Anti-Nano: The Beginning

Artist's rendition of me trying to finish a short story. SPOILER: I'm not Cthulhu.

So last week I was working on this short story that I was really sure I could finish off nice and quick, no problem, and totalling something pathetic like 100 words a day. I have never slogged so hard at something that should have been so simple. I'd already written the story, a few years ago. I just needed to throw in a sex scene and change the ending slightly and it would have been good to go. That was my first Anti-Nano goal, after all: finish and submit this story.

And yesterday* I sat there trying really hard to finish this stupid sex scene and I realised I could not give fewer fucks about the scene, the story or the characters. And that if I forced myself to keep trying to finish it, I'd end up working on it all month and having nothing to show at the end, because I just do not care about it.

So I shut the file, opened up Nightmare Moon (which I'm sure I've mentioned, if not in detail), and promptly wrote 3454 words. Just to put that in some kind of context, I don't think I've written more than 1000 words in a single session all this year. It's come very late in the year, but I've remembered my resolution from earlier in the year - to write what I love, not what I think I should write. And what I love right now is Nightmare Moon, so that's now my official Anti-Nano project. I haven't set a firm daily word count, because I can't do 3k+ every day, but I am aiming to write every day.

I'm following the grand old Anti-Nano tradition of progress updates on Mondays and Fridays, and snippet-sharing on Wednesdays, more to hold myself accountable than anything else. So if you want a little look at Nightmare Moon, come back in a couple of days!

*I know technically I should have started Anti-Nano on the 1st November, but I boldly chose to drink wine with a friend instead.