Something magical happened when I started the NaNoWriMo adventure. I decided, about halfway through, that I didn’t care if I hit the goal or not. How is that magical, you ask? Well, it’s like this… I gave myself permission to have fun with this project – a new thing for me when I am facing a deadline. And I decided that if I didn’t get close to 50,000 words in this month, I was okay with that because I wanted to enjoy the process. I got about 1/5 the way there because I ended up dedicating a lot less time to it than I originally had estimated, but what has come out has been amazing.
I am excited about this story which has no name and no outline and no known plot as of yet. I am loving the characters that are showing up in full color and fully-formed personalities. I am loving the landscape of the story, the textures, the nuances, the language. I am appreciating the way it is unfolding in my mind as my fingers fly across the keys.
I imagine I could spend the next four days, straight, and crank out the remaining words of the necessary 50,000 just so I can say that I completed the task. However, I’m wondering if I will still enjoy the story that is slowly, magically revealing itself to me. Who knows. Perhaps I will get a bug in my ear, curl up on my bed with my computer on my lap and get it all out later today and tomorrow. Maybe I will.
Or maybe, just maybe, I will continue to give myself the permission to go slowly and surely with it. Maybe, for once, I will lovingly embrace the Procrastinator within me, rather than shaming and condemning her. Yeah. Maybe I will do that!
