But I did want to do some more free writing. So I elected to do a modified version of NaNoWriMo, where I’d write 1000 words every work day in November. I would write about characters and scenarios in an existing novel draft of mine (The Norwegian Secret to Enjoying Winter, for the few folks who read a draft of that). I would work out a few things and think through motivations, with the goal of eventually editing that novel manuscript.

There are 20 workdays in November (weekdays minus Thanksgiving and the Friday after) and I just hit 20,000 words. I didn’t mind the exercise much. I simply put writing 1000 words on my task list each day and I did it. I was reminded that I did like my characters and the general world I created. I do want to revisit it and turn something that exists into something better.

Now I just need to figure out when and how I will do that. I honestly want to take a few weeks away from everything else in life and plow through it but that is going to be hard to pull off! We shall see. But a year from now I would like to have a draft that I am happy with. And then maybe in future years I’ll create an entirely new novel…

I had a goal for that last one. By trying random ideas out, I would hit upon a plot that I could then use for my NaNoWriMo novel (National Novel Writing Month…when people write a 50,000 word novel during the 30 days of November — it’s a great way to get a draft done quickly).

And so I have faithfully written since January 1st. I missed one day, which I then made up (word count wise) the next day. I have 41,000 plus words in that free writing file from the almost 300 days that have passed in 2021.

And I’ve got…nothing. Ten months of trying stuff out has not revealed to me a plot that I actually want to write about. Ten months of thinking about this question daily has not produced an answer.

I’m not sure what to do about this. Perhaps if I just start writing on November 1st something will come to me but if it didn’t in 10 months that’s a tall ask of a particular day.

Perhaps my method was off. Because of the small daily required word count, I’d write little vignettes, or observations, or tiny character studies. Maybe if I’d made the word count higher I would have gone deeper. Or maybe doing something daily makes it something to be checked off, rather than something to be explored. I don’t really know.

So we shall see if NaNoWriMo happens now. I do think it’s a good discipline to do some creative writing every day. But I wish it had been a bit more fruitful! Is anyone else planning to do NaNoWriMo?