Making it through week 2

For me, Week 1 is the week of "I don't care how much this seems to suck or how much I'm just hammering at keys, I'm doing this thing." I think for a lot of Wrimos, that same determination (and abandon) that got you started will carry you through the first week.

Week 2, on the other hand, is usually where that ugly beast Doubt raises its head. Your project isn't even half-baked, and you start hearing little voices in your head like "this isn't really coming together, is it?" or "why should I bother with this 'cause it's all just crap anyhow?" or, maybe, "where the heck is the plot in all this??!" Week 2 is the week most like work for me. Week 2 is the week that I have to settle into rhythm, turn up the music (to drown out those little voices), and just keep writing. I know that once I get past Week 2, and near 25k, that 35k is just around the corner.

After 35k, it's easy. Seriously.

Week 2 is probably the best week to:

• Attend write-ins! I know I sound like a broken record on this. They really do help.
• Ask for support here on the forum. Just say something like "I suck. I want to quit" and we'll all come rushing to your aid.
• Just keep writing. 1667 every day. Don't stress if you're behind - don't slow down if you're ahead. I've been behind more often than I've been ahead. Watch Chris Baty's word count - he's nearly always behind the daily goal until the latter half of the month, and he's made it 11 times.
• Turn up the music and ignore those little voices. They're not helping.

2009: Sleepwalking
6-year, 5-win veteran. Details

I won't lie. Week II is *usually* when my story picks up. I almost never hit 10k during Week I, and then Week II rolls around and I start tearing through things.

But, the last two years Week II is when I floundered and dropped out (BAD I KNOW), so, do as swaziloo says. I've actually accomplished more in my first Week than past Nano's JUST by attending the write-ins. There's an ausome support group here, so make use of it. <3

flickr : mrgid || twitter : mrgid || www.hellotea.org/teapad

Week 1 was sort of Week 2 for me (hating what I was working on, ready to throw in the towel), but things in the plot are really picking up right now, so I have a good feeling about Week 2 this year. :)

Good luck, everyone!

2009: Façade (won!)
2008: The Arbiter (won)
2007: Tales of Cadence (won)

Swaziloo, you are AWESOME.

Debbie aka Boo Boo
ML for Sonoma County
Winner--2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
Also Ran--2003

I agree! The encouragement is so helpful and well-constructed.

I thought about quitting yesterday for the first time because I already got two days behind, thought about how this pain is completely self-inflicted and there's an easy way out.
Considering quitting though, made me realize how much I had to do this. I really can't just drop it. So on the verge of falling asleep, soon before midnight, I closed my eyes and placed my fingers on the keyboard, lights out, monitor turned off, and I just typed whatever I dreamed up in regards to the story. This allowed me to break 10,000 words, and all of the pain I was feeling earlier that day had vanished. This huge weight flew away, and I remember again why I'm doing this and why it's so extremely important.

Embrace the doubt as fuel to get you through.
Good luck, everybody.

That's great, Czenko. I've had similar things happen...every year it seems I get to a point where i want to quit, and this is my seventh year!!!

Debbie aka Boo Boo
ML for Sonoma County
Winner--2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
Also Ran--2003

Having a wonderful time, and doing ever so much better than I have in previous NaNo Novembers: I can see my way today to 11,000 words! Many of those words are combined in sentences that are run-on and kinda boring...but still, more words than I've ever seen come out of my Neo. I have a good feeling I'm gonna win this year...and then write at least 750 words a day for the rest of my life. Or at least three, four days a week, eh? - fabulous! Best of luck and fast fingers to all my fellow WriMos. Thanks, Boo Boo, for being our faithful ML!

I usually skip the social component of most writing forums, but this one is great. The honesty and the encouragement are inspiring. Cheers to writers and dreamers and writing your dreams.

As others before me have said...

Just. Keep. Writing.

When I'm having a bad writing day, or when I start to wonder what the heck it is I think I'm doing, I remind myself that I committed to 50k words. Not all of them have to be particularly good.

