A reasonably productive day, and a surprising amount of it wasn't actually concentrating on hitting today's Nanowrimo target. That being said, I'm slightly ahead of schedule, which is somewhat to be expected, as I'm currently in the relaxed mind set of a Person Who Has Had Some Time Off Work. I fully expect my ability to form coherent sentences to reduce quite dramatically from next week onwards, so the further ahead I can get on my word count now, the better. Speaking of which, there was a moment a few minutes ago when I thought I'd managed to reduce my word count quite dramatically by the simple expedient of just losing everything that I'd written today (over three thousand words), but it turned out that I'd saved it in the wrong folder. It's the sort of mistake that would make you consider pulling the plug on the whole affair right from day 1.
But, as I say, I didn't spend as much time in front of the computer as perhaps I expected to on Day 1 of nanowrimo. This was mainly because I got to spend some time having coffee and conversation (well, hot chocolate, too) with some very dear friends. Which is not to say that the subject of writing didn't come up. In fact, I found myself at a writing group. I've been meaning to get along to this particular writing group for the best part of the year, but something had always fallen on the same day which meant that I couldn't get along to it. There was one week in the summer that I was finally able to get along, and I turned up half a hour early, armed with pens and paper. Nobody else was there. It took me almost a hour to realise that I'd arrived on the wrong date. You'd think that if I wanted to join a writers group, I would have at least learned the basics. Like reading.
But finally, tonight, I was able to make a session, and was glad I did. The group, which meets every first Thursday of the month on the third floor of the Waterstones in Brighton are a friendly and supportive bunch, and it seems like an ideal place to kick start new ideas into life. Certainly, I came away with the first draft of a brand new short story that didn't exist in any form whatsoever before this evening. Because that's just what I need this month: yet another story to complete.
Of course, this month it's all about nanowrimo, and 'Set Up, Punch'. As I've probably mentioned before, it's a lot more grimy pulp fiction than I would normally write, with a great deal more violence and swearing than usually finds its way into my writing (it's only day one, and already two of my characters have met rather nasty deaths). Still, the whole pulp fiction feel seems to suit the hack-it-out atmosphere of nanowrimo. I figure I've got a couple more days where I can continue to write pretty much free form association. And then I'm going to slam quite hard into a narrative blank wall. But for now: I think I've done as well as I could have hoped. Oh, and got another short story that I wasn't expecting. Nanowrimo might be an unashamed hack job, more about the word count than the actual quality. But there are moments when you are writing, unguarded and unconcernedly for the best part of a hour, when you actually feel like a writer.
And that, of course, is the whole point.
No comments:
Post a Comment