Fitting NaNo around school?

I'm mad at homework right now. We aren't getting along.

I know I should do it. Part of me wants to do it. But I'd much rather be writing!

One thing I do is set word counts on my homework, and then reward myself with writing. "If I write 500 more words for that assignment, I can write 500 words on my novel." Giving myself writing to do as an award for doing homework, rather than "holy crap I have to write 1,667 words today on top of homework" means that I look forward to it. Keeps the love alive.

It also gets my homework done. (And now I need to get off the forum so I can write 500 words of homework, so I can write more of my novel and update my wordcount!) : ]

Basically, i write when i get a chance... which isn't often, and it's usually late at night when my insomnia is acting up. if you have easy enough school work, then it's not hard. So... i guess that's where i'm at. though i've only really written that one night.. gah! if i want to finish, i better get going!!!

....um....school?

Oops. XD

http://akikodate.deviantart.com <-- May or may not contain novel art

i have taken the same approach you have. i have two things due at school on the 17th & 18th and i keep telling myself i'll do them next weekend! yikes!

yes...hem...similar problems over here. May have had to take a W in my Geology class because I didn't study for the test because I was...well...writing. :)
But it is all good. My other classes are still fine, and I can just do Geology next semester!
Yay writing!

"I like rudeness a great deal better than flattery" ~Jane Eyre

2009- Leader---in progress

Haha, school this quarter has been nuts for me. I'm taking 15 hours of art studio classes, and as a senior, all of these are really work-intensive classes. I am also going on a trip to Japan with my school and leaving on November 27th, cutting my month short. I am also working my ass off on submissions for various contests and gallery shows because holy shit, I'm a senior and need to get my work out there. D:

AND I'm doing NaNo!

But honestly, I've found that I just function better when I am under loads of stress. I've been managing amazingly well this year compared the many previous years and I'm not terribly concerned about neither my classes nor my NaNo. I am sure I'll make all A's and I'm really confident about reaching 50k. I don't really have a trade-off system to motivate me either way, but I schedule things and am just sure to stick to my schedule. If I know I have a lot of homework to do on one day, I'll just make up NaNo's word count beforehand or afterwards.

2003: The Nipul-Suris (fail)
2004: Untitled (fail)
2005: Peter Pan Syndrome (epic fail)
2006: Shoot the Moon (WIN)
2007: Goodnight Moon (WIN)
2008: Urban Decay (epic, epic fail)

http://www.deadend-detour.com

School? What is this "school" thing you speak of?

Unfortunately, my homework has kinda fallen by the wayside. Not good. It's due tomorrow (well, technically today), so I'm gonna have to spend all afternoon catching up, and then the rest of the day trying to boost my word count.
NaNo's gonna be the death of me. And the wierd thing is- I think I'm ok with that. ^^

"Children in the back seats of cars cause accidents. But accidents in the back seats of cars cause children."
~Unknown~

What homework...?

Actually, I want to know why all my professors decided to have projects/tests/papers/exams due in November, instead of December. Don't they know about NaNoWriMo? D: My geology prof even pulled me aside, concerned I had dropped from a 95% in the class to a 92% (it's a small college, so lots of one-on-one stuff like this)- Well, duh! NaNo is here. :DD And all that other pesky stuff that happens when your in your twenties. *drama, joy* But thank goodness for coffee and the ability to take naps just about anywhere - Keep writing!

All of my professors decided that November was the best time for midterms. So basically what I do each year is set aside a specific time for NaNo-ing and then do homework during the other times.

...until I get too into my novel and take time out of my sleep schedule to write it as well ^^

I've elevated NaNo to the level of "productive activity" - meaning that studying for midterms, completing assignments now have to jockey for playing time. So far, that's translated into me doing them at the 11th hour. Oh well. It's my last semester. :)

2002 - Subterfuge
2003 - The Runes of Raenor
2004 - Nonsensical Ages
2005 - Fourth Son
2006 - The Law of Retribution
2007 - The Line of Succession
2008 - Thousand Year Era of Peace
2009 - The Winter Regent

http://gzipping.livejournal.com

Just got to 20k rather than studying for a midterm tomorrow--I appreciate my priorities ^^

Stupid Music Education program has me taking 17 hours in school. I have musical instruments to practice, and NaNo to do, and a job to find and homework to do, all on top of NaNo. I'm kind of hoping I don't get a job until December (ie they'll wait until next quarter starts in January).

I currently have a bee in my bonnet to catch up, get ahead, and trek toward 100K during Thanksgiving break. So yeah, I'm praying, "Please God, give me money but let it be creating, not working a more menial job."

I should be giving far more priority to schoolwork than I currently am. but I'm taking 20 credits, and working 2 jobs, and taking music lessons/singing in choirs, and studying karate. and once my day is done, all I want to do is write (NaNo writing, not the 4 research papers I currently have assigned.)

this is a problem. seriously. I need to figure out how to balance things. I have been doing homework after dinner for a few hours, then taking a short break, and then writing well into the night. getting a few hours of sleep (usually 3-4) before repeating all that again is starting to drain me very quickly. and projects and papers are piling up before the term break. apparently professors not only are not aware of NaNo, they're also not aware that every single other professor is also assigning the major graded submission of the term for that due date. thanks, university. I appreciate your scheduling.

I should really go read European History now, and start researching my Music History paper due on Monday. rather than napping, which is the more tempting option.

"We are basically dependent beings: one upon another, and each on a world that is not of our making." --Matthew B. Crawford

I am taking 20 credits (i think, i can't count above 4), and those are music school credits, which are generally a lot more hours than credits, and our production of Le Nozze di Figaro, goes up in two weeks. Lots of time to write.

