So, now that NaNo has officially started, how's everyone doing? Not necessarily just how's your writing going (but please feel free to bask in the glow of your massive word counts), but how are you doing? Is it awesomer or suckier than you could have imagined? Is it just a big ol' steaming cup of meh? Feeling overwhelmed? Stressed out? Over the moon?
Come here and vent, gloat, whine, cry, rage, celebrate...whatever you need.
I am doing okay right now. Trying to hit my goal for 11/1 now so I can go on with the rest of Thursday at least knowing I'm not behind. (FYI: 50,000 words in 30 days breaks down to 1,667 words a day.) But I have buckets of stuff to do this weekend, never mind the rest of November (papers to write, a thesis to finish, and days of volunteer work to do). I think of it this way: If I focus, I can meet my daily word count goal in no more than 2 hours. I can shave 2 hours off most of my daily activities on most days. (Helps to have TiVo!) Some days it'll be an hour, if even that much, but some days it'll be more. My biggest distraction while writing is usually the internet. As smart as it would be to just close my browser while I'm writing, I do like having it open so I can come here and update my word count compulsively, sometimes every 200 or 300 words if writing those few words was like pulling teeth.
A lot of NaNo feels like pulling teeth to me. You just have to be absolutely relentless. DO NOT STOP WRITING WHEN YOU RUN OUT OF STEAM!!! Just don't. Keep writing. No matter what, keep writing. No matter what sort of corner you've written yourself into, you can always write a window there for some zombie ninjas fleeing a pack of vampire pirates to come jumping through, or you can write a sudden and totally inexplicable opening of a portal to another dimension, or you can have your character fall asleep and dream the rest of the novel. Never feel like you don't have any options. This is your novel - your options are limited only by the reach of your imagination. That is to say, there is an infinity of options radiating in every direction from every word you write. If you get stuck, don't be afraid to go off in some weird direction that makes no sense. It'll be fun and noveling should be fun.
No doubt, most of you have enough other stuff in your life already that doing NaNo is a pretty big drain, time-wise if not emotion-wise. You do have to keep your priorities in check, but if you can do this without it wreaking havoc on the rest of your life, you will not be sorry. Come December, it's going to be the coolest thing ever to look back and know you wrote a novel (okay, novella, maybe, but whatever.) Even if it's garbage, there will be something of value in there somewhere. And if you do need to let NaNo go for whatever reasons, don't look upon it as some kind of failure. It's never the wrong thing to do to take care of yourself or your loved ones or attend to your family/job/school/whatever. You can always write later when it's a better time for you. And, of course, NaNo is every November.
Crap, I can't count this for my word count! Dang! (It's over 600 words!) Oh well.
So, how's it going?
----------
Drink coffee. Do stupid things faster and with more energy.
4,627 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2007 - 01 57
Hi hi! So far I'm doing better than I thought! I just posted a large exerpt in my profile just now. I am so proud! I hope this proud feeling lasts, I really expected to not be very inspired at all, but once I started I couldn't stop. I just got so many ideas all at once I couldn't type fast enough, I'm already at nearly 3,000 words!! I hope I can do it again tomorrow, and the next day and the next day!!
I'll have to keep that stuff in mind about the vampire pirates and the zombie ninjas... I can see how they could make really great bridesmaids.
"ARG I Vant to drink your blood, matey."
50,466 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2007 - 02 14
lol, bridesmaids! That sounds like tremendous fun! "Arrrrrrr, I hate this dress, ye scurvy landlubber! Arrrrrrr!" I guess the zombie ninjas would just kill the entire wedding party in three seconds and eat their brains in total silence.
Anyway, check you out with your word count! That is so awesome. Congrats!
4,627 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2007 - 12 20
Haha! That cracked me up... the visual image in my head is freaking hilarious. Now I'm tempted to completely change my plot...
Thank you!!! I'm so excited!!
54,846 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2007 - 13 50
It's going faster than these forums. Posted excerpt earlier - actually uploaded pretty quickly. If I can keep up the pace (cross my fingers, toes, tap my nose) - I should break 50K again this year. The trick will be to keep editing and then SEND IT OUT - that I have not done previoulsy except for hap-hazardly.
Luck all
Perle
perlesink.blogspot.com
perlespoems.blogspot.com
50,086 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2007 - 13 55
I wrote a few hundred words this morning. I'm peeking in on the boards while taking a late lunch break and getting ready to go to the Pell City Write-In at 5:00 PM.
Just had to tell someone about the Muse gifts I received last night. My main character has two elderly aunts that are crucial to the plot so they get a lot of page space. Last night I got the brilliant revelation that the aunts aren't sisters like I thought they'd be. Their secrets will be revealed to the MC much later in the book. Their back story will drive up my word count and make them much more 3-D. Even literary novels need infusions of suspense and tension now and again.
