End of the year challenge
This year has been a really interesting year. I set out with an exciting list of goals at the beginning of 2011, some I accomplished, some still in progress, and some not started. One of the goals I’m happy to have started is writing. I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time and I really enjoyed the experience; though I didn’t win.
I fell short of the 50,000 word challenge, only writing 20,000, but I’m still happy with the results. For me, writing is such a hard chore. I really enjoy reading. My office is stacked with shelves of books, paperbacks, hardcovers, novellas, anthologies, and graphic novels. I often daydream of my own plots and characters in my head. But the thought of putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) has always been paralyzing fear.
Writing has always been my weakest subject, my sentences sometimes run-on, my commas loose their way, and my subjects tense at the verb selection (haha…get it). I pretty much suck at writing.
I finished less than half of the challenge, but I consider it a major success. Doing NaNoWriMo force me to commit to putting my thoughts in a tangible form, something most people never do. I spent a great deal of time learning about novel writing, about what makes good novel prose, character view points, and the elements of style. And I’m still learning and failing, but I fail much less than before. It’s still a challenge to write good effective and concise prose. But I’m sticking with it for the long haul, because I intend to get this budding novel to a stage of first draft completion.
My next major goal is to finish writing, revising, and hopefully share my vision with the world. Whether that’s through submitting the manuscript to publishing houses or self publishing, I want to make this art of creation with words a new personal outlet from this point forward. Right now the act of writing is still a chore but I hope it will grow into a new passion.
Hey that’s a major undertaking for me. But I accomplished the hardest part. I started.
