On writing 9,000 words in a day

I know people have done this before, because people have written short length novels over the course of the 3-day novel challenge.

But let me be (probably not) the first to say that it's a lot of work.

Surprisingly, I got done a little over 3,000 words in an hour, so I can see where other people could accomplish a novel in a weekend.  But me?  I'm burned out.

When I get inside my character's head - really inside their head - and I'm writing from a hugely emotional standpoint (this whole novella has been one emotional trigger after another), I get my own gut wrenched.  I just spend the last thousand words sobbing as I brought my character to his emotional conclusions.  His resolve and the decisions that he has made for himself brought me to my own tears, as I know how I would feel if I were in the same situation.

And that's the thing:  It's every emotion at once.

Now that the 9,094 words are out of the way, I feel exhausted.  Not mentally, no, my brain can continue to pump out words for days.  But I'm emotionally hollowed out, my character burrowed a hole into my brain and I no longer have the emotional capacity for even myself.

Does anyone else get this emotionally invested in their characters?  I find that when I do cry, the words flow more genuinely onto the page, with true emotions and feelings.  The negative, well, I already said that.  It takes a lot of work.

I don't ever want to hear anyone say that writing is not a real job.

Oh - and now I have a fancy new Camp NaNoWriMo badge to show off in the corner.  Yay accomplishing goals!

Personal Update

I come to all of you readers from the past.  I wrote this blog post on Friday, but I didn't want to interrupt the blog tour mania. 

This month has brought quite an accomplishment - mostly me going insane.  Just a little insane.  Regardless, I will spend all Saturday finishing my Camp NaNo novel.  As of Friday, I had 10k to go.  And possibly, come Sunday, I might be done with a novella.

The Unanswerable started out as a blog short story, but someone asked me "Where's the rest of it?"  There was no rest of it, but I thought about this.  I thought about the characters, mulled over their circumstances.  And soon?  I had about ten excerpts from this story posted on my blog.

And I set out to eventually finish it.

I'm glad that July is going to be easier.  I'm planning on dedicating the month to editing Ruhe and Rioss and doing a ton of beta reading for other people.  I'm excited to finally be done with another project - but this Camp NaNo really took it out of me.  Due to my (in)sanity, I am also attempting Camp in August and NaNo in November.

Why?

Because the characters (voices) in my head won't leave me alone!  That's why!

Oh, that and if I finish my novella and another novel by October, I will have written four novels and one novella in a year.

And after never having written one?  And picking up projects only to put them down again for years?  I say it's the greatest accomplishment of my writing life. 

Camp NaNoWriMo

As if I didn't have enough on my plate, I have enlisted myself into Camp NaNoWriMo.

The Unanswerable, which a lot of you have probably seen excerpts of over time, is finally being written.  It has a 50-60k goal as a self-published novella about the "end of the world."  It will be stand alone, but I might write about other people in the same world, but different area, different circumstances.

It is now 12,892 words done (7k of that was already written prior to Camp).  It feels great to finally get some progress made in this story.

What's on my plate, besides Camp:

• Working with three other writers in a critique group - doing one-two chapter critiques a week for each person, as well as editing one-two chapters of Ruhe weekly.
• Received my edits back from Taryn.  They are spectacular, but I have a lot of work to do.  I'm still sitting on the new idea/replotting what has to be changed.  I'm not even attempting these changes until post-Camp.  So, July is Rioss rewrite month.  I plan on getting it out to my six or seven beta readers as I make changes.
• August brings about the second Camp.  I'll be completely rewriting Anthony's story A Good Criminal Heart.  My seventeen year old writing was just not as good as my twenty five year old writing.

Basically, a lot of rewriting.  As much as I want to start new projects, and I am allowing myself to work on The Unanswerable, I really need to sit my butt down and finish my other projects to query level.

But The Unanswerable and "My Summer Vacation by Terrance Wade" will both be self-published.  Which means, I have legitimate reasons for wanting to work on them.  They are great stand alone pieces and attest to my capability as a writer.  Not only that, but I think they are downright fun.  And it's a good "test" to see if I can get an audience through self-publishing.  If not, I'm saving my other three books for the real thing.  I don't care how long it takes me, I am going to become successful at my craft.

Just you guys wait and see ;)  I'm a very determined keyboard monkey.

Or maybe a Golden Tamarin. 

I love those.