Also, I discovered a random Character Generator on the boards last night. The generator includes hair & eye color, age, job, height & weight. My plot requires the creation of two dif huge sets of bit players. This will short-cut the process for me tremendously. Must remember to thank the folks that created it!!
I'm also using yWriter but is pretty great so far, will be better when I figure everything out. Right now I'm operating it like I used to shoot pool--hit (click) and hope.
NaNo on!!!!
50,018 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2007 - 19 02
Oh my lord, I had no idea how strange this would be. I have never written fiction at all and here I am writing a novel. My poems aren't even very long--but I wrote 3,600 words today that don't completely suck. I mean they sort of do, but still--Yeah. I wonder if I will be able to do it tomorrow. I am going to try to come to Little Professor this weekend---hope to meet some nanos there--
0 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2007 - 21 50
okay--i started my novel today. So far in my first hour I am at 1000 words give or take a comma...anyway---having to fight the internal critic already. I took the boat out into deep water right away and the boat sank--thank goodness I can swim...this isn't anything like I planned. I thought it would be about a bunch of wacky rednecks and drag queens on some kind of raod trip and here I am oging in the opposite direction. Well its just the first 1000 words. Plenty of time for wacky rednecks and big haired queens...so to make a long story shorter--It is going great but not what I expected.
50,086 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2007 - 04 17
I did it, I really, really did it. The first 500 words or so came fast, the next several hundred sauntered along, 1,000 and up crawled across my computer screen like a snail on Valium. I wanted to go to bed, started to a half-dozen times, but I kept hearing Holley's voice in my head--don't stop, no matter what, just keep your fingers on the keyboard, Don't Stop! The last few hundred words sprinted onto the screen. My total for Day 1 of NaNo: 1,803. Yea!!! A gold star on my calendar for making the quota, and a blue one for exceeding the quota.
Hope everyone has a grand Day 2!
50,466 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2007 - 13 40
Awesome! Looks like everyone's doing pretty well. And it's only 11/2! For some reason, it feels like this is the fourth or fifth day of this thing. I was kind of shocked to notice the date. Since I have a pretty chaotic sleep schedule (actually, it's not even accurate to call it a "schedule"), I often don't realize what day it is. The days sort of blur together for me. Such is the life of a night owl, but I wouldn't want it any other way.
So two days in and we are rocking NaNo! Congrats to everyone who's on track or ahead of schedule. And to those of you who a bit behind or maybe haven't even started yet, please please don't be discouraged! You can catch up. I've been thousands of words behind before. Lots of wrimos get behind, even waaaaay behind. Lots of wrimos write only on weekends or only a few days a week. And there are plenty who use the time off from work or school around Thanksgiving to catch up. (And many more who find they have no time for writing then, of course. But it's still doable.)
Go B'ham area wrimos!
3,656 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2007 - 14 15
Just sayin' hi. I'm new to this site. I never heard of this NNWM thing before a few days ago, a friend of mine emailed me about doing it and I said I'd do it with her. I write stuff all the time, so I figured a 30 day time limit is like a game and would be a fun, so what the heck. I think I may be able to squeeze in enough time between art and dancing (and a job!). I may or may not do a word count thing a couple of times a week, we'll see.
<
I think you meant vampire NINJAS and ZOMBIE pirates. Everyone knows that there is no such thing as the other two. Absolutely ridiculous....
Heh. ;)
16,857 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2007 - 16 44
So, yeah, so far it has been about what I expected. I have only reached a two day word count of 2826, but I am going to officially lay the blame for that on the shoulders of my inner editor. Yesterday, he spent the day looking over my shoulder, telling me how terrible my writing was, so I only managed to pound out just over a thousand words. (IE has since been packed, uncomfortably, into a very small box and shipped off to Chris's kennel. I expect his return December 1)
Today went much better. I reached my 1800 word quota. Yay me. So hopefully I can keep that up and make up for what I didn't do yesterday. I wonder, is writing like sleeping. Can you ever make up the writing you missed? We shall have to see.
15,292 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2007 - 19 26
Okay, I hope this is on topic. I did 2631 last night and spent all day at work wanting to be home typing. Now, I have been on this site for 30 minutes and have edited my profile twice with word counts and an exerpt and it keeps coming up No Stats and no changes. I'm for once not trying to procrastinate but I am frustrated that I can't make this work on this site. Anyway, other than that technical glitch, I am having fun with this. I am about to shrink this page and just write a while. Anyone who can tell me how to made the profile remember what I changed, feel free to email me privately or on this forum.
Have fun everyone!
