I realised on the weekend that Define Good, the novel I was working on in Jan/Feb and the next book in the Kaditeos series, has about 50k to go until it’s done. If you’ve been around in the writing world at all for a while, you’ll know 50k is a Special Number: it’s the number of words you aim to write in a month when you compete in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November.
So, like, I could theoretically do an August NaNoWriMo and have the draft of Define Good done by the end of the month? And that would make me very happy, because then I’d have the rest of the year left to work on Stag Book (the next Storm Foxes novel)?
But also, I’m writing this on the third, and I’m … yet to write anything yet. I tried on the 1st: I opened the document up and reread half of what I’d written back in Jan/Feb, so that’s something!
And so far today, which is yesterday as you read this, I’ve written 228 words of meandering backstory for a minor-but-critical character.
And yesterday I made a decision about Further Backstory That Is Very Sneaky.
So it’s not like I’ve done NOTHING this week on the book…
But also I haven’t written anything.
Because committing words to paper is weirdly intimidating at the best of times and hauls with it a trailer-load of baggage for reasons innumerable, and I haven’t written a jot of creative writing since February and GOSH DARN IT resuming *any* pursuit, let alone a creative one, after 5 months is EXACTLY LIKE RIDING A BICYCLE AFTER MANY YEARS OF NOT i.e. you’re pelting down the hill wishing you weren’t too old to scream because although YES THIS IS WHAT IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE, GOSH DARN IT YOU’VE BECOME UNACCLIMATISED TO THE SPEED and the balancing and the steering and you just can’t quite take corners as fast as you used to, or at least if you do, it feels a little riskier than it used to, and just, like, oh my gosh, can we just pedal along at a snail’s pace for a little while please? (Only obviously not, because keeping your balance going slow is just as hard as keeping it while cornering fast.)
…Dammit, there’s a perfect metaphor there isn’t there.
*clears throat* Ahem.
When resuming a creative (or any) pursuit after a significant break, it is important to go slowly enough that you don’t break a limb, but fast enough that it’s not too hard to balance.
…Which I guess means that aiming for 1700 words per day after having done NONE FOR FIVE MONTHS is the equivalent of trying to scream around corners at car-like speeds, but also DOING NOTHING, or even JUST A LITTLE BIT TOO LITTLE, is like trying to keep your balance on a bike while keeping pace with a person dawdling along on foot.
Urgh. FINE.
I am going to be SENSIBLE (dammit, I can be sensible, just you watch) and aim for ONE fifteen-minute writing session per day for the next week to TRY TO GET MY BALANCE BACK.
I hate restarting things that used to be easy. *grumble grumble complain*.
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