Blogocentric Formulations

NaNoWriMo Conundrum

My NaNo novel is plodding along. I'm not making super great progress, but I am managing to stay on track with my word count - I'm actually a little ahead - and there's still plenty of room left in my story. This definitely isn't like last year, where I was pushing and struggling and forcing myself to get the words out, and then ran into a wall at 20,000 words. I have a nice open-ended narrative that I could go on and on and on with, if I wanted to.

The thing I'm stuck on is the fact that I'm not really into my story. It's my own fault... like last year, I let me other obligations and everything get in the way of NaNo prep, so instead of writing the story I had been intending to write, I starting something completely different right then and there on November 1st. And while the narrative is moving along, I'm having a hard time staying invested, which is probably because I don't know my characters all that well.

Anyway, with all that said, I'm at a bit of a crossroads. I've already accepted the fact that, like my first NaNo effort, even if I finish this novel, I'm not going to do anything with it. And that's okay, because NaNo is more of a fun exercise for me anyway, than it is a legitimate attempt at getting a draft of something started so I can get it published. And knowing that, I've wondered if I should just have fun with it, or actually tell a cohesive story, no matter how bland.

Because here's the thing... I have the attention span of an toddler. What I want to do changes every day. So the conundrum in which I currently find myself is - knowing that this story is just for personal satisfaction - do I do what I really want to do and just let loose? Or do I try to finish the story as I started it? My story is basically a college-aged kid on a road trip to find out what happened to his estranged father. Do I keep with this current narrative and finish the story as it was intended (a dramedy), which would give me that nice feeling of accomplishment of finishing a real novel-length work? Or do I go crazy and let loose, giving myself the freedom to take the story in whatever direction I fancy when I start writing (car chases, conspiracy theories, aliens, erotic encounters, or whatever else), which will entertain me throughout November, but would probably feel like less of an accomplishment at the end of the month since there was no effort to stick to a cohesive story?

I honestly have no idea what I want to do. Part of me wants to just say, "To hell with it; it's all for fun" while the other part of me is saying, "This is just your inner procrastinator/critic talking, trying to get you to avoid the hard work writing a story."

So which is it? And what should I do?

Either way, I'm committed to finishing NaNo this year. I'm just not sure if it's going to be with my protagonist and his father experiencing a heartfelt reunion... or my protagonist rescuing his father from a secret alien society in a climactic speedboat chase.