I'm sure you all have had those moments where you just do not want to write. You have a good idea of what scene to write next, you even have a vague interpretation of how to jot it down, but you just don't want to. And you find yourself sitting there, stubbornly staring at the cursor blinking on your document, as if wishing it away.
And you kind of want to continue. Kind of.
Except there was that really great show you wanted to catch up on, and you might have gotten new notifications on Facebook, and hey, while you're on Facebook, might as well take a few quizzes, write on all of your friends' walls, and Poke people, right?
Then you pull yourself away and start telling yourself, "Two hundred more words until I can do this."
What kinds of things do you bribe yourself with to get you to writing the next paragraph? I've been known to say:
"Another five hundred words and you can reply to that comment on Facebook!"
"Almost at the word count for the day, then you can go ahead and play Tetris."
"No AIM or MSN until you get there!"
Or friends that know I'm doing NaNo will give me word count goals and refuse to speak to me until I get there. Helpful, right? I'm just starting to have my first bouts of not wanting to write, I can only imagine what the days ahead will hold...
How is everyone else holding up so far?
----------
75,102 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 17 21
I happen to have a very competitive spirit (got it from my mom, I think), so every time I get the I'm-so-sick-of-this-can't-I-do-something-else feeling, I remind myself that NH is still ahead in wc. That fires me up for another few hundred words. I'm also in an unofficial race with my sister to see who can reach the finish line first... No way am I going to lose to a younger sibling!
Which reminds me, she's writing right now and last I checked I was behind... Perhaps I'd better go write some more.
----------~dreams come from within, let your imagination soar~
NaNo '09 - Past Illusion - pending
~'til all are one~
51,564 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 17 59
Oh yes, motivation. Sometimes it can be so ellusive. This competition is actually getting me back to writing after a month off because I wasn't sure where my story was going. It takes just about every kind of bride to motivate me sometimes. Here are my favorite motivators:
-the idea that one day after years of writing and thousands of rejection letters that I might get something published and see it being sold in a book store
-the idea that writing is a craft and not for the faint of heart...so I can't give up now
-bragging rights of actually getting a novel written
-the fact that I can't justify calling myself a writer if I'm not actually writing
And the current big bribe....
-the possibility that I will buy myself a netbook for writing during my commutes so I don't have to drag around my monstrous laptop.
I also find that telling people I'm doing NaNoWriMo and trying to recruit people to do it helps keep me honest. And if I'm lucky enough to find some people to write with now and then I'll also feel that obligation to write.
Most of the time once I get into writing I love it, but somethings it is hell.
Michelle
51,564 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 18 17
I forgot a couple of other motivators:
-I browse the bookstore and marvel at what gets published. This makes me realize that if I don't get a novel written there no way I'll even have a chance at publishing it. A lot of works get published not because they are masterpieces but because there is something in them that people can relate to. So I shouldn't be too hard on myself thinking I can never be as good as my favorite authors.
-I listen to podcasts of interviews with writers (like the series by Barnes and Nobles or NPR)... hearing authors talk about their work reminds me that they are people and have gone through all the struggles I've gone through and more. But they hung in there and did it. The other thing is that they are each different not only in what they write but how they approach writing. Some have very interesting strategies and pitfalls.
-I talk about writing to anyone that will listen because it reminds me of the parts I enjoy.
32,207 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 22 35
My two male MCs look like two actors that I like, so I figure if I go "make it to X words and then you an watch Y movie or tv show with one of the two actors in it" I can call it research, or inspiration.
----------Meg
http://gotnothin.blogspot.com
79,790 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 13 41
Well you've got a great store of words going. I'm a full time college student which means that during my school week I don't have as much time as I'd like to to write, so I've been trying to push out as many words as I can and make it competative with others (I always have a page open to the search users function order by word count highest to lowest) when I'm out of class. today's word count so far is nearly 5,000, and I wrote 8,335 (5 days of minimum writing) so that I could take it a little easy on school days so I was stressing about getting my word count really high and getting my final projects done (they're due anywhere from next thursday to December 13)
----------right now, my daily word counts stand as follows:
8,335
1866
874
1505
1561
4600 (so far, for today!) which means my accumulative is 18,741, which is still 5 days ahead of schedule. I'll likely do the same thing tomorrow, and I believe I'm going to a write in on sunday, so hopefully, my word count will hit 30k by the time I go to bed on sunday night, leaving me a lot of time to hit 50k (that's just over 900 words a day, although I'll do more than that every weekend, just the same)
Rebecca Susanne
Most Words in a Single Day - 8,335, Nov 1
# of Days with No Nanoing - 0
Body Count- 12
79,790 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 19 02
despite the fact that I was the last person to post with encouraging words, I am having a lot of trouble all of a sudden. last night my novel took a turn for the crap on an intensely craptastic level.
although I did get my 7100 words for the day (my weekend mark) most of it was going back (without deleting! I promise!) to add more detail into the earlier parts of the novel so that when the editting process rolls around I can use the delete button as it's calling my name like never before and it's becoming harder and harder to resist.
