Did I Achieve My Crazy Goal for Day One of NaNoWriMo?

Today was my very first day of NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. And here’s how it went…

I arrived at the kick-off event in Laurel, MD, at around 9:00 am. Armed with my laptop, my research books, three bottles of Vitamin Water, and 36 yogurts to share, I was ready to start my 1-month journey of writing the first 50,000 words of Designing America… or die trying.

Okay, not die, but definitely heave a sigh of regret. Same dif when you’re a melodramatic writer.

Anywho, I knew I had two challenges to overcome in this first week of NaNo, starting with the fear that I had already exceeded my creative quota for the quarter. In a pre-NaNo prep period, I had challenged myself to write 2,000 words per day of Flights of Fancy, the conclusion to the Faerietales series. And boy, did I do good with the test-run, completing 40,000 words in 17 days.

That’s awesome! Right? But also a little intimidating.

I mean, I couldn’t believe how easy it was to get my ideas down on paper. I barely struggled at all with writer’s block, leading me to wonder whether I would pay for that effortlessness when the deadline actually “mattered.”

I put quotation marks around the word “mattered” because NaNo doesn’t dictate anything. There are no prizes other than bragging rights that I know of. Yet I suppose I’m too competitive for my own good, because I’ve told myself that this shindig “matters” and so therefore it must.

My other concern going into Day 1 was the fact that I have a crazy week ahead of me with little time to write. Faeriecon is this Friday to Sunday, and Thursday night is going to be spent checking out what I have to work with there. So basically, today had to count for five days.

If I’m sticking to my 2,000-word goal, that’s 10,000 words down on paper by midnight, my official bedtime, which translates to a whole lot of pressure.

So how did I do?

I’m proud – no, thrilled. Ecstatic, even! – to say that at 9:24 pm, just shy of 12 hours after I wrote my first word, I hit that target. (Just for the record, there were a lot of breaks in there, sometimes hours long.) I can’t promise I won’t revise every single sentence I put down when I go back to edit the first draft, but hey…

As the cutesy little NaNo sticker I got puts it, this month is all about three things:

·         Moments of pure genius

·         Gaping plot holes

·         Unintelligible typos.

In which case, I’m right on track!