NaPoWriMo Report: 18/11/2018 · 5:35pm Nov 18th, 2018
Blog Number 48: X Edition
Current NaPoWriMo Word Count: 41,042 words.
This isn't going as well as I'd hoped. 
With only twelve days left, the writing has stalled, and with no sign of that resurgence I was hoping for. The novel itself has just completely stopped.
It's doubly frustrating because the ideas are still coming thick and fast, yet I either doubt the prose will rise above middling, or feel unqualified to mouth off about the necessary subjects. To pick a random recent example: the hell do I know about the advertising industry, much less how to make a story about it sound interesting to anyone not in said industry? It never feels like there's enough research done to do it justice, or that I'm not in some way doing it wrong and going to commit a howler. Besides, I'd sooner write nothing than write ignorant garbage.
What makes it immensely ironic is that writing creative prose is supposed to be a leisurely hobby, complete with future potential as a source of income to supplement my current one. The reality? Writing is the only thing in my life at the moment I can legitimately call a "chore"; my actual job is far more stimulating and rewarding. I'm not exaggerating; yesterday, I went into work feeling like something scraped off a shoe, and after a few hours came out of it practically clicking my heels together in mid-jump.
Currently mixing things up with reference books, dino documentary DVDs, and good "old-timey" video games (like PlayStation2 "old-timey", I'm talking here). If writing were as easy and fun as these things combined, I'd be hitting ten million words by now and accelerating fast. 
Yes, I read reference books for fun. Yes, I'm an egghead. So sue me. 
But again, the writing side of things just keeps disappointing, and I'm not pleased with it. Something needs to change, and soon. Perhaps I'll figure something out, or it just needs time to click into place? I really have no clue, which is part of the problem; no one likes going into a battle completely blind.
As ever, hoping (though not much expecting) to pick up the pace again over the next few days. Until then, this has been a regular NaPoWriMo update. Impossible Numbers, out.
16,949 words at this end, if it's any consolation. In my defense, I'm a lazy gowk. If you ever want to swap levels of productivity, name your price, up to and including souls.
It's amazing, the sort of things you end up researching on behalf of a story, isn't it? The story I've been ploutering through's required more visits to the Wikipedia page for airships than I care to enumerate, as well as looking up how exactly muskets work, and how the components for gunpowder can be produced. Imagine some unlucky MI5 officer tracking activity trying to join the dots there.
4970010
I generally avoid comparing myself with other people. Even if I knew their circumstances, styles, motivations, general goals, and so on, it's essentially as meaningless as comparing giraffes with starfish. I'd refrain from deals with the devil just yet, too; the package deal would come with some downright miserable days.
Yeah, I hear ya. I'm gonna have to do something to rein it in. Part of the problem is that sometimes what I research just isn't easy to incorporate into a story naturally. Sometimes it's at cross-purposes with the current story from start to finish.
Although I think you're safe from MI5 so long as you avoid anything to do with nukes.
I hope things pick up! I’m super behind on my feed, so I hope they already have...
I try not to worry too much about quality or sense during the heat of NaNoWriMo, though. That simply isn’t what it’s for. In my limited experience thus far, novel-writing needs to start with just getting to the end by any means necessary. Fixing and editing it will inevitably take vast amounts of time and sanity anyway, but you’ll never get that far unless you can stand back and consider the work as a whole. Just straight-up guessing, BSing, and making stuff up isn’t a bad way to go if it gets you there.
There’s always time to change it later!