Struggling Through Nano

I thought I had the next scene in my novel all worked out. All I needed to do was put the words on paper. However, when I sat there with my computer screen in front of me and my keyboard at my fingertips, something very strange happened. A whole new scene emerged.

When I wrote that scene in my head, I didn’t account for all the past experiences this young lady had been through. She was supposed to be thrilled to be reunited with the man she loves, but when she discovers something about him that is most disturbing, she does not manifest her charming, sweet self, forgive him, and go on. She responds with anger and disappointment.

That’s the great thing about Nano. Our characters react with normal human emotions and we don’t have to worry about getting the words down on paper in any organized fashion. The important thing is to get the action and the gut wrenching feelings on paper, then work with sentence structure and proper word choices later.

I have to admit I’m struggling with Nano. My word count isn’t near as high as it should be and my scenes seem to spin around in circles. I don’t know that I’ve made much progress with the story itself, although when it’s all said and done, I suppose I will be able to salvage something out of the effort.

However, I am learning a little bit about keeping that internal editor at bay. It is one of the most difficult lessons in writing, to move on even when something that is down on paper is not good. Okay, downright lousy. The secret is to move ever forward.

Sometimes I feel like Jack Torrance in The Shining, who sequestered himself for hours and hours to work on his novel and came up with pages and pages of the same line. “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

Well, I’ve done a little better than that.

I think.

Thanks for reading my blog.