NaNo No-No

November 14, 2014
Day 198

Here's the thing about NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month): it's really, really hard. 

As great as I've been doing, I'm hitting a mid-month snag.  It's been a slightly off week for me, and busy too, plus we're going away from Saturday to Monday, so I'm almost definitely going to lose three days now from my writing.

Will I survive?  Of course.  I've already written over 36,000 of my 50,000 goal, so I'm ahead of schedule at the moment, but the part that scares me the most is, I'm basically clicking pause on the high-speed pursuit I've been in so far.

By the time I re-start my NaNoWriMo novel writing next Tuesday, I'll be in a whole new race toward the finish line.

All of that said, I'm in love with my story!  It's about a young, 21-year-old monk living in a monastery, not unlike the one I lived in for over four years.  I started the novel with myself in mind, but quickly began fictionalizing everything.  I use truth all over the place--true settings, true people--but change their names and the details A LOT. 

What's the basic plot?  Well, I don't want to give away too much, but suffice it to say, my young protagonist struggles with his vows.  Poverty's not too hard, Obedience sucks, but he's used to it, and Chastity?  Well, that one's his biggest struggle, and we quickly learn he's not the only one there who's not exactly succeeding in keeping this vow.

The NaNo No-No is to stop the progress at all, and I fear I might need to do some significant writing even while I'm away this weekend, but my heart still gives me a big old "NaNo No Worry!" in response.  Time will tell, as will I.  This is a daily blog after all, so once again, stay tuned...