Goderich/Huron County?

Hi Bethany,

Glad to see someone from the area doing this. This is my 3rd year - last year I just couldn't pull it off but this year I am determined to finish. I love to work in the early morning - how about you, when is your best time to write?

Jodi

2007 - Old Iron
2008 - Carnegie's Gift
2009 - Curator at the Playboy Mansion

"Bend your head over your keyboard and keep pounding - there lies the way through the thicket"

Hi, Jodi!

Time to write is my biggest challenge - I'm at my most lucid and creative in the mornings, but unfortunately so are my children. :) So I try to let the story simmer as I go about my day, making notes if needed, and then spend a couple hours writing in the evening after the littles are sleeping. On a good day it works great - by the time I sit to write, I have a fairly well fleshed out scene that I just need to type out.

(We won't talk about the days it doesn't work out and I'm writing on-the-fly at 9:45pm. Those are the words that generally get deleted the next day. But not this month!)

Bethany
...breaking out of the box, kicking it to pieces, and toasting s'mores over the ashes.

Hi Bethany, Hi Jodi,
glad to meet you here. I'm just a little North of Huron County. I love to write ... whenever. I'm probably most productive between 10 and noon and then again at night, when the rest of the house is silent. Can't wait to get started.
Wishing you both a great beginning. Oh, and yes, this is my first year, too.
Little Anne

Glad to correspond with some writers from the local area;

My best time to write is first thing in the morning - really early before the kids get up. My husband is in construction and gets up around 5 am. In November with the time change right at the beginning of the month, I find myself waking at 4 am and writing until 8 am - as long as I go to bed around 9 pm, I can keep up that writing schedule, but if I stay up to watch Grey's Anatomy, I miss the next day. I write with my laptop in bed, so I am not tempted to just snuggle down and go back to sleep early in the morning.

That's worked for me in the past so I am going to keep to the old routine this time around. I find if I miss during the week, I use the weekend to catch up. I've already reconciled myself to the fact that my floors will not shine until December. My kids are older and essentially self-sufficient (other than needing a referee for the odd bout of fighting due to being over energetic - wish I had that problem).

Hope the writing is going well -

Jodi

2007 - Old Iron
2008 - Carnegie's Gift
2009 - Curator at the Playboy Mansion

"Bend your head over your keyboard and keep pounding - there lies the way through the thicket"

Greetings everyone,
This is my first year as well and I have doubts on whether I'll pull it off. We'll see. My brother and sister in law have also joined, they live in the county as well. We are part of a writing club in Bayfield which has helped writing in the past.
Wish you all luck,
Nathan

Hi Ann, Jodi & Nathan!

Hope the writing is coming along well. So far, so good here - I'm actually ahead of where I expected to be with my word count, which is probably good -- I'm sure not every day will be so prolific.

Do you all have a daily word count target, or some other short-term goal? Or some other technique to keep you motivated?

Happy writing!

Bethany
...breaking out of the box, kicking it to pieces, and toasting s'mores over the ashes.

Hi all! I'm Nathan's brother in law. This is my first year attempting this. I've been asked to try it before and I always thought it was crazy, but I gave in this year and so far I've reached my daily word count without too much trouble. I've got a seven month old son though so we'll see how it goes.

Good luck to all of you. And if you're every in coffee culture in Goderich and you see a guy sitting by himself typing on a lenovo netbook, that's probably me. Feel free to say hello.

Hi Bethany, Lori, Nathan, and Henry,
so good to meet you. I also always thought the people are nuts who do Nano, but it also fascinated me. Last year I was busy trying to find a publisher for my first novel (unsuccessfully so far), but this year I use Nano to finally stop outlining, but start writing my next novel. Sunday went well, but today was just crazy with a sick girl at home. I managed about 400 words so far. Will be a long night... You are doing great, Bethany. Are you pleased with your beginning? I feel I wrote a lot of crap yesterday.
Good luck, everybody.

Hi, all!

Henry - little ones are great, but they definitely don't leave you with much uninterrupted time to write, do they? Good luck!

Ann - I'm feeling really good about what I've written so far. My goal is to come away from the month with a first draft ready for revision, so I'm trying not to get hung up on making every word "perfect" - still aiming for good, of course! ;) I've never put this much pre-planning into a project before, and I'm surprised at how much more efficiently I write. Makes those weeks of prep work look less like wasted time and more like an investment. Hopefully everything comes together well for you today, and the words come easily.

Bethany
...breaking out of the box, kicking it to pieces, and toasting s'mores over the ashes.

Wow, your words seem to come truly easily to you, Bethany. I experienced a great writing experience today, too. I usually edit as I write and today I not even looked back to what I wrote. I just typed away. It felt really good and when my time was over I was surprised of how many words I had achieved. Since I'm writing historical fiction I still find myself looking up things to be as accurate as possible. If I master to leave even this for December I should be getting along just fine. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

How is it going to you other guys?

Life is really getting in the way for me. I'm several thousand words behind. The plus side is, I really like what I've got so far. That's new for me. I usually don't like what I've been writing at all. I have tomorrow off with no obligations so I think that I can use it to catch up. I probably could have caught up tonight except that I decided to play video games instead. :( It had been so long since I played. It was like drinking a refreshing glass of water on a hot summer day. Is that bad?

Hello, all! How are things progressing?

I've slowed down - combination of hitting the dreaded "middle" of the story, and having one of the kids get sick. I'm still writing every weekday, though, for a couple hours each morning when the twins are at their happiest, and it seems to be working.

The biggest breakthrough has been NOT quitting last Friday. I hit 20,000 words and nearly tossed the story into the corner with the stack of other partials that I've quit at the same word count. It's like I get to that point and I'm starting to be tired of the characters, I'm doubting the plot, and I always get some bright, new, shiny story idea that I want to write instead. Pushing through that has been really good for me.

Happy writing!

Bethany
...breaking out of the box, kicking it to pieces, and toasting s'mores over the ashes.

Hi everyone,

Glad to hear everyone is perserving and getting the words down. I'm working on it and am still going but got off to a slow start which I'm finding really difficult to get ahead of. I only got my story idea on the afternoon of Nov 1 and choose to do some research before I started writing - so it's all my own fault. I am going away for a weekend with writing friends and intend to do nothing but write and get caught up - that's the plan right now.

Bethany, I totally understand about getting to 20,000 and stalling. I went through that my first year and just pushed myself through it. Kept writing. Even if it was crap, I wrote and it was an amazing experience. I finally understood that I could get through anything if I just put my head down and wrote.

Keep going everyone, through sickness and children, distractions and fun and learn what you need to. That's this month is all about. Keep those word counts mounting.

Jodi (aka the writing cheerleader - rah, rah, rah)

2007 - Old Iron
2008 - Carnegie's Gift
2009 - Curator at the Playboy Mansion

"Bend your head over your keyboard and keep pounding - there lies the way through the thicket"