Date: 11-3-2014

Due Date: 11-3-2015

The Resolution: NaNoWriMo is an annual writing contest where they challenge you to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November.

The prize?

You end up with a complete novel.

I did this last year and it was very fun. NaNoWriMo is how I wrote the first draft of my novel Doug: A Life.

I know this year is going to be rough because of all the other resolutions I have to deal with but I will be adapting my screenplay AA: Alcoholics Annoy Us as part of Resolution #159.

This way I won't have to worry about coming up with the story and will have deadlines to meet.

If you can't tell, I enjoy having deadlines in my life.

Result #307: I Failed To Complete Last Year's NaNoWriMo Challenge… But… Hope To Be Succeed This Year…

Update #1: The Conclusion…

Date: 11-3-2015

It was around this time last year that I really thought I was losing it. Two days before setting this resolution I decided I needed to make a change by moving home. I tried my hardest to hide how bad things had gotten and this blog was the perfect distraction.

One of the issues I was dealing with was the idea of giving up on writing. I was pushing forty and aside from a few failed leads, I didn't feel like I was making any progress. I'd given up on my career doing Grip and Electric work for film and television. I was working a retail job that I hated and I felt I was so miserable to be around that I started to push everyone away.

I really lost all hope.

Writing had always been a way for me to work through my issues but at the same time, I started to see it as a cause for many of my woes. I'd spent too much time in a fantasy world where I was in control and felt like I was losing my grasp on a reality that I was trying my hardest to avoid.

I probably could have written something amazing at that time but I was too spent to give it my all.

I'm now feeling somewhat better. I still feel lost but I'm working on a solution. This resolution experiment has kind of spun out of control. Even though I continue to post daily updates I lost a lot of steam during the move home and have been struggling to play catch-up.

I've now come to grips with the fact that this experiment is evolving to be a bucket list challenge where I will work on the failures a few at a time until I complete them all. I should have waited until the resolution experiment was complete to psychologically accept this bucket list challenge as a backup plan because now that I see The Redemption Bucket as a safety net I'm not as concerned when I see a future failure. 

It's not as bad as it sounds.

I'm developing really good writing habits. I write every day. I also post every day. At first… I was totally concerned with how many people were visiting my site and gauging success by numbers and not the quality of work. I now care less about who visits my site. I'm going to do what I'm going to do, fearlessly fucking up until I figure things out while not caring what anyone else thinks.

I'm also now back in the mood to write my own fiction.

So, even though I failed to complete last year's NaNoWriMo I'm ready to try again. This year I want to focus on writing something more traditional, something geared toward a broader audience, something that stands alone that I can self-publish when I'm done.

I feel like I'm actually excited to write again.

I'll keep you posted on how things turn out.