NaNoWriMo and the Angst That Goes With It

A quote from my journal while in the midst of NaNoWriMo:

<< Why do I do this to myself? Why do I sign up for something that is so herculean that I burn out a week into it because I’m simply not used to writing the sheer amount of words required to fulfill the 50,000 word challenge? Part of it was peer pressure, that’s for sure. Part of it was that I so badly want to have this draft done because I feel like a charlatan having come up with the idea back in February, and having only written 7,500 words of it. So here I am, at around 20,000 words, feeling burnt out and uninspired (it is the week 2 slump, after all), but I still have to write 30,000 more words! And to be frank, I don’t even know if this story has that many more words to write to get finished. So, it becomes a futile exercise of putting characters in a room and having them talk about their personal thoughts and emotions – which is not very realistic, having all my characters be open books. Most people aren’t that emotionally available. Oh well. >>

Luckily after the two week blues, I was able to turn things around and get a draft in and “win” NaNoWriMo (writing 50,000 words in a month). Now that draft is going on the backburner to simmer for a few months. It’s time for me to get back to illustrating!