Kate Rivet

I know I’ve discussed writers’ block before on my blog, but I have found, at least in this project, a new issue: I’m calling it NaNoWriMo Syndrome.

I seem to thrive under pressure.  When NaNo calls for me to write 50,000 words in 30 days, I do more than 50k.  When I had tickets to Barcelona during the last 2 weeks of NaNoWriMo ’13, I wrote 50,000+ words in 16 days.  NaNo ’14?  Cranked out my book in 15 days with 50k+ again.  The first novel I ever wrote (many years ago now!) was written in just about a month, and I think that was 70+k at the time.  I seem to be more motivated when there’s time constraints on completing my work, then I can leisurely go back and edit and expand upon what I’ve written.

I’m not saying that’s the issue with everything I write: a couple of the books I’ve written have taken well over a month, but I’ve seen them progress.  They started frantically, but eventually I just couldn’t keep up and had to step away for a little to get properly motivated to finish.

So, with my 9th book presently in my word processor, I’m trying to break out from the chains of my old habits.  I came up with an idea and got started, and got a good amount of work done before the inevitable slow down.  But there have been more than a few days since I started this project that I’ve written 200 or less words, and I’m okay with that!  I’m about to hit 18,000 words and the book is still on task to be what I set out for it to be.  Unlike a lot of the books I manage to finish, I still don’t really have a concrete layout for it, but I do see where it’s heading and how to get it to that invisible finish line.

I like my main characters and their supporting casts, I like the location, and I like where the story is headed.  When I have all of that set, it tends to be easier for me to really sink my teeth into a project.  That’s not saying that the one or two projects I had on the back burner aren’t things I might like to pick back up eventually and work on, but there was something about those, probably that I had no idea where they were truly headed, that made them much more difficult to really pour my heart into.  I’m really giving this one a good shot, though — one of my favorite books I’ve written yet was actually one that took me probably 4 or 5 months to complete, and it’s one of the ones that means more to me than some of the ones I cranked out and was pleased with.  That particular favorite was one that I could truly find myself stopping in a book store and being intrigued enough to buy it from just the blurb I imagine would be on the back cover.

So, fingers crossed that this project turns out like my 6th book did — I think this one is going to be a favorite down the line as well.

Until next time,
Kate