Good news, squiders! I finally finished Chapter 9. Still a mystery as to why it took so very long, but hoorah.
Started Chapter 10 today and have already made decent progress. Admittedly my notes for updating this chapter basically just said “Good shape, just streamline” so perhaps that’s to be expected. Or not! Who knows how anything is supposed to work anymore.
That being said, the idea of doing Nano continues to raise its head. Very strange. Normally after I make my determination to do or not do Nano, that’s the end of it. (The sole exception being my very first one, back in 2003, where I said to myself that, as an upperclass engineering student working toward two degrees, surely I did not have time to do Nano, and then on Nov 3 I woke up with a full story idea and went for it anyway.)
(And only made it to 29K because I got a concussion during a broomball game and then got the death flu for two weeks.)
(It was the most I’d ever written on a single story to date, though.)
(And it went into a drawer and will never ever see the light of day.)
My normal arguments don’t seem to be working. I’m in the middle of a revision, so I shouldn’t start a new story. I don’t have a story idea, so I don’t even have anything to start. And I had this thought the other day that I haven’t actually had a new story idea in…who knows. Like, I’m writing older ideas that I wrote down years ago and never got to instead of coming up with something new.
That last one is a bit concerning. Of course, I know that you can’t be a consistent writer if you’re only writing when inspiration strikes, but surely some story ideas should be popping up here and there. I know how to find inspiration if necessary but I haven’t had a story pop up, fully formed, in God knows how long.
Maybe I’m misremembering. Maybe I have been having ideas, and I just write them down in my idea document and keep going. Or maybe, you know, life has been a disaster lately and we’re just getting by, and that’s okay, and when things get better–and I have to believe they will–my creativity will pop back up too.
But anyway, that’s all well and good, but why do I keep wanting to do Nano?
Very strange. Not sure what to do about it. Do I do a quick poke through my idea file and see if a story pops up? And if nothing does, see if the idea will finally die? Do I continue to ignore it and see if the feeling just goes away?
To be continued, I guess. Promo on Friday!