The problem I'm having is just that, My delete button. I hate the portion of my novel labeled part two so intensely (I skipped six years into the future and things got exceedingly craptastic from that point on) that I would in many ways, rather take the hit to my word count and delete that entire section (7201 words) and expand the parts I already have to make up the difference. I kept hitting that edge of stuck and summing up weeks and months at a time while specific days and even conversations would go on for 2000-3000 words.
I know it's a really bad Idea and I may come to regret it, especially considering 7201 words means to me, but I hate it, I hate it, I hate it! so what do i do? suggestions? thanks.
----------Rebecca Susanne
Most Words in a Single Day - 8,335, Nov 1
# of Days with No Nanoing - 0
Body Count- 12
40,260 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 19 23
Step away from the delete button! It's not worth it! Even crap counts in NaMo, right?
Can you back up a few years and write some interim stuff that bridges your good stuff and makes your crap not smell so bad? Maybe find some twist, or surpise character who wasn't there before. Or maybe you can skip ahead another 6 years and leave crapland behind you? You can always edit, but you can only do this project for 22 more days.
Use looking forward to deleting that whole section as a carrot at the end of the November stick. Keep going!
52,173 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 20 54
DON'T DELETE IT, DON'T DELETE IT.
I think it's something about this weekend, that's been pushing people back against a corner in situations in their story that they find to be absolute crap. :( I'm also at a terrible, terrible dry spell in my story. I keep going back and adding in details to try and make things better because somewhere along the way I lost inspiration.
So I have horrible, horrible scenes. With awful, awful writing.
But I'm keeping it, because I might see potential in it later on down the road, when I'm in the editing process and not so frazzled about winning. I say that's what you do.
If you absolutely cannot, cannot see yourself continuing where you are right now, I say make a note and start a new paragraph and move on. :l I seriously have parts in my NaNo that are noted as, "KAY I DON'T FEEL LIKE THIS KTHX"
And if all else fails, delete it when you're well into your 50k? :D
----------5,559 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 05 01
Welcome to Week Two! :D
It happens to everybody. But it does get better, so long as you keep writing and don't stop now or start deleting things. I promise.
----------Sponsor the State of Maine WriMos!
51,564 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 05 09
Oh I have that feeling too. Like this scenerio is never going to work out. Or this character wouldn't really act this way.
But you know what? It's NaNoWriMo. So I can write horrible, bad scenes and delete them ... in DECEMBER. ^_^ It all stays, no matter how horrible or twisted it gets.
75,102 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 05 23
DON'T DELETE!!!!!!
That inner delete button? Don't touch it, don't look at it, don't even think about it. Darken the screen so you can't see what you're writing. Close your eyes and envision the treat you promised yourself for the next wc goal. Take a deep breath and KEEP WRITING.
...I myself haven't had this problem...yet...
----------~dreams come from within, let your imagination soar~
NaNo '09 - Past Illusion - pending
~'til all are one~
79,790 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 05 42
thank you everyone. :)
----------Rebecca Susanne
Most Words in a Single Day - 8,335, Nov 1
# of Days with No Nanoing - 0
Body Count- 12
2,027 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 14 34
Right now... I don't want to paint.
52,173 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 15 57
So... you should write! ;D
----------80,278 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 16 46
As far as word count secrets, there are rewards for me: watching YouTube videos, reading a chapter in a book. For getting to 50k, I finally downloaded the desktop version of Write or Die. Because um. I need even more incentive to write :P And if I'm still chugging along at the end of November, I'll be home with limited internet access.
----------Click the banner to read my novel blog.
33,372 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 18 40
I haven't written in a few days. I've been relishing my drivers license. No excuse really.
Out of curiosity I checked the file that I tracked my daily progress in last year. I was wondering if I took a break this long at any point. Not only did I take a break from writing that was exactly this long... but it did it at nearly exactly the same word count. It was less than a 10 word difference. Apparently I hit a slump at approximately 18,100 words every year.
----------http://www.squirrel-girl.com/
http://squirrellylist.blogspot.com/