Crossing the NaNoWrimo Finish Line - Leaping, Limping, and Cheating

Leaping, Limping, and Cheating to Finish One Novel in One Month

Hurray! Both of my kids are now able to proudly display the NaNoWrimo badge of honor, the icon that proclaims that they wrote one novel in one month. My daughter didn’t think she could do it, and initially set a goal of 2,000 words, but she leaped ahead to write 10,000 words. She has truly been empowered as a writer through this experience.

My 8-year-old son was extremely hesitant to commit to a word count, but he started out with a strong showing of several hundred words on his first day. Based on that, he set his word count at 6,000. There were several days when he doubted that he would reach his goal; when he didn’t have any time to work on this project. There were even days when he tried to write but was hit by a severe case of writer’s block. Mostly, he found that once he put a story down for the day, he just could not go back to it.

So, he ended up writing a collection of short stories each of which were written on one day. This meant that over the course of the month he grew to be able to write longer, more descriptive stories. Like his sister, he also has been empowered as a writer by the NaNoWrimo experience.

The pressure is on to match their accomplishment. Hey, if my kids can do it, so should I!

But, I’m tired and I have come to utterly hate my novel. The only reason I have to keep going is the example that I am setting for my children. How can I resist my son’s sweet smile as he cheers, “Mommy, you can do it!”

Yes, I can do it, but I really don’t want to!

I started the month with great intentions and a noble pursuit to write an entertaining romance novel with a message about education and empowerment. Okay, that was probably my first mistake: trying to mix fluff with activism. Second mistake: I have no idea how to write the fun fluff that I like to read. Third mistake and this is the killer: attempting to juggle at least four new ambitious projects (Homeschool; Girl Scout Service Unit Manager; Blog; Web Class.)

My solution: cheating across the NaNoWrimo finish line. Okay, actually I started cheating awhile ago. On Week Two, I was several thousand words behind the daily word parade goal. I was weak; tempted by the notion that perhaps I could find a way to use all the writing that I was doing for my blog. Yeah, my main character could be a blog addict who is inspired to become a better person by subscribing to the Living By Learning blog. Why not include a few of my blog posts, the ones that were relevant to the character’s growth?

Oh, what a slippery slope into outright cheating. Soon, I started including all the blog posts. Well, this was my biggest mistake. I stopped doing the hard work of building the novel, boring word at a time, and just added my blog work to keep up with the daily word count.

So, here I am on the day before the contest ends. I have a rough draft of a lame novel, based on an idiotic idea, with utterly forgettable characters. The novel sputters to a conclusion with the suggestion of a happy ending, but I still need 8,000 more words by tomorrow night. I’m tempted to just write one four-letter word 8,000 times, but I’m not ready to descend so far down into this pit of deceit.

Instead, I’ll just describe how the main character ends ups in a tangled web of despair as she finds that she can’t handle one more ambitious project. Perhaps I’ll have her take on the job of Girl Scout Service Unit Manager and she can spend at least 8,000 words reading her email.

Next year, I will be a better writer and role model to my children. In the meantime, I’m going to get in shape for next year’s contest by:

• Using this crappy novel to work through the exercises in the book series, The Elements of Fiction Writing. I jumped into NaNoWrimo this year with a lot of enthusiasm, but absolutely no skill. Next year, I will be a finely honed fiction writing machine.
• Collecting more story ideas in my journal.
• Starting a collection of characters (with descriptions and motivations); settings; and plot ideas.
• Selecting a story idea and planning it before starting NaNoWrimo.

And yes, I will finish this novel by the deadline because I’m a mom; and nothing is impossible.

Related Posts:

• NaNoWrimo - One Month, One Novel
• Living By Learning About Writing

Want more from On Living By Learning?

Follow me On Twitter or Facebook.

Sign up to receive free articles from On Living By Learning by Email. (Click this link. Fill out the form. Don’t forget to click on your verification Email. Look for this in your mailbox.) You can also click here to receive updates on a RSS Feed Reader.