The finish line

Good morning Maria, it's Tuesday, and let me just say...

Happy (almost) two weeks into NanoWriMo!

Sigh.

Maybe it's a human thing to get about a third of the way through something, and just...stop. No more. Halfway through, we can see the light, we can run to the finish line. But a third? Crap, there's two more thirds that haven't even been covered yet. And that's just too much for any human to handle when they have homework, friends, and how much mashed potatoes they're going to stuff in their face to think about. But if you're riding the strugglebus, I'm the driver, and my brain seems to think 16,000 words equals 50,000 or something. Because clearly the act of writing this story is torture, says my mind. It's not like I'm not able to write, and I still want to. I mean, I've been blogging up a storm because I didn't make it my job, my obligation. I blog at free will. Because I have deadline for my Nano story, it's turned into a chore.

That, and I have a really short attention span. I think my display of unfinished stories speaks for itself:

I had a whole outline for this thing. Gosh darnit.

So how am I going to finish? Well, to be honest, if this wasn't NanoWriMo, I probably wouldn't. My story is crap, plain and simple. It has potential to be good, with TONS of revision. But normally, if I start off writing an awful first draft, I usually get frustrated and give up. Out of like, ten stories, I've finished three. 30%. Ugh. But here's the thing: This novel writing has turned from an isolated hobby to do only when I'm feeling inspired (I remember a friend telling his mother that I wrote novels when I was "bored"...not gonna lie, I kinda wanted to punch him in the face at that point), to a competition. And I cannot lose a competition. If there's a finish line, I must reach it, even if I die trying. Death by words...How depressing. But if I can "win" something, I'm gonna do my darndest to get there. I know, not the best motivation for writers; the pride should come internally and you shouldn't compete about something so personal, but still.

Winning.
Winning.
Are you liking the sound of that? It has a warm, fuzzy sound. Not that sounds can be warm or fuzzy, but you know what I mean.

Which brings me to my next question: Do you think writing is something that should be a "competition"? Sure, there are lots of writing contests, but how do you truly judge the merit of someone's novel? There's well written and poorly written, but in the mix of well-written books, there could be a writing style that one judge thinks is new-agey and completely worthless, but that another judge loves. There could be a character that someone finds totally relateable, that another person could find unreliable and flat. Sometimes, judging someone's writing is about personal taste. Within the realm of good, clear writing, there's no "right" or "wrong" way to write a novel. Unique writing is what makes the huge collections of books out there so exciting.

Happy writing! I must go search for some inspiration. Or coffee. Yeah, coffee works too.

Peace and ponies,

Kira