Splurging

So the first month of the year has just about finished and with it comes the end of my January Challenge which was to write on something new. My goal was to write 5k words a week, which if reached, freed me to write other things for the weekend, (or even take the weekend off in one case, -because that’s how rebellious I can be.)

I had an idea that I wanted to play out, and launched into it without much of a plan, just a direction. I knew that I’d need to write more per day than I usually do, but also safeguard a little time (i.e the weekend) to write other things too.(There was sanity and refreshment to consider after all.) I haven’t finished it, so it’s clearly not a short story, but it is an outline, and today I’ve rolled over the 30K words mark. Don’t get me wrong, these aren’t perfect words – not even close; they are pure stream of consciousness splurge,- but they are the groundings for a first draft, if the story passes the Nagging Test, whereby it needs to play on my mind for the next while, as I focus on other things.

However as a result, I can see various things; I can definitely write more words a day and not faint. Also focusing on it like I have this month, I could effectively have a whole (veeeerry rough) YA story within three months, while still having seen weekends. That is useful information to have in my head, because I have long-since forgotten the time it took  to write the previous story. (It seems writing is similar to childbirth in that respect.) What’s more, if I had a clearer plan, with more defined scenes, I could possibly get even further. Ooh prospects!

Just as importantly, I have also now confirmed -with practical evidence,- that NaNoWriMo would make me miserable as hell. That’s a shed-load of pain saved right there. 

Result.