![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
*twitch* *twitch*
Sep. 28th, 2007 11:20 amSo NaNoWriMo is a little more than a month away, and I'm climbing the walls like you would not believe. The Noise of Endless Wars is positively dying to be written, or at least the first few scenes are, and I'm not allowed to do so. Gahh.
In light of this, a few parties (and you know who you are) have suggested that I forget NaNo entirely and just start writing the thing now. The ideas are fresh in the brain, they've said, and there is no better time. The whole NaNo thing is just a formality anyway, so full speed ahead. I have to admit that they have a point.
The problem, though, is that I know myself too well. My life is littered with literally hundreds of unfinished, semi-finished, pending and/or abandoned projects, the vast majority of which will never see the light of day. What will happen if I try writing the thing now is that I'll dive in enthuiastically for a while, then get distracted by Shiny New Project for a bit, thinking, "I'll get back to the novel eventually." Which, of course I won't. NaNoWriMo is perfect for me because it sets a deadline, which I need if I'm ever going to get anything done. (And no, setting deadlines on myself doesn't work, because they're too easy to ignore.)
To give you some perspective: on my 2005 NaNo project, Ordinary Talismans, a story I was (and am) very enthusiastic about and pleased with, I got 12,000 words done in the alloted time before I got stuck. This may not seem like a lot, but it's more than I've ever succeeded in completing on a single writing project ever, and I did it in about a week and a half—not to mention that it included what I feel to be some of my best writing to date. The plan was to finish the rest at my leisure, now that I had enough good material done to make it worth my while.
My total word count in the nearly two years since then? About 500.
Yeah. I need the deadline.
But I'm going crazy from the wait.
So I'm torn beyond reason at this point. I could go either way, really; I have enough of it planned out that I could start, but enough is in the air that I could keep on with the planning. So I'm tossing it to y'all. I've done this poll before, but I think it's high time for a re-up:
[Poll #1062740]
In light of this, a few parties (and you know who you are) have suggested that I forget NaNo entirely and just start writing the thing now. The ideas are fresh in the brain, they've said, and there is no better time. The whole NaNo thing is just a formality anyway, so full speed ahead. I have to admit that they have a point.
The problem, though, is that I know myself too well. My life is littered with literally hundreds of unfinished, semi-finished, pending and/or abandoned projects, the vast majority of which will never see the light of day. What will happen if I try writing the thing now is that I'll dive in enthuiastically for a while, then get distracted by Shiny New Project for a bit, thinking, "I'll get back to the novel eventually." Which, of course I won't. NaNoWriMo is perfect for me because it sets a deadline, which I need if I'm ever going to get anything done. (And no, setting deadlines on myself doesn't work, because they're too easy to ignore.)
To give you some perspective: on my 2005 NaNo project, Ordinary Talismans, a story I was (and am) very enthusiastic about and pleased with, I got 12,000 words done in the alloted time before I got stuck. This may not seem like a lot, but it's more than I've ever succeeded in completing on a single writing project ever, and I did it in about a week and a half—not to mention that it included what I feel to be some of my best writing to date. The plan was to finish the rest at my leisure, now that I had enough good material done to make it worth my while.
My total word count in the nearly two years since then? About 500.
Yeah. I need the deadline.
But I'm going crazy from the wait.
So I'm torn beyond reason at this point. I could go either way, really; I have enough of it planned out that I could start, but enough is in the air that I could keep on with the planning. So I'm tossing it to y'all. I've done this poll before, but I think it's high time for a re-up:
[Poll #1062740]
