Steps at Camano by Tommia Wright

So, down to the final five days of NaNoWriMo.

I’ve almost made it to the 50K mark with the latest story, not saying that it is logical by any means. The promising start was good, the cast of characters intriguing and enjoyable, and the so-called logical direction I thought the story was going to take, well…easy. (Very wrong on that last point…very, very wrong).

So what did I learn with my fourth NaNo? Aside from the fact that Fear and the Inner Critic need to be cast aside, set adrift at sea (until the Critic-Turned-Editor returns to shore to untangle the seaweed wrapped mess of 50K+ words)- Sometimes it’s all right to admit to having a rough (rough, rough – as in rougher than walking on broken seashells rough) draft. Sometimes it’s all right to just let the story drift in a different direction than planned. If items placed as foreshadowing get overshadowed by something more interesting -fine. The world hasn’t ended yet.

Do I know where this will end? Well, definitely not at 50,000 words and not by November 30th. Like the four  novellas before it, this will not get completely tossed (even if Fear and the Inner Critic say ‘Delete, delete’). It will be set aside as of December 1st to see what emerges after a dormant time.

A few steps to go towards the goal… one word at a time.