Exile: the Camp NANOWRIMO project, Part 2

The Half-way Point

This is the 13^th NaNoWriMo event that I've participated in. I feel like I'm starting to get a handle on it, at least in my own way.

What I'm finding now, ten days into it is that I've somehow compartmentalized this activity. I mean, I work on it for an hour in the evenings, and yes, I do time it. I can get anywhere from 2,000 to 2,300 words down in an hour. In a way, this project is no different from the other projects I've done. I mean, I've worked on this one in the same way I've worked on previous ones. And I've noticed in the last few that I've done, I am much more focused when I'm working, and I tend to not think about it when I'm not working. And like anything else in life, the more you do it, the better you get at doing it.

The thing is, years ago when I just got out of grad school, a novel project like this would take 8 to 12 weeks. Now, I'm writing this much in 10 to 20 days. I don't know how any of this is possible. Not really.

With these NaNoWriMo projects, I just have to do, there is no thinking about it, it's just having to do it. I get that. I'm also composing my drafts straight into a digital document. In the past, I wrote everything out in notebooks first. That's a whole other step.

The other thing I've noticed is that I'm not thinking about it all the time. I feel like I used to be all consumed, day and night with my manuscript as I was working on it. Now, nope, not so much. It's very effortless and I feel a little disturbed by that. I don't think this shift is affecting what I'm writing in any negative way, it's just been my observation. And to get something clear here, I am not worried about writing a prize winning novel. I'm a hack, I've always been a hack, and I've written 25 novels to prove that. I say 25, but the truth is, I'm rewriting number 23, and I've got plans to rewrite numbers 24 and 25.

What's important with the current NaNoWriMo project, Exile is more than how I'm doing it.

What I'm doing is simply rewriting a novel that I wrote in 1993.

The why I simple too: I think it's important and this story has deserved a rewrite for 30 years. I finally got to a point in my writer's life where I feel like I should tidy up the things which need it before moving forward. I don't know where forward is, but I do know what needs tidying up. When I consider the timeline, my timeline, I still don't know where I'm going. I have two more novels that I want to rework and I will have completed 25 novels. If I'm somehow ready to publish these, I could probably publish one a year and be done at 76 years old.

Exile has been a great exercise for me. I don't know how many demons I have left, but I think in the next week I may find one or two in this story. We'll see.

For any of you who write novels, and I hope all of you do, what sort of process do you have? How many Wrimos are out there?