BranD
18,900 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2007 - 20 34
Not too bad so far. My main character is still in what amounts to his prologue/ monologue sort of deal. A "Why I Did What I Did" moment. The action part of the story hasn't started yet. Working the manual typewriter (1950s Smith-Corona portable) this year. After a few pages, I scan it into the computer and convert it to text with OCR software.Two golden retrievers at my feet, one snoring, one constantly wanting to be petted,...life is good. November is for novel-writing. good luck all.
0 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2007 - 20 47
i'm not getting anywhere :(
50,466 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2007 - 23 50
I haven't gotten anywhere the last couple days. Real life, school, volunteer stuff, bunch of crap, blah blah. Oh, yeah, and complete and total apathy about what I'm writing. *rolls eyes* (No one needs to point out that I'm obviously not taking my own advice about DO NOT STOP WRITING FOR ANY REASON. I know, I know. Bleh! I'll catch up.)
I remember feeling this way before, the apathy. Sometimes it takes a while to really get sucked into the story. Right now today, though, I couldn't care less whether my characters all live or die. I'm sure I'll get invested in them and their stories soon enough when I've written more, and in a week or so, I'll be head over heels in love with all of them.
Okay, so, those of you who aren't feeling so well about the writing right now, what can we do to help? What do you think would help you right now?
To those of you who are feeling awesome, congrats! I am seeing some impressive word counts here.
16,857 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2007 - 08 32
Saturday sucked for me. I had to help a family member move and although she told me this would not be an all day event, guess how long it took. But, yay, between sunday night and this morning, I have gotten my word count from just over 2800 to 5851. So I guess that means it's going much better.
50,372 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2007 - 10 02
So far so good. My main concern is getting to the end of my story and realizing I need a few thousand more words. I only have one free evening this week so thankfully am ahead of the daily quota. Sitting at 10,800 with the next several scenes mapped out. My progress the rest of the day is largely dependent on how nosey my co-workers get.
50,086 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2007 - 00 48
Way behind on word count but I'm not worried (yet). yWriter's wonderful character bio section made me realize I need a Timeline, 'cause some things have changed about my characters, they're doing stuff I didn't foresee but that's a good thing. I'm in the midst of a fibromyalgia flare-up which means I can't sit at my computer very long this week. Life's consuming most of my hours--a biz meeting, long wait at doctor's office for me & then a stint at Intensive Care Monday night with a close relative. But I made a good start on a Timeline in a spreadsheet, will work on that more, go to bed & hope for several hours writing time Tue. before I have to go teach creative writing night class.
Why am I not depressed about my low word count? 'Cause I got an acceptance email on Friday. A literary (print) mag is publishing one of my short stories in their January issue! I got to sign a contributor agreement just like a big kid. Woo hoo!!! Nicely off-sets the rejection letter I got about 10 days ago on a nonfiction piece.
Later,
Janice
54,846 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2007 - 14 54
Plodding along, while posting resumes for my jobsearch, going to job fairs, sending out queries, turned in book review to First Draft. I'd get more writing done if I could resist all the open house and art gallery receptions. But I cannot. Went to Day of the Dead celebration Nov 2 at BareHands gallery, and Nordys Gallery is doing a new artist every Friday thru December, , and this week is Homewood's open house (about 20+ businesses and several galleries with a trolly running from place to place), Maralyn Wilson in Forrest Park is coming up, and PepperPlace and Bear Creek Glass.....the wine and hors d’oeuvres abound and I run into so many great conversations. I tell myself it's character research, but mostly it's the wine and hors d’oeuvres and socializing...
Perle
perlesink.blogspot.com
perlespoems.blogspot.com
1,167 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2007 - 22 19
I'm severely stressed out. I am 7 papers behind in my classes and I have a massive presentation in two days that I am completely unprepared for...All of this also means I have NO time to write :(
50,225 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2007 - 22 39
Alrighty, it's my 1st nano and the words are tumbling onto the page as fast as i can type. By the way my wrist is screaming at me. I had to take Monday off to prevent an onset of Carpel Tunnel.
The hardest part is not stopping to edit for rgrammar etc.... It's been truly freeing to just let 'er rip.
I was feeling golden baskng in the glow of my word count when I realized that one of my buddies has a count of 46,000 plus. words.
The competitive nature in me is to throw another 33,000 plus words on the page tongiht. But it's already way too late so that will have to wait for another day.
50,466 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2007 - 23 59
I haven't written a single word since I last posted here. Sucks! I am determined to be fully caught up within the next 30 or so hours. I just have to put my head down and get to work.
I feel like cursing. Are the regional forums all-ages? I should know this. I'll settle for shouting @%$#&@##&&$@#*&@#&&@@$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Use your imagination.)
Hey, Tim! Looks like you're doing okay after your sucking Saturday.
