I am still down a digit, but I persevere. Typing remains difficult, but I can’t not do it. I tried. My brain overloaded and spilled out my fingertips anyway, all nine working ones.
After about twenty minutes of typing, my hand gets tired. So, this will be short. This will also be my second and last NaNo update.
It broke my little writer-heart when I broke my little writer-pinky, just a week into the month I had been looking forward to all year. I had already spent the first week sick as a dog, and I was not pleased about the circumstances that led to a splint on my little finger for the remainder of the month.
I topped out around 5k words on NaNo, 45k short to win. I knew I wouldn’t win as soon as my doctor looked at my finger and said “ouch.” The dream died in that moment.
I was feeling very ambitious on October 31st. I was raring to go, all my prep work done and my fingers itching to begin the typing process. But sickness. Then injury. Then nothing for two weeks. Two weeks where I could barely even click a mouse because it irritated my hand, let alone type. Two weeks of no writing, in a time that was not the dreaded writer’s block. The ideas were flowing, but where to put them? Little dictated notes here and there, pecking things out on my phone with my thumbs. Fleeting thoughts trapped, yet not expanded upon.
I am almost done with chapter 2 of my novel. I started typing again the other night, and even as I write this I am a little mad I am using my strength on the blog today instead of the book. I am WAY behind schedule…so I tore up the schedule. Instead, I will hack away at this lump of rock until my sculpture appears, no matter how long it takes.
I’ll tell you a secret.
I love The Second Before, the little novel I wrote last year. I don’t know if it will go anywhere though. The outlook on my current WIP is different. If I can write it, I can sell it. I know that, deep down like I know anything. This faith pushes me to work harder on it. I already have put in more time than I did on TSB, and it’s much more epic than that little piece. It will be good, should I manage to get it out of my head.
Anyway, NaNoWriMo 2020 was a wash, which isn’t that surprising given the course of the year thus far. Maybe next year I will try again, if another idea presents itself, but it is much more likely I will just take my 2019 win and go, and write this novel that has been taking up space in my brain for so many years. I think that will be 2021’s project, and it will take more than a month, but it will be so worth it in the end.
Ham 'N Eggs 