Adam Landry is a romcom novelist based in Myrtle Beach, SC. With a degree in Creative Writing from LSU and the urging of the Myrtle Beach Writers Group, he’s decided to try his hand at blogging. I’m so excited to have his very first post as a Guest Post here on atlimbo.net! ~ Tina
I always start out the 30 days of NaNoWriMo with a work-in-progress (more on that later), pushing it forward towards completion through the word-count-obsessed weeks, but by the end I alway feel hollowed out of all creative juices and inspiration.
It’s easy to look at what I’ve written and say it’s schlock and that I should just burn it all but I haven’t felt that way about my current piece. The story is fun to write and more realistic than the cliches I’ve written in the past, even I’m just baby steps away from that.
Every writer needs a jumping off point but one thing I am thankful for about National Novel Writing Month (and The Office of Letters & Light, the non-profit that oversees it) is that it doesn’t give you time to focus too much on the world building and “stat cards,” as I like to call them. It’s taking the odd little ball of clay and hitting it with a hammer to see which way I can shape it and I am always pleasantly surprised by my characters. It’s a time in which a silent bride-to-be can become the most observant person in a bar, even more so than her restaurant manager, college best friend.
Did I manage to do enough? It terms of hitting my goal of 40,000 words? No. I didn’t even write half of that, but I have a much better direction and outlook on this piece than the one I wrote for last July and I am looking forward to what else it has to show me.
tmstanton writes 