When I decided that I would do NaNoWriMo this month, I knew that I had lots of things working for me. I was off and didn’t need to be focusing on working in November. I had an idea that I had been working on in my head for a while. I’d even outlined a concept of it when I took a writing course in the fall. I had signed up for the November Challenge support through the Federation of BC Writers and some other events just to stay focused in the world of writing. It’s November, snowy and cold so there’s very little to entice me to leave the house.
But I also had a number of things working against me. Well, maybe one big thing that shows itself in lots of little ways. ADHD.
You see, I’ve had the idea of writing this book on my mind for six months now (longer really but let’s say actively working on it in my head – is that a thing?). I’ve taken courses and continued to learn more so that I could write it. And in six months, I did a LOT of things to do with writing my book. Except write.
I am also so easily distracted and getting things done at home has always been a challenge for me. Did I just hear something? This would be a good time to throw a load of laundry in. Did I just boil the kettle again for the third time and still not make tea? I think I’m hungry.
And 50,000 words is A LOT of words. Now, I’m a fast typist. When I know what I’m going to write about can easily get 1,000-2,000 words per hour. But it assumes A) I actually write for an hour and B) I have a plan when I sit down to write. I can also sit down and rewrite the same 200 words for an hour. Or write 5 sets of 200 words that don’t actually go together.
Even IF I sat down and consistently wrote 1000 words/hour, that’s 50 hours of work to do. (Okay, doesn’t seem like much since I’m not going to work but only the ADHD’ers will understand this – living is work. I can find one hundred things to do before breakfast and not have the energy for any of them.)
But, against all odds, I did it! 50,000 words and 1/3 of the month to spare!
But here’s the kicker. 50,000 words should have taken me more than half way through my novel. At 50,000 words I should be wrapping things up and working out the best ending. I am not. I am barely 1/3 of the way through the novel I have in my head.
I just focused on free writing and just getting words on the page. I wrote and wrote and wrote. I did sprints and challenges and body doubling and most days I got more than 2,000 words in. In my outline, I thought I had things separated out into nice chapter-sized chunks and then when I split a chapter, and split it again, and it was still too long I knew I had a problem.
It’s a problem I’ve had my whole life. A problem I’m quite familiar with. Too many words. A problem that has been identified for me by MANY people in my life.
Whether it’s talking or writing, I just have too many words inside me that want to get out. While writing this, I had so many memories and each memory reminded me of another memory and I have strong feelings about these experience. I needed to make sure I said every one of those words. I needed people to know everything. I also wrote some pieces out of order, because there were days I sat down that I couldn’t just carry on from where I left off. I probably told the same part of the story more than once.
But here’s the thing. Before the month started, I had written a few short pieces but had no significant work done on my novel. At the beginning of the month, I still thought I could write about a whole year. (Now, it’s about a three week period and I’m only about a week in and have 50,000 words, not sure how I thought I could fit a year into one book.)
If not for NaNoWriMo, I’d still be in that same spot. Writing and rewriting a beginning. Dabbling with scenes from the middle but no pressure or deadline to get words on a page. There’ll be a lot of work to do with these words but at least they are there. At least I have things on a page and can see what I have.
I am writing the worst first draft I can, but you know what, I’m writing a first draft. Because you can get to your second draft, editing, final draft or anywhere, really, without starting with a first draft.
I’m not worried about the fact that my first draft will probably hit 200,000 words in a novel that should likely end up to be about 80,000 words. I’m planning to review the draft and pull out the themes and writing I like best when I put together a second draft and I can only do that because I’ve vomited out these 50,000 (actually about 62,000 at the time of this post) words.
Do you overwrite on first drafts or are you an underwriter who gives themselves more space to elaborate once the whole story is framed out?
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