Good morning, blog readers. Today I want to talk about what to do when you’ve reached a huge milestone in your writing. As I mentioned yesterday, I have just recently reached the 50,000 word goal that comes along with National Novel Writing Month. I’ve done this almost every year for the past seven years. But each time it still feels amazing and it’s fun to look back at the first draft I’ve created.
This time around, I ran a tight ship, so to speak, on my story. I had an outline and I was able to advance the story pretty well while still making my daily word counts. This is a story I would like to finish and bring to a conclusive “the end” moment, which is something I haven’t done since my second NaNo. I really feel like I could finish and edit this one. The way I see it, I could go one of two ways here. I could step away from it for a while to gain some perspective, or I could dive right back in.
On one hand, stepping away from this project for a month would mean some time to breathe and escape the crazy deadlines I’ve been dealing with throughout November. People always say that it’s good to gain some space from your piece of writing, but I think that holds true more for editing than for writing more. In this case, I fear that stepping back and taking some time away would mean forgetting the characters, their motivations, and the plot that I’m trying to weave.
So, for me, I’m going to take just one week to bask in the glow of no writing responsibilities, and then I’m going to get back on the horse. My daily word count won’t be as steep (aiming for 800), but I’m hoping I can carry on that routine of writing every day to finish this story.
What about you guys? When you hit a huge moment in your story or in your writing life, do you like to take a step back or dive back in and get back to work? Share in the comments!
– Jet Fuel Blog Editor, Mary Egan