Transitions are awkward or totally and completely pulled out of left field, sometimes I end up changing genres mid-story. But I just write. I see where the character wants to go that day, and then I write what they see and do and decide about their world. Let things get surreal or weird if you need to. Go from outer space to rock opera if that's what your brain says.

Look forward. You have 11 other months to edit and nitpick it all to death. This month is all production, and it can really astound you, what you can come up with when you leave yourself open to it. :)

I wound up taking Friday off, and Saturday I had an author event a friend of mine was in and a chapter meeting to go to in the East Bay. I was begrudging both of them, so I compromised. I went to the chapter meeting, and I think made the right choice. Melinda Curtis talked about her road to publication, and about keeping up the muse while writing. Her stories of being orphaned and trying to write for what was popular or requested. She used an example of a friend who got an 11 page single spaced revision letter from her editor, who could not bring herself to change her story, and has never been published.

It isn't important whether or not we want to get published, that isn't my point. The point is that she was unwilling to do what she needed to do to achieve her goal. I took it to heart when I think about the times when my fingers are not the "happy fingers" they should be to pound out the words. Like Swaziloo, I get in a funk frequently, doubt myself, when things just don't seem to be as magical as they should be - and that's a problem if you write paranormal romance!

She suggested we use whatever we have at hand: music, scents, a garden walk, silence, the buddy system, a write-in, read a craft book on emotional layers of character development, a children's book, make up something new, make up something that will never see the light of day or an editor or critique group! Like the Nike commercial: Just Do It (yeah, I know it's old, but it's still good).

Someone said to critique someone else's work as if they are a novelist who is going to make it, be published. I think we need to treat our "happy fingers" as if they are capable of turning out great stuff, and we stop getting in their way. That's what's so great about Nano - we give ourselves permission to turn our lives over to our fingers, let the muse in all of us flow and tell her/his story.

And that's what so fun about doing it in a group setting. Cheers to all of you, and may we do the "happy finger" dance together on this beautiful Sunday. I can't even see the sky yet it is so dark, but I know it's going to be beautiful.

Afterall, my first granddaughter is going to start being born today. What could be more beautiful than that?

This is a wonderful thread!

Week 2 (or, to be honest, the end of Week 1) is when I've always begun to slow down and get caught up in editing and second guessing the quality of both my writing and my ideas. My plot becomes trite in my eyes and my characters unoriginal. And the grammar! Dear lord, my grammar! The overuse of commas should be a crime. I've committed myself to not letting that happen this year and to power through to 50,000 words without looking back, Chris Baty style, but WOW. It is hard to do.

Good luck this next week, everyone! No quitting!

http://www.leagueofverbs.com/

Thank you, juels2020. And I agree with others. This is a primo thread. I couldn't say any of it better, and so I'm not!

Debbie aka Boo Boo
ML for Sonoma County
Winner--2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
Also Ran--2003

I love the idea of happy fingers although I confess it gave me a momentary flashback to an awful horror movie with a disembodied piano-playing hand that occasionally gave in to its murderous impulses (tried to write succombed, but I couldn't spell it, besideds "gave in to" earns more words. Week Two has begun...We can do it...

I agree about the happy fingers thing, and I think I saw that film too about the concert pianist whose hands kept playing his pieces after death, driving his wife insane, and then his hands strangle her?

Someone from the Scotland chapter has done about 70k words and I asked how he did it. He told me he takes his hands off at night and leaves them by the heater to dry out and "relax", and then puts them back on in the morning. And he writes about 10 hours a day. LOL. I guess it was a rather dumb question.

I'm off to the hospital as my daughter's labor is progressing. She hasn't asked for me yet, but I'm going to impose my maternal self on her and beg at the waiting room - WITH MY LAPTOP, OF COURSE! She shouldn't have told me the hospital has WiFi.

