Behind

It is Day 6 of Nano and I am currently behind about four thousand words.

Back when I used to write for realsies, about ten years ago, I used to draw heavily from my day to day life. I remember writing pretty well, too. I remember writing vivid imagery and all that stuff, but my skills are rusted so I’m basically churning out drivel. Which is fine, I think that’s one of the functions of Nano: it’s an exercise of quantity over quality. It’s like going 90 miles per hour on the freeway and giving the cop who’s chasing you the finger, only in this situation the cop is your internal critic.

I did not do adequate research in the weeks approaching Nano, so I’ve been forced to draw some from my life. However, I’m trying to draw inconsequential details from my life so I’m not setting myself up for stewing in a tedious cesspool of personal drama. I do that enough already.

They say to write what you know if you want to write something good. So I figure if I’m intentionally writing what I don’t know, one of the potential consequences is not-great writing. I am trying to provide myself an escape, so if my writing is not-great at the end of the month, I’m okay with that. When in Rome, spew drivel if that’s what’s required to keep up with the word count.

This means, of course, the inconsequential details of my life that appear in my story are mundane details such as eating more Sour Patch Kids than a doctor would recommend and cleaning up dog vomit. In that regard, I’m surprised I haven’t yet written at length about my piles of dirty dishes. The piles of dirty dishes are real: let me tell you…

Anyway, have you tried Tropical Sour Patch Kids? I had some last night. I like the watermelon flavor better, but I would buy the tropical again.