2008 -- The Worlds' Collision, a Novel of Metafiction, Madness, Poor Characterization, and the Month of November.
2006 -- Road Trip

I'm so glad I'm not the only one having a hard time balancing school and writing! It's getting crazy. I tend to be a little bit of an obsessive personality, which means that once I get stuck on something (i.e. NaNoWriMo), it's all I can think about. I have to force myself to make sure it doesn't get in the way of schoolwork. (Haha. Ha.)

And then when I do sit down to write, all I can think about is how I ought to be working on this paper or that problem set instead-- so I end up writing at obscene hours of the morning when I can't sleep. :) It's a good system.

I'm taking 6 classes instead of 5... I started the month with the mentality of I'm not going to freak out if I don't do 50,000
In fact, I'm aiming for 25,000 instead.

But I still have fallen behind in some of my reading for my classes :( Oh well.

Oh good, it's not just me! I've found myself putting things off until just before they are do (and occasionally right after they're due) because I've been spending my time writing. It's pretty bad, since I'm a procrastinator by nature anyways and tend to put things off on a regular basis. I guess I need to start buckling down I guess.

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." - Jack London

~Brittany

I'm having a really hard time, mostly because school makes me unbelievably depressed, so I'll skip it, but I won't write either. I have a problem, I know. I find that I feel really guilty whenever I skip so I tell myself that I'll catch up on the work I've missed/refused to do, but I don't and then I don't write because of the same guilt. I should really kick that habit. But then again, I also have two part-time jobs, and it's retail's favorite season, and all of a sudden people want to hang out with me again. It's annoying as hell. On the other hand, midterms are over and finals are in December, so life should be better inbetween.

School? Lucky.

How about 50 hours a week of brain numbing work? Yuck. Pfft.

I'll bet teachers have more respect for NaNo than employers. Can you guys get credit or anything for writing?

I do my school work, and then I do my NaNo responsibilities while taking a break from schoolwork. I also found that carrying a notebook around with you to class so you can write during those particularly boring/pointless classes is really useful as well.

2009 NaNoWriMo - AlbinoZombie (in progress)

Being an author is like being in charge of your own personal insane asylum. ~Graycie Harmon

The homework is killing my novel. Really. It's not that I've been doing so much homework that my word count suffers - on the contrary, it's that I don't want to do my homework, so I do my NaNo, which makes me angry at myself for procrastinating, which makes me write total crap as a form of stress relief.

Last night, I wrote over a page about how one of my characters got struck by lightning in another dimension. I went into very gruesome detail describing his intense physical pain like torture.

M

So up until this week, I was always at least a thousand words ahead of schedule. Then Old English paper/memorization of the opening of Beowulf, a performance review for my poetry class, a showcase I was in, and Choir rehearsals ate my word count. FML, school finally caught up with me. This. Sucks.

FORGET REGRET... OR LIFE IS YOURS TO MISS
Yes, I do worship Tamora Pierce. It's a way of life.

I prioritize school over NaNoWriMo, and my wordcount reflects that. I just started graduate school, and there's no way I'm telling my professors that I decided to write a book instead of produce data or take exams. When I get home from class and work, I'm usually too drained to think about writing. This may be a sign that I'll make a better scientist than novelist.

Even if I don't win NaNo, this experience has reawakened my love of writing. I will probably focus on science writing in December instead of novel writing.

This year decided to skip whole Nano (I know, such a hard and sad decision...). It's my first year in university and I have my first teaching training right now. My schooldays have been something like 10-12 hours plus homeworks so I have to admit I'm pretty glad I didn't try Nano this year. But it's awful I have to wait another year to be part of this again! You who can deal with both nano and school, you're so lucky!

"If you can't lie to yourself, you can't lie to anyone."

I was (luckily?) sick with H1N1 for a good part of November, and still haven't fully recovered (sinus infection, ouch). While it meant I didn't have to study for tests and such, it does mean a crazy boat load of catch up that I don't want to do because I've gotten a taste for writing.

The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.

last two days of classes before thanksgiving break, and I have absolutely no time to write. luckily I'm a little ahead in my wordcount. but I want to work on my novel! just can't afford to. I don't enjoy failing classes.

which is why I am still awake now at 5 am, writing a research paper that is due in 3 hours. if I write anything at 5am, I like it to be NaNo stuff. ugh. back to the grindstone I go.

"We are basically dependent beings: one upon another, and each on a world that is not of our making." --Matthew B. Crawford

It´s actually working out well for me, for the first Nano year ever. I´m studying in Spain, which means that my homework load is quite small (yay for diffs in european educational system).
Still, I find my schoolwork gets no interest from me when I feel like writing, hehehe

2006: Four Tales--WON
2007: Viva and Charlotte--WON!
2008: He Shall Not Perish--WON!
2009: The Last Son of God--Come on, gotta keep the tradition alive!

I've been using it as a homework break. I'll read for an hour and then write 300-500 words. It's been working out well.

http://englishmajorjunkfood.blogspot.com

I've been putting school first (I'm just a little GPA-obsessed) to the detriment of my NaNo. But I'm still determined to win - I'll catch up over break. After I've done all the schoolwork I have to do over break. ;-(

'07: Tall Heels (Lost 47k. Completed 51k.)
'08: Retribution (Won 51k. Completed 81k)
'09: Noli Me Calcare - Writing Blog

Cups of tea: 26... Coffee: 7... Characters killed: 1... Current chapter: 20..