OK, so not really a typewriter. But ‘laptop’ doesn’t scan.

Anyway – I’m 7 days into ‘NaNoWriMo’, the world-wide challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. So how’s it going?

Well, in terms of word-count – not great. At this stage in the month, I should have smashed through the 10,000 word barrier and be well on my way to 20,000. Instead, I’m on a paltry 6600. Not bad I suppose, but I’m just not producing the volume of words I need to hit the magic 50,000 by the end of the month.

The idea of NaNoWriMo is to write. To write and write, without worrying too much about quality. Editing is not allowed – the entire experience is one long slog towards the magic target of 50,000 and to hell with whether it’s any good or not.

But I’m quickly beginning to realise the extent to which I naturally build in an editing process as I write. That doesn’t mean I make no progress, it just means I make less progress than I would do if I just let myself write without that element of quality control.

The big question is whether this is a problem. NaNoWriMo was designed to get people writing. So many people around the world are currently writing the novel they’ve always wanted to write, but never thought they could. And if it wasn’t for NaNoWriMo, they probably wouldn’t have written a single word.

But for me, it’s more about making a start, and keeping going until the end. To do that, I need to keep aiming for that magic 50,000 by the end of November. That’s what will keep me going. But what I’ve also realised, is that even if it becomes apparent that I won’t make it, the project will have done it’s job, because there’s now no way I’m not finishing this novel.

That in itself is a fantastic realisation. But I’ve already gained more from this project than a novel. In just these few days, I’ve learned that the writing process for me is about thinking as well as writing. That sounds obvious, but what I mean is that for me, periods of thinking – about plot direction, characterisation and story events – is just as important as actually sitting down to write. These periods of thinking are sandwiched between bouts of writing, and are vital to the writing process. This is why I’m finding it tough to write without breaks. I need that brain input without a keyboard to distract me!

Anyway, that’s enough of this hastily written update. I need to sleep, I need to think, and tomorrow I need to write another 2000 words.