NaNoWriMo With Austine Decker
Austine Decker
http://austine-decker.livejournal.com/
Years Done NaNoWriMo: 2 (2009 & 2010)
Did You Finish This Year? Yes
What Kind Of Experience Did You Have? This year, I thought it wouldn’t be so stressful since I did NaNo last year and finished. But, honestly, I think it was even worse because I knew what November would be like. Always trying to reach the daily goal of 1,667 words. Not always having the time or accessibility to do so. Wondering if you’re going to finish on time or get cut off at the very last minute. I’d like to say my experience this year was horrible (and what I just said would back that up) but I found NaNo 2010 exhilarating. After 30 days of terror and stress, the end result is you wrote 50,000 words. You. It’s the greatest feeling in the world and made this year’s NaNoWriMo a fond memory to add to the collection.
What Impact Did NaNo Have On Your Life/Writing Overall? NaNoWriMo taught me (in the words of Mur Lafferty from the podcast I Should Be Writing) “You’re allowed to suck.” Before NaNo 2009, I’d been struggling to get past 30k, never knowing my full potential. Now, here I am, a year later, with a finished trunk novel almost 60k and another WiP already at 64k. Without NaNo, I wouldn’t have reached my goal of writing a novel. It doesn’t matter if it’s good or not; it’s the fact that I realized I could. And that revelation is what keeps me going with writing each day.
Any Weird Habits You Started? Well, for starters, I never used to drink coffee and now find it to be very good with cinnamon toast in the mornings. I wake up in the middle of the night, still on my NaNo schedule, to write down ideas. Oh, and there’s that habit that I can’t sit down and write without writing at least 1,667 words anymore. Used to be I could barely get 500/day. You can always find me with a writing utensil and paper of some kind, no matter where I am (I took a notebook to Olive Garden once and my sister took a picture). I guess for all this, I should say, “Thank you, NaNoWriMo!?”
If You Could Give Some Advice to New NaNoers What Would It Be? Don’t give up. I know I felt like I wanted to each and every day. But you know what? NaNoWriMo is about personal success. Even if you don’t make it to the 50k, there’s always next year. Whether you finish or not, you wrote words. Your story may be one huge rant about pie, but you wrote them and should take pride in them. I didn’t do that my first year, even though I finished, and you know what? I came back and finished NaNoWriMo again and listened to my own advice. Take pride in your work. It will be your greatest motivator of all.
Do You Have Plans for Next Year? As next year will be my senior year in high school, I’m not sure how my schedule will play out and if NaNo will be an option but I’m going to try to do it. A little extra stress never hurt anyone, right?
Right?
What ‘got you interested’ in writing? Or, why do you write? Well, I’ve always been a big reader, ever since I was little. One day I just decided I wanted to write my own novel (it was 26 pages long, handwritten in all different colored sharpie). I was working on a short story for English class and I started wondering what would happen next. It was an epic failure, but a good learning experience. After that, I realized writing wasn’t so easy but the desire to see my name on a bookshelf in Barnes & Noble became all-consuming. But now I’ve realized how much I love to write. I don’t care about publishing so much as I used to. There’s just… something about writing, about being able to think through actual issues and situations in fiction where no one will judge you. It’s also an escape for me from reality when things get a little crazy. But, for the most part, I write for the love of it.
