Dear fellow plague victims, procrastinators

Arianyx, I feel your pain.

I was cruelly struck down with a virus on Day 2, before I even had a chance to truly start novelling. I have been housebound since then. (Though not with the flu) Unfortunately I have not made much progress, since it is rather difficult to think through the massive headache that's been plaguing me for the last 5 days.

I'm not sure what my strategy will be going forward. Maybe just tying myself to my laptop and hoping for inspiration? Not sure what else to try.

Just thought I would commiserate. You're not the only one struck down while novelling!

Good luck.

I am not sick (knock wood), but I am a procrastinator. This year I'm keeping up pretty well so far, but in years past I have had to write insane amounts in the last week or two (and it's still possible I'll be doing that this year as well). All is not lost! Here are my tips:

- It's okay if you start off a bit slow. I find it's hard to write more than 2K/day, at most, until I've gotten a little ways into my story and have a better idea of where I'm going. As you get to know your characters better and the action picks up, so will your speed.

- Go to chat (torontonano.org) or RL write-ins. Being surrounded by other people makes a big difference.

- Check out the Word Wars boards here on the forums. You write madly for 10 or 15 minutes and then compare your word count with your competitors. It doesn't really matter if you "lose"; what matters is that you spent that time concentrating on your story and not getting distracted. (You can also do this on your own by setting a timer or your cell phone alarm or whatever. No checking the forums/your IM/your email/Wikipedia until that timer goes off!)

- Chris Baty's weekend catch-up trick: Sit down at the computer at the top of the hour. Write 1000 words. Get up and go do something else. Come back at the top of the next hour. Repeat. (If you don't write fast enough to get a decent break in between, modify it to every other hour or whatever.) Don't forget to stretch, eat, and drink occasionally!

- When you don't have access to your computer, pen and paper can get your creativity flowing in a different way, whether you're making notes about what comes next or writing actual story words to type in later. I write notes on the subway so that when I sit down at the keyboard, I'm better prepared for the next bit.

Good luck!

What comes after NaNo? National Novel Publishing Year! http://www.nanopubye.org

I was sick the week leading up to nano - missed the fun of going to the start-up party to avoid passing the plague (some kind of non-piggy cold with fever, lol) on to a bunch of nano-ers (so you can't blame me!) a few days before startup.
I can definitely feel your pain, though, because any sickness just completely removes your ability to function, let alone sit down and write strings of non-nonesense for any length of time.

I'm a first timer, and therefore lacking in words of wisdom, but i've spent alot of time doing typing-type homework and snacking at the same time, so i'll focus on that, lol.

Any snacks that don't require a napkin, eye-contact, or cutlery. You don't want to have to wipe your hands every time you eat, or cover your keyboard in crumbs or greasy-ness, and you don't want to have to pause much in what you're doing. I like popcorn, but it depends on how you make it, because it can be pretty oily as well.
Veggies and dip are also great, because dipping isn't exactly time consuming, or distracting.

I have had computer problems. It had the plague. Now I have the "I don't want to type up four days of handwritten pages" blues.

And there are a lot of them - like 165 and if I didn't have hand cramps or if I had drag and dictate that actually worked, life might be a hell sight different.

Oh, well....

Holy cow, that's alot of pages. Its amazing the difference between the number of pages typed and the number written.

What wonderer said. Chat is great. They make you do word wars. :D

You can always count the words on one page and use that to get a rough estimate of your word count, instead of tying it all up to be absolutely accurate, and just take over on the computer from here.

650-660 words per page is normal at Times New Roman, Size 12. Just sayin'.

Chasing the Muse (personal blog)

"Oh god, oh god, we're all going to die?"-Hoban Washburn, Serenity

I got hit by some sort of cold today on Day 9. After sleeping away a good portion of the afternoon and evening, I'm getting back on the novel writing train. Tonight's goal is to clear the 15,000 word mark, possibly go further than that.

Thanks for the suggestions, everybody! I'm now on the board at least, although it's hard to find comfort in the sub-500 range.

I think I ended up in the antithesis of the NaNoWriMo zone: over-thinking any storylines and deciding they were crap, so not writing anything at all! I finally decided to make myself sit down and start typing.

I'm going to try to get out to one of the writing sessions, although so far life keeps getting in the way!

I did, however, find a Middle Earth Name Generator which - if nothing else - distracted me for at least a good 5 minutes: http://www.barrowdowns.com/middleearthname.php