Need Encouragement Come Here

Things are going fine--to a point.

I'm getting my daily word quota (1667 per day, since I'm shooting for 50K this year) but I'll admit I'm beginning to lose motivation. Maybe it's because my plot feels like it's not moving along as fast as it should...I have no idea. Other reasons might be a lack of inspiration, or my old habit of having high expectations for myself creeping back again. I want my book to be halfway decent, but when I go back and read the last bit of the work I did yesterday, it almost sounds like junk. It almost seems like getting my word count in and doing NaNo in general is becoming more of a chore than a a challenge...no offense to anyone here.

Any advice for getting my motivation back or just advice in general for this newbie?

First year doing NaNoWriMo
2009 work--in progress; title TBD; mostly fantasy

If rereading your work is what's getting you down, then you should probably stop. If you have to write each day's words into a new document and then cut and paste it into the main document when you're done for the day. If necessary copy the last paragraph or line of dialogue into the new document. It works for me.

This Years Novel:
The Novel of Randomness
Summary: One writer and an ever growing population of muses and plotbunnies. Maybe even the appearance of a Bob. And unless you are familiar with Sylum Clan, you have no idea what a Bob is.

Also, keep in mind that NaNoWriMo's unofficial motto is "quantity, not quality." But here's the interesting thing about that motto: if you can get over worrying about quality, and just focus on quality, you eventually -- after lots and LOTS of words -- come out the other end of the tunnel, and start to write much higher quality stuff.

So, persistance = quantity + eventual quality. How's that for a winning equation?

I speak from experience. To toot my own horn just a little bit: my manuscript from two years ago made it to the quarterfinals of Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Awards, and that was with absolutely ZERO edits. And my manuscript from last year is, according to some very well established authors, ten times better.

So, please stick with it. Especially if you're looking to improve the quality of your writing. Quantity will get you there, eventually. Trust me.

:)

P.S. You mention that your plot isn't moving fast enough. You know who can speed that up, right? I mean, you _do_ know who's in charge of your novel, your characters, and your plot? Feel free to slap your NaNoNovel around a bit until it starts behaving. They're stubborn beasts sometimes.

I am one lucky dude. After about Chapter Three, my characters took over and started doing "stuff" on their own. Since I'm writing a young adult novel I threatened them with "stuff" that didn't work when I was teaching stubborn teenagers, either, and my characters just sneered and did what they pleased. And that was a good thing!

On Wednesday I had to scrap the original plot and rewrite another chapter outline (no more than about 50 words per chapter) from where the characters started doing their own thing (the villain was just the opposite, the main character was a lot stronger than I'd originally planned, her family suddenly became much more important in the plot, more villains came out of no where - okay, they jumped out of a Silverado and beat the crap out of the former villain and left him in the snow because he suddenly came out and announced that he was gay ... you get the picture).

Ted's advice is excellent as always ("Throw her down the stairs" from Ted was the best literary advice I ever had, Ted!). I sense that your characters may need to bang up against each other to develop more defined personalities. And trust me - if you get some strong personalities going, they'll do their own thing - but you gotta let 'em.

So - try to concentrate on personalities and dialogue early on. Don't worry about where the plot is going. I bet you'll find yourself passing 10,000 words effortlessly.

Now - get to work and DON'T slip back here until you have another chapter or two down. Good luck!

Throwing main characters down stairways (metaphorically OR literally) always makes for a better story. Glad it's working for you, Paul! And grats on the massive wordcount!

I hate to say this but I need encouragement. I have come down with the evil swine flu. So as you can tell my word count hasn't moved for awhile. For a little background of me. I have rheumatoid arthritis which often attacks the immune system. So I can get sick very easily also it usually keeps me sick for a long time. I also have asthmas so often my coughing never seem to stop and it's hard to breath. So this is what making it hard to write. But also my husband has it as well so i am trying to take care of him.

I need advice...

I'd also think that, once you do feel better, you could still catch up. Your current wordcount is right on target, so you've lost no ground yet. Take a break, get healthy, and then come back strong!

Good advice again from Ted. I hope you're under a doctor's care, too, as H1N1 is nothing to mess with. I recommend massive doses of sleep and rest, too. Get well, please.

I wish I was under doctors's care. I don't have insurence. My mom is coming to Emporia from Olathe to take care of my husband and me. And be here if one of us needs to go to the hospital. We are both slowly getting worse...so we are in it for sure.

eerrggg!!! I was doing great and now I'm stuck!!! I don't know how to go where I want to get to from where I am at!! I hope that if I keep hacking away at it maybe I will get my words in tonight, or maybe a glass of wine will loosen my "tongue"

Ah, Cara,
time for the dares forum! Or, "WriMo Ate My Soul". Either one will give you so many ideas. . . well, at least they do for me! : )

Or, you can do as I did and "waste" a day on the road with 2 different road trips. On both of them, you mostly listen to your friends' tales and daydream. I came home with one story line that could be an entire novel and another that will fit nicely into the one I'm working on.

I also came home mentally exhausted. Not good! But woke up very chipper, seeing as if I have a block in the next two weeks, it's my own fault for not using the gifts the Muses dumped on me. Considering myself well equipped to face pretty much anything for awhile. LOL

Get out there and break a pencil (but not your keyboard!!),
Lorraine