On the night of July 31st, I completed my 100,000 word goal for the month as part of Camp NaNoWriMo, signaling yet another win for me. The initial plan was to write parts of three separate novels. The first, which was to be 50,000 words on its own, was going to be a new novel titled "Consider this Goodbye", which follows the story of Anna and Ivan up until their goodbye, told by Anna herself after the fact. The other two novels were both rewrites of stories I have been working on for a long time, both of which I believe have parts of first drafts posted on this blog. The first of the two is my first NaNo novel, titled "Love: A Chaotic Insanity", and it was planned to have 25,000 words written for it this past month. While the storyline has changed since the first draft, it still follows Styr, the dreamer, as he deals with ghosts from the past and tries to move on, with help from Krystal and Michael. The second of the rewrites is "The Beginning of The End", the novel I started in my last year of high school, and only last year had its first draft finished. I had intended on writing 25,000 words for it as well. Its story has barely changed since its initial conception. It takes place in a world of desolation and demons, wrapped up in a perpetual grey. It is told by Kuna Zero, a guilt-ridden wanderer whose life changes when he stumbles across a luscious sanctuary among the endless grey. Within it he finds Marie-Lynn, a woman from his dreams, as well as something he thought long lost.
If I have not already made it obvious enough, my plan fell apart quite fast. I did end up working on all three novels, but the words counts have all been completely ignored. "Consider this Goodbye", when taking into consideration its initial word count goal, ended up being incredibly neglected, as it only has about 25,000 words written, half of the planned goal. Of course these words were made up somewhere else. "Love: A Chaotic Insanity" was also neglected, although not as much in relation to its word count goal. By the end of the month, the novel had roughly 19,000 words written. "The Beginning of The End" has long been a favorite of mine, seeing as it is my first true novel, considering that it is quite intertwined with my thoughts and being. So, as a result, it flourished in the past month, resulting in a final word count of roughly 56,000 words. Incidentally, in the last instance of Camp NaNoWriMo, "Kuna Zero: A Wanderer's Tale", the prelude to "The Beginning of The End", also had similar results in relation to the other novels I had been writing that month.
Strangely enough, this past month felt like the hardest of all my NaNoWriMo's, despite the fact that in April, I had the same word count and far more work to do beside my NaNo writing. I had finals at university, papers due, and so on, and yet this past month of summer vacation has tasked my will far more. I suppose that when I have more time on my hands, I'm more prone to procrastinate. All throughout July, I would spend far more time browsing the internet than necessary, even more than usual. Eventually, this became incredibly frustrating and that fiery energy would fuel my writing for the night and perhaps even the next day, as there were many all-nighters undertaken in July for that exact reason. April was difficult due to the volume of work I had to get done in a short amount of time, which is something I deal with fairly effectively apparently. However, I am not quite as effective when I feel as if there is all the time in the world. I look forward to returning to school and having readings and assignments once more. Hopefully, with all the new experiences brewing at university, I will find inspiration for my next NaNo novel. And if I don't, I suppose continuing "Consider this Goodbye" wouldn't be a terrible idea. But with that thought, I find this post complete. There should be a new poem or short story up by the fourteenth of August if all goes well. Take care. Until next time,
-Zero
