The Creative Process of Writing

I mentioned a few posts ago that I had started NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, trying my hand at a lifelong dream of writing a novel for the first time. I'm still at it, currently hovering at just under 32,000 words. It has been a learning experience so far, both about the craft of putting words together on paper, as well as about the discipline of writing toward a goal outside of work for the first time in a long time. Oh, I write emails and blog posts all the time, but a story with characters and conversation and drama, well, it's a different animal altogether.

There have been times in the past three weeks or so that I have looked forward to writing after work, and times when I wanted to read, watch TV, clean the toilet, just about anything else. But every day I've written something toward the goal of finishing this 50,000 word rough draft dream of mine. It has to be finished by midnight on Nov. 30. Well, the rough draft has to be at or beyond the 50K mark. (Big difference!)

Whether or not I ever revisit this (very) rough draft creation of mine, for editing or whatever, the most important things I've learned so far have involved making time for myself, making myself disciplined to do something I have to do because I want to do it that much, and setting boundaries for myself.