shitty first draft: week one
let's just say, it didn't go according to plan
I’m back after a week(ish) of writing.
And, no, I didn’t write nearly as much as I “should have.”
To recap: I’m working on the shitty first draft of a novel, using the constraints of NaNoWriMo (without active participation in the organized affair) to motivate me to just write the damn thing instead of dawdling in the world of self-editing. Let me tell you—that’s hard! It’s really difficult not to get in my own head, disparage my own writing, and hit the backspace more than any other key on my keyboard.
NaNoWriMo’s goal of 50,000 words at the end of the month averages out to about 1,667 words per day. At the end of nine days, I “should be” at about 15,000 words. What am I actually at? 1,577. I haven’t even accomplished “one day” of writing.
There were two days when I didn’t write anything: Saturday, November 2, and Wednesday, November 6. I can give you the excuses: couples’ therapy and a friend over for dinner that Saturday, the zombie fog of the day after the election that Wednesday.
Really, though, I’m just glad I showed up to the page on seven days. That day I only wrote 35 words while the election results were trickling in on another tab? I still showed up. I did my best to write while feeling anxious and distracted. Have I been writing as much as I would’ve liked? No, not really. But I’m writing—not just writing, but writing relatively consistently, returning to myself and my blinking cursor even when it feels incredibly difficult to do so.
It’s a small, slow start, and I’m proud of it.
How else I spent my time this past week:
Listening to the record by boygenius—a perfect album for fall (and always)
Having dinner with friends: gnocchi and Brussels sprouts one night, a bean and cauliflower rice skillet another night
Buying Christmas mugs, an annual tradition Jo and I have that’s intensely important to me because I love the holidays
Getting flu, COVID, and tetanus vaccines on the same day (and in the same arm!)
Watching Jo paint our kitchen
Wandering around the art museum with Jo, then walking through the park and the Japanese garden together
Quilting a wall-hanging I’ve been working on, each stich a hope and prayer for a free Palestine