Quantity, Quality and the First Draft

I've fallen way behind in my daily goals for NaNoWriMo. Last Sunday was the 15th, marking the halfway point. On target Word Count was 25k. My actual count was about 6.2k. Yeah. WAY behind. But after having talks with both of my parents and some people I know locally, I keep being reminded that it isn't about hitting that 50k mark. At least, not ALL about it. Not for me. I sometimes feel like I've lost my focus. I started this thing, signing up for NaNoWriMo '09, to get into the habit of writing. There have been days when I stressed about how far behind I am and that's when I need to remember that, for me, this is more about writing this story, then writing a certain number of words in a 30-day period.

I know that the object of this month is to get it written, and save the editing for later. I think it was Ernest Hemingway who said "The first draft of anything is s***." I try hard not to go back over what I've already written and change things up. On the other side of things, I have no idea where my story is going or what it is going to be about. I've got some ideas for scenes and characters and sub-plot-thingies. Big picture...nothing. Zilch. Nada. (Noodle)

Quantity is the goal for NaNoWriMo. Quality comes after November. I'm probably not going to make the 50k mark, and I think I'm okay with that. As long as I keep plugging away at it, as long as I write something each day, my story will eventually get done. Or get to a point where I decide to end the current story and begin editing.

Molasses in January

That's how I currently feel about how much I'm writing. End of Day Four of NaNoWriMo, and I was about 5,000 words behind. Just crossed the 2K mark this morning. I have to discipline myself today. No movies after work, and this goes for DVDs and internet (YouTube/Hulu). I got to increase my output. Facebook needs to go on hold as well, or at least suffer a big decrease in use until I catch up to my goal.

Until next we meet...