NaNoWriMo: One Week Later

Remember this post? When I talked about how crazy I was for doing NaNoWriMo but that I liked the idea of a challenge?

Yeah...

It's been a week. And I've produced a total of zero words.

ZERO!

I started the process on Sunday, fully ready for the craziness that is writing 50,000 words in a month. I knew it was going to be hard and I probably wouldn't make so many words. But I wanted to just get a start on my manuscript. I just wanted to write down words on paper (or a Microsoft Word document, if you will).

And so, I started writing. I had an idea of what I wanted to write about. I knew about the setting and a vague outline in my head. I knew about the character and her family. I knew about some other, secondary characters. (And, more importantly, I knew who The Guy was going to be!)

And so I wrote. And wrote. And wrote. Less than 1,000 words later I realized something: I didn't like my character. The girl I was writing about was mean and snarky. She was rude and obnoxious. She was nothing like I imagined her in my mind.

In a sense, she wasn't someone I would want to be friends with. And since my character is supposed to be a somewhat sheltered preacher's kid...she wasn't exactly being consistent to her past. So I tossed it.

And I still sit at zero words. I know I need to go back to the drawing board and work on the details of my manuscript. I need to work on some character development, plot outlines, and scene setting. But my life is pretty busy, especially during the week.

I have work, then class, then homework, then more class, then more homework. And then I have to map out time for blog reading and writing. In short, I'm still not devoting enough time to this. And I need to.

So this is my goal for this week: I want to have character development and the plot outline completed. I want to sit down for at least an hour a day and work on the background of my story.

And I know I'm not going to make the cut this month. But if I shoot for 10,000 words this month and then another 10,000 for next month...and so on, then I will have accomplished something. Something more than having a great idea and keeping it in my head.