Ding, ding! Ding, ding!

Well, it’s done - I wrote a 50,043 word novel titled The Flow Shaper in 26 days! I am a 2007 NaNoWriMo winner! Plus, I made the deadline with four days to spare.

The irony is that a week ago, I wasn’t sure if I could be able to finish on time and had already given up on even trying to finish.

My goal from the start of the contest on November 1 had been to stay with the “curve” that magical number of 1,666.6667 words per day that would bring me to 50,000 words by midnight on November 30. Up until the middle of the month and the 25,000 word half way point, I had managed to keep my daily word count within a day of the “curve.” That’s when things started to fall apart. I stopped writing for a day, then another day, then another day. I found convenient excuses to not write and rationalized why it was OK not to write. I was “too busy” or “too tired” and I would “make it up” the next day.

By the end of day 21, I was still at only 26,158 words. The “curve” was at 35,000 words - I was more than 9,000 words behind, a seemingly hopeless number to make up with only 9 more days to go.

Feeling sorry for myself, I emailed Shawn, one of my writing buddies: “I’m not sure where I’m headed with the novel. Part of me says cut bait. Part of me says keep fishing. The numb fingers worry me…”

Yep, my thumb, index finger and middle finger on my right hand had started tingling ever since I started writing the novel. Who knew that novel writing was more damaging to the body than riding in the aero position on my bike for five hours or running a marathon? I didn’t. One more reason not to keep writing.

Shawn replied back: “I don’t think you should cut bait if at all possible. Words are cheap even if they don’t say anything and looking back on it you’ll say…well….’It was an experience’ but whatever you decide c’est la vie…..”

During the same span of time, I also received a voice mail from Christina, my other writing buddy, encouraging me to “hang in there” and just keep writing. I then recalled she had made me sign some sort of official-looking NaNoWriMo writing agreement that I would finish my novel by end of month upon pain of death…or something like that…I can’t remember the exact words. Damn! Why I had signed that? Shawn didn’t sign one.

Here’s a calendar view of what my November looked like for writing each day:

Light green and red show where I was above or below the goal for the day, bold green and red are reserved for days where I did exceptionally well or monumentally badly. Note the full week of red days leading up to Thanksgiving!

As I sat at my parents’ house in SC drinking copious amounts of red wine and debating whether I should write or not, I had an epiphany. Novel writing, like racing in an Iron-distance triathlon, is a metaphor for life, well, at least for my life. Let me explain. I’ve been in this “funk” since September that I haven’t quite been able to shake. I’ve experienced this before after the triathlon racing season, but for some reason the funk started earlier and seems to be lasting longer. I’ve been beating my head against the wall trying to make it go away, but it just won’t. I start things but just can’t seem to finish them. Maybe the key is to stop making excuses and start doing something.

The fundamental problem with quitting, I’ve realized, is that as soon as you quit, it becomes much easier to quit the next time. Quitting then becomes a habit. This is the reason why I am afraid to walk out during the middle of a Bikram [Hot] Yoga class even when I’m feeling dizzy and overheated.

I started writing again on the 22nd. I wrote in small batches of 250, 500 or 1,000 words at a time and by the end of the day, I had more than 5,000 words! I followed it with a 5,500 word day. Then a 4,000 word day. I was on a roll! I found that I could write and watch a movie at the same time. So if elements of the “Bourne Ultimatum” made it into my fantasy novel, it’s not my fault! The momentum was back and I was checking off the words.

Now, that I’m done with my 50,000 words, I feel a positive sense of accomplishment…perhaps not so much for finishing the book (I’ve already written a book that’s been published), but more so for not pulling myself of my “I feel sorry myself” writing funk and quitting. Truthfully, I’ve always wanted to write an “epic fantasy” novel along the lines of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings but never started it. Not only am I now a NaNoWriMo winner, but I have written a fantasy novel thats no longer something I’ve only “talked about doing.”

Picture: My book, Full time and Sub-Nine

What’s next? Time to start checking off some of the other things I’ve been “talking about doing” such as:
- Improving my swimming over the winter so that I can bring my 2.4-mile swim time down to low 50’s. I will begin by showing up for swim practices at the Reston Community Center in the morning.
- Running a faster marathon in February. I’ve already emailed Olaf Sabatschus, my coach, and said that I was ready to begin marathon training.
- Becoming more conversationally fluent in German. I’d like to surprise my German host family when I return to Roth in July for the Quelle Challenge.
- Take 5 Bikram Yoga classes in one day. Five yoga classes in a day may sound easy, but I’ve lost 9 pounds of sweat in a single class so this will be a tremendous challenge for me.

Cheers,

David

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David B. Glover
Experiential Writer, Elite Athlete, Coach and Race Director
Author of Full Time and Sub-Nine
Personal Web: www.davidglover.net
Business Web: www.enduranceworks.net

©2007 David B. Glover