OMG, dsurrett, your word count! Impressive! I am stealing your nosy co-workers for my novel. I bet I can get a lot of words out of having all these extra people fluttering around my main characters. Thanks!
Janice, that is fantastic about your acceptance letter! Massive congratulations to you! I am sorry to hear other things are tough now. How long does a flare-up usually last? I hope it'll be over soon.
Perle, I heard that Dia de los Muertos at BareHands was a force of nature and that attendence was humongous. Wine and hors d'oeuvres just flowing through the streets. That sounds lovely and it's going in my novel! Thanks! I'm amazed you've found the time to write so much.
Hey, MystycalMage. Holy crap, seven papers and a presentation?!? I am so sorry! I've got some papers myself due by the end of the semester and I've got my fingers crossed that I'll finish NaNo early enough to have plenty of time to write them, but if it comes down to papers or NaNo, it's going to have to be papers. I hope circumstances will permit me to manage my time in such a way as to do both, but school does have to come first for me. I hope things will work out for you however they need to. Please don't beat yourself up, whatever happens!
Hulagirl10, sounds like you're all sucked into the flow. That's such a great feeling when you get so into it that you hate not being able to type faster. Don't kill your carpel tunnels! (Unless you can type really well with your toes, in which case, can you please come to one of our meetings and demonstrate that?) I know what you mean about feeling competitive. I feel that way sometimes, but then you know you're going to stumble across someone or another on the forums in a week or so whose word count is like 97,326 or something and you know they honestly are not cheating. Pfffft, to heck with that. I can only be so competitive.
Okay, y'all, I got nosy coworkers and abundant wine and hors d'oeuvres and maybe some toe-typists to write about. I swear I am writing ten thousand words in the next 30 hours!
@**#&@#$*@&$*@*&$#@**@#*@*@&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy noveling!
16,857 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2007 - 11 13
I'm loving it! Sorry to all those who are having a sucky time with it, I'm not trying to brag, but I'm @#$%ing loving it! I'm back on pace, and nanowrimo has made me fall in love with this novel. Passionately. (eww, did you see that yucky adverb.) I'm having so much fun, and best of all, I'm learning to shut my inner editor out for the writing process and just write. Good luck to everyone, keep at it. Let's kick some nanowrimo @$$.
52,832 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2007 - 13 37
So far so good! This is my first WriMo, and I worked out a pretty thourough plot synopsis back in October that's kept me going. I've been meeting my daily quotas, but today was the first day I really exceeded it (2000+ go me!). I guess the writing just got a little easier once I hit the bloody part of the book. I knew my first novel was going to be violent, but JEEZ this surprised me a little.
Anywho, y'all check out my excerpt if you like. Just be warned, I use language that would make my grandmother unhappy.
Keep writing!
50,225 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2007 - 21 51
Tim I love the siggy/quote by Asinov!!!
Soynut Your a good person to keep your priorities straight. There were times when what I wanted to do won over what I needed to do in school
Tyclo (darn I hate that when I'm posting a response I cant see the previoius posts). Excuse me if I mangled your name. The violence in your book most likely signifys that your mental health is astoundingly high. No unvented thoughts that could possibly lead to your going postal at work and/or school.
I've resisted so far form running spell check. I'm trying hard to remain in the frame of mind of putting it all down on paper this month so I can begin editing it in December.
Well if everything goes right I will be at the Pell City write-in tomrrow afternoon. Here's hoping that I'm NOT the only one to show up.
50,086 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2007 - 03 43
Hula,
The Pell City Library is practically my second home, so yeah, I'll be at the write-in today. I'm looking forward to meeting another local writer!
Janice
50,466 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2007 - 16 22
I am pretty blissed out this afternoon. Yes, I'm still a few thousand words behind, but today is the first time I haven't wondered how the @%$# I was going to get to 50,000. I know now! Yay! (Thank you to all who were at Little Professor today.) The words will fly out of my fingers now. Fly, I say, FLY!!!
I don't have anything else really pressing this weekend. There are other things I ought to put some time and energy into, but there will be no dramatic consequences come Monday if I don't. So to heck with them for now.
I hope things are going well for the rest of you. Let's see if we can blow up those words counts over the weekend! Let's write our fingers to NUBS!
22,000 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2007 - 22 41
I've been having a ton of trouble getting going, between computer issues and motivation issues. Oh, and last week I caught the flu. Hooray. I was nearly brain dead for four days, and asleep the other three. But I wrote about 5000 words today and I'm kind of starting to feel like I'm back in the game. I'm pretty sure I can do a few thousand words a day and make it...It would help if someone wished me luck. ;)
50,466 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2007 - 23 05
Massive amounts of good luck to you, magic_twelve!!!
50,841 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2007 - 08 21
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*fiendishly rips at hair, eyes wide with terror and frustration*