafting and writing. That's what I've been needing.

As for future plans. I don't want to abandon RoA for long, especially because recently I've been changing my entire perception of the story and how I want it to go (AGAIN, I know, I know). I have a ton of new ideas and I'm planning on molding them into a newer, better storyline that hopefully, will motivate me in the same way "Heartbreaker" does. We shall see how that goes.

My writing goals for 2019 were kind of pushed off course with the outcome of Nanowrimo but I'm not upset about it. I haven't done a post for my 2020 writing goals (obviously, considering I haven't done ANY posts) but I do have some loose goals:

- Finish a WIP (I'm leaving this one vague on purpose, learning from my past mistakes and my unfortunately frequent tendency to lose inspiration and dedication...)

- Outline a new idea (this is the same goal I have every year, and one I have yet to fail... go me!)

- Participate in either/both Camp Nanowrimo and Nanowrimo (keeping my ambition reasonable for the business of life).

- Read a writing book (didn't do this last year, but maybe I will this year finally- god knows I have a massive TBR for it anyway).

Anyway, hopefully I do much better with those easier goals. 2020 is already off to a strange start but I have a good feeling about my productivity this year and hopefully, I am right (for once).

Another, non-writing goal is to get back to consistently blogging. I kind of fell off towards the last three months of the year despite my best intentions, and then I fell off completely over the end of 2019 into early 2020. I don't want that to happen again. I'm returning my goal to two posts a month- seems pretty reasonable and realistic. I shall update further on that in another post (fingers crossed). I know no one reads these but it's kind of fun anyways.

And who knows, maybe one day I'll be famous and people will dig up these old posts and be like, huh, she's a weirdo. But in a good, nice, and humble way.

Anyways...

Until next time:

No mourners, no funerals,

-SureenaWrites