Novel in a Month

Once again I am participating in Romance Writers of Australia's 50k in 30 Days. Like Nanowrimo, the object is to write 50,000 words in 30 days, except during the month of June.

I've got off to a dismal beginning. The starting gun went bang and I'm still lingering near the start line. It's not that I haven't tried writing, it's that my characters were hiding in the back room with the light turned off. I just couldn't see them. I knew a bit about my story and had worked out the conflicts, had an idea for the black moment... even so, I couldn't get a word down. Talk about pulling teeth!

Then, in one of those 3am epiphanies that have you reaching for pen and paper in the dark, it came to me. I needed to shift one little thing in my story and suddenly my characters were happy. It was like in the movie Labyrinth and I could suddenly move past the brick wall that was in my way.

The reason I hadn't been able to write was because subconsciously I knew what I was writing wasn't what my story needed. It really did feel like a wall inside me came crashing down. I feel calmer, enthused and excited - even though the daily word count I need is now a little scary.

Now my characters are happy to play and the words are flowing. I might be starting behind the eight ball with my word count, but my characters are as eager as me to get the words down. Who knows, I may make the 50k after all.