Watsowrimo In Decline, and Other Complaints of Sherlockian Distraction

 Today marks the two-thirds done point for "Watsowrimo," my attack on National Novel Writing Month working out a Watson-based character and his Sherlock(s) as they live out their lives in electronic document form. (Typing words on to actual paper might have been just as vulnerable to loss as an electronic document, but had its more satisfying moments.)

Ten days into this venture, at the one third point, it became plain that I'd only typed half the number of words to keep pace for reaching the goal by month-end. And with that realization came the thought that if I wasn't going to make it, I might as well get a few other things done instead of giving the novel priority. Nanowrimo is a master best served by the young or retired and otherwise unencumbered. And once I started giving focus to those other efforts, the goal 50,000 words in November was doomed. Oh, I was going to probably write 50,000 words this month, just not in that one document holding the novel.

Like right now, stopping to write a blog post.

But working on a podcast or two, putting out a chronology newsletter, planning something for the next meeting of the John H. Watson Society or an annual Sherlock Holmes birthday Zoom . . .all that is not conducive to the writing of long form fiction when one has a job filling at least forty hours of one's week. But life is all about choices, no matter what your philosophical take on free will.

All that said, I was still writing on the novel this morning, just prior to this post, and still enjoying the characters and looking in on what they're up to. The thing about Nanowrimo that makes it different from running a marathon is that when a marathon is over, the course tends to revert to its former function, often a road travelled by cars and trucks. You can't stop halfway and keep running the marathon later from the same point at which you took a break. When a marathon is over, it's over. 

Writing, thankfully, is not running. You can take as long a breather as you'd like and get right back into the race, if your brain can hold on to the course and what you've done so far. Maybe just getting a little more done each day, even if not enough to reach that lofty goal of a 50,000 word November, is enough.

Sometimes, "enough" isn't such a hard goal to achieve. Perhaps "Watsowrimo" becomes "Watsowriye" and it just continues on past November.

And gives me time for one more blog post . . .