But do I regret the experience? No way!
I had known something was wrong all the way back in October, as shown in this post. I didn't want to plan. I was missing that spark of inspiration that had driven me to revel in the writing of Legends of Light, the book I wrote in the spring. So slowly, out of disappointment, confusion, and anxiety, working on the new book, Ice Quest, fell to the bottom of my to-do list and I found myself staying up super late on Halloween night to frantically do my outline, after, of course, collecting an amazing haul of candy. I admit, without that chocolate, I would probably have lost.
Boom! At midnight, National Novel Writing Month 2013 had begun, and I wrote the opening few hundred words. As much as I loved the opening line (If Etimard's entire existence had to be shaken to the core, he preferred that it not be done over a plate of fresh nut bread), my style felt off. Something about this book wasn't like the last.
At first, my word-count climbed upward at a steady and somewhat manageable pace. My first and second chapters I can absolutely say are some of my best first-draft work yet. However, I reached a snag at Chapter Four. This is a pivotal moment for the series, and I wanted to get it exactly right, since I had been looking forward to it for months. That was my downfall. The words couldn't come out exactly how I wanted them, and I slid into a sort of writing depression that I couldn't climb out of for several days. By then, I was far below the par.
Bribing myself with chocolate, which worked decently well, I wrote about 3,000 words a day until I reached Chapter Twelve. Despite the chapter being a lovely sequence with some great lines from my favorite wizard apprentice, my heart just wasn't in it, and I took a second depressed break, which turned out to be emotionally draining even though I wasn't actually writing at all.
At that point, I believed I had given up completely after about three days of not writing. There was no way I could climb out of this newest sinkhole, so I just stopped writing. I'm not proud of that, but I think getting a break was good for me. If I believed I had stopped writing for the month, I stopped worrying, too.
Soon, it was the day before Thanksgiving. I was in-game on Wizard101, decorating my Wooded Cottage and humming along to the Wizard City Main Theme. I was just putting up the wallpaper when something hit me. I'm still not sure what it was, but I shouted aloud, "WHAT AM I DOING?!? THERE'S ONLY THREE DAYS LEFT!!!" And then I opened up my document, still in the early 30,000s, and started writing.
I wrote 6,000 words that day, with plenty of chocolate eaten along the way. That evening, despite being very drained, I was exhilarated. I wrote only about half a chapter on Thanksgiving Day, which eased up my stress enough to enjoy the party with my extended family.
Then came Friday, the 29th. I'm not sure exactly what possessed me, but I took it upon myself to hit 50,000 words. Or else. If Emma could do it, I could do it, too. So I did. That day, I wrote 10,000 words and won, and there was much happiness and relief that night. It took all day, from about 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, but I did it, and that was my highlight this year. I never knew I could write so well (those 10K words had some of my favorite scenes), so fast, and so much at once!
Here's my graph at the end of the month. I was only above the par for about five days.
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| It looks rather similar to my cabin stats in the spring, only I won. |
So in the end, I had my 50,000 words, albeit in a different way than I had anticipated, but I had won, and that was what I had hoped for all along.
~ Sophia-Rose
