NaNoWriMo Week 4: Rivalries, Pears, and That Random Dude Who Just Appeared…

Good morning, Cyberspace! It is Tuesday once again, so let us pause for a moment in our busy schedules and just take a relaxing breath of fresh air…

Ah. Do you smell that?

That’s the wonderfully fragrant scent of death, destruction, and rotting corpses Week 4 of NaNoWriMo.

I’m not even going to try to begin explaining how difficult it was for me to pick the title for this Smudge. Know why? Because Week 4 of NaNoWriMo is the time of the month when everything I’ve ever written over the course of the past 22 days begins to blur together into a giant muddled goo within my huge averagely proportioned head.

So what did I write this week? Pffft. I haven’t a clue. You probably know more about it than I do. That rotting pear in the garbage can probably knows more than I do. (Someone should really take that garbage out, by the way.)

Suffice to say, I struggled for about three minutes trying to remember what it was that I wrote this week. Now, the first two are pretty self-explanatory. Two of my main characters are annoying each other, and of course, I threw a pear in there. (Because how could I not after all my talking of pears in garbage cans, am I right?)

But the third one? Yeah. That one threw me for a loop.

There I were…writing, when all of a sudden I hear the wail of sirens, a few screams of terror, and the unmistakable rustle of tall grass, and then–

A WILD CHARACTER HAS APPEARED!

(#pokemon/Piratesreference)

It was quite sudden. I mean, I knew that I would probably have to introduce a new character at some point, but my naive little brain had me convinced that it would just be a secondary character. Nothing major. An expendable source of information.

And by expendable, I mean he was going to die.

#logic

I did not expect to fall completely in love with his personality and to treat him like one of my darling main characters.

Because he’s not a main character; he’s a secondary.

And he’s going to die.

Well, unless I can find a way for him to cheat death, which is highly unlikely. He’s practically already dead.

I’m such an optimist.

Anyway, with that wonderfully morbid piece of news, let’s launch right into our weekly

WORD UP! (week 3)

Official Goal: 36,667 words

Official Words Written: 42,162 words

So as you can see, I’m pretty confident that I will hit the 50k mark by November 30th.

What I’m not confident about?

Actually finishing the story.

Yeah. When I started out on November 1st, I had the wonderful idea that I was actually going to finish this book in a month. Now I’m hoping to just hit chapter twenty.

#goals

But anyway, enough about me. Let’s talk about you for a second. And yes, I mean you.

You probably started this month, like me, with hopes, dreams, and impossibly unrealistic goals. You were going to write a masterpiece in 30 days, possibly polish it up a bit in January, and BOOM! Get it published the next day.

Now, as you gaze upon the trainwreck that your own hands have created, you begin to wonder how you even made it this far. What made you think you could write a novel in 30 days? Why are all of your characters dying? Where in the world did that gaping plot hole come from???

These doubtful questions are things every single writer thinks about, especially now, when we are sort of nearing the end of NaNoWriMo, because it is about this time that we begin to realize, “Oh wow. I’m not going to finish this book in 30 days. How shocking.”

And that, my friends, is okay. You started this crazy journey for a reason: you want to write a book. You want to put your story to the page. You want to engrave a history in the black swirls of ink, and you want to touch somebody’s heart.

So what if you don’t finish this journey in 30 days? So what if it takes you 60? Or 600? So what if you don’t hit the 50k mark? You have done what millions of people have not.

You started. And that, my wonderful bean, is the hardest part.

So even though November is drawing very near to the end, don’t think the same for your book. This is your story. Your journey. And maybe you won’t have a finished draft on the 30th, but you will be closer to one than you ever could have been on the 1st.

Writing is hard. Extremely so. But I beg you not to give up.

Because right now, on the 22nd day of NaNoWriMo, Week 4 has only just begun…

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Well, that’s it for this Smudge! How is everyone’s word counts? Are you ahead? Behind? Right on track? Are you going to be able to finish your book by the 30th, or are you going to have to keep pushing through to the New Year? Tell me all the NaNo things (or writerly things) in the comments below!