Tootles. TTFN

"Granny" Shastra

I can't imagine writing 70K words at this point without an extra pair of hands and several extra hours in the day. Shastra, I hope that your daughter's delivery goes smoothly, that your maternal impulses are blessed, and that your writing and everyone else's writing keeps plugging along...

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. It really helps to be in community, writing can be a lonely craft. Who knew there were so many of us out there. Here's to many more creative words and fun sentences, in fact any words and crappy sentences will do fine. Who cares! lets just keep the numbers moving! yes, Shasta, congrats on your grand baby's arrival. You will be blessed beyond measure! i was. i have my first, she is now four. Awesome experience! p.s. where do we read excerpts others may have posted?

I started off the week a couple days behind in my word count. But listening to all of you on this thread and hearing everyone checking in from around the region, has inspired me to keep going.

I went to the SSU write-in yesterday, but skipped the one at the central library and spent the evening at home. Writing. I'm now back on track and steadily chipping away at my personal goal of 2,000 words a day (thank you, Robogeriat). Makes it easier to do the math.

I have tomorrow off and I plan to be at the Cafe Azul write-in. I may even be able to make it there on Thursday as well.

Congrats to Nana Shastra! I hope all is well with your daughter and her family.

Are we there yet?

Yakera, I love your posts! "Any words and crappy sentences," is priceless...and true!

You can read excerpts if the wrimo has posted one (many don't, like me. I'm too busy writing!). You have to know the person's username and do an author search to get the person's profile, then click on novel info. OR, the EASY way, is to click on the username, say, in a forum post. It will take you right to their author profile, click on novel info.

Debbie aka Boo Boo
ML for Sonoma County
Winner--2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
Also Ran--2003

Thanks to everyone who made it to Copperfield's tonight. It was inspiring to see all of you there tapping away. I wish I could have spent both hours with you, but I scratched out 1300 words in the hour I had. This is one of the craziest things I have ever tried, (Does that betray too much about my lack of world-shaking experiences?) and one of the most fun. A community of writers is as wonderful and comforting and encouraging as any other community, but it is more surprising because there is the vision of the writer in his/her lonely room. Not necessarily....

As Week 2 comes to a close I went back and re-read this thread. I have to say that what Swaziloo posted early on has described my Week 2 experiences to a tee. It's kinda spooky. But in a good way.

I attended three different write-ins in, each one productive in its own way. And I learned a lot about my process. I have yet to talk to anyone in-depth about my novel, but even casual conversations have sparked an idea or two. I even did a virtual write-in at home. At the appointed start time, I sat at my desk, checked in with the write-in's forum here, put up a NaNoWriMo Write-In tent card (courtesy of Shastra), and spent the next three hours writing. Knowing that folks on site were doing the same thing helped. More than I thought it would.

I am so grateful for the forums this year. I didn't really read them before because I thought my time would be better spent writing rather than talking about writing. I already do too much of that. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent writing about my writer's block. Ironic, no? If I did that here I know someone would quickly point out, "Well, at least you're writing. And don't forget to put that in your word count."

And as others have pointed out, just keep writing! Whether my fingers were happy or not, whether I had doubts or not, I kept writing and had faith that things would come together. And it did. Yesterday I had a breakthrough day. Scenes began materializing. My characters were talking to each other. Last night the ending for my story appeared and this morning the beginning showed up. Now I have a story to write!

Music. Ah, divine aire! It is a never-ending source of inspiration for me. It's amazing how many times I'll be writing and a song will come on with exactly the right words or tone or orchestration I need at that moment. (The title of my NaNo novel is a song by the band, Muse.) The same goes for movies - a line of dialogue, an actor's body language, a setting, an historical period. All grist for the writing mill. And that carries over into things in everyday life. I'll find inspiration in a conversation at the next table in a restaurant, watching people greet each other on the street, witnessing a near-collision at an intersection.

So, it has been a week of highs and lows, but I am now, more than ever, determined to reach my goal of 50,000+ words. And I want to thank you all for the pleasure of your company. Truly, I could not have come this far without you.

Peace and many blessings.

Are we there yet?