Who has their faces in the dirt? (Commiserate here)

Does anyone know why blankened is not a word? I am fairly certain that it should be. Blackened is a word, after all, and it's the same principle. That stupid red squiggly stared at me and almost paralyzed me at the 1500 mark last night. I finally just had to close my eyes and type until the squiggly was off of the screen. My inner editor just jumped all over that opportunity. I'm hoping things will be better today.

Anyway, I'm just saying that I think it should be a real word.

blankened It's lovely. Absolutely. Lots of words have made it into the dictionary after passing through the fingers and brains of a writer at play with words.

Don't listen to Webster/AmerHeritage/OED. (I did just check my OED to see if it was in there.)

And may I suggest you go into Options and turn off Spell and Grammar Checking for the month of November? We have to fight our Inner Editors hard enough. We certainly don't need Outer Editors pitch-forking in.

No spell checking. No backspacing. November.
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Me?
3 hours in front of the keyboard this morning.
306 words.
So as long as I do that a full 16 hours a day...

I have written much faster before. There's just a dam right now. I don't know how to blow a hole in it.

And now I'm going to go read some Dickens. No. Don't tell me how fast he wrote Great Expectations or A Christmas Carol or InsertPennyAWordVictorianNovelHere. Right now, I don't want to know.

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poetT / Teri
ML in the black hat

Ergh. I wrote a day-and-a-half's worth yesterday and 500 or 600 or so today. I was just sitting in front of my locker with a laptop and about to pound my head against the keyboard for lack of inspiration. Then I had to skip writing for awhile because of a four page math assignment and now I can't think of anything!

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"What are you doing here? I thought I killed you yesterday!" grumbled Albi quite racistly.
"No, Albi. You didn't kill me with your dragon flames. I crawled to safety, but you did leave me very badly disfigured," laughed the boy.
-Flight of the Conchords

I didn't know that you could turn it off. Any idea how I would go about that with Word 2007?

Today was a bad day. I'm with you on the whole keyboard head banging thing. I've got one hour left in the day, and I'm trying not to give up, but at this point I've only got about 650 words for the day. Boo!

I like this thread. After spending Sunday evening surrounded by overachievers like Meowtima an company, it's nice to see I'm not the only one getting off to a slow start this year. I was hoping to get past 4,000 today but somehow I barely managed to get past 3100. Hopefully, I'll be running on all cylinders by the end of the week.

Not sure about that specific release, but try
Tools > Options
then look for a tab about Spelling & Grammar. If you can't figure out which features to get rid of, uncheck them all.
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Me, too. Fortunately, by now I've experienced it both ways -- gangbusters out of the block and neck deep in wet cement -- for starting off. I know it's doable.

Catching up on weekends is key.
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Why, this here puts me in mind of the Big Drought that first week of ought-7, when it took nine whole daggone days to finally get myself on track. Why, there were so few words lyin' around I didn't even have enough to yell at the chickens to get outta my way...

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poetT / Teri
ML in the black hat

Chris Baty is almost always behind the first 3 weeks. Makes everybody who is behind feel somewhat better to know they have such good company.

Chris Baty is not behind now.

I am behind Chris Baty, for maybe my first time ever.

I blame it all on Flint, MI for keeping him on his toes
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3351294

(Well, and maybe that word war going on between MLs & Staff...)

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On the other hand, I used a 10-Minute Word War thread on the Word Wars, Prompts & Sprints Forum
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/forum/183
to get 411 words this morning. Sometimes you just need a challenge...

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poetT / Teri
ML in the black hat

I'm entirely worn out. I managed to catch up for yesterday's word count but only got a couple hundred for todays. On the bright side, no classes tomorrow so theres time to catch up on sleep and word count for the rest of the weekend. Sleep first.

I'm doing just awful this year. I don't know what it is, but I just can't get my rear in gear. And I feel really far behind already. I wish I could go to some write-ins or something, but my work schedule is just so weird right now.

And I can't commit to a story line. Or a character. Or pretty much anything at this point. And I keep overthinking everything. How do I turn that off?

hopefully this will be the first and last time i will need to post on this thread.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i had a great start--and then i started thinking about plot. and characters. and where this book is really going.

and then i started reading more books on writing theory.

and then i finished two audiobooks (Two for the Dough and Choke) and one paper book (Uglies).

and then i brainstormed about my characters for a while.

and then i read about literary achetypes.

and then i cleaned out and organized under the bathroom sink.

and then i cooked dinner or did laundry or bought groceries or gave a todder covered in lucky charms a bath.

but today i WILL write...just as soon as i go to the Antioch Library for the JoCo Library used book sale.

at least i remembered to bring my laptop today...that's a start, right?

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"If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive." ~Audre Lorde

So many things can get in the way of our noveling. (Some we have control over; others we don't.)
It is not easy.
AND
We will not be beat down.

Illegitimi non carborundum
[whatever is, um, illegitimate and grinding at the creativity within us.]

Keep at it. Do at least a little every day this week,
and figure out a time when you can set aside some time (this weekend?)
to get those characters pushed into more conflict, that plot pulled and stretched and wondered over,
to help get that word count up.

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poetT / Teri
ML in the black hat

Darah, you're not too far behind; take advantage of that extra time and keep at it!
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Heh. There should so be a Settings>Options button for that in our heads, shouldn't there?

I hearby give you permission to keep jumping from storyline to character to new anything. Somewhere along in there you're going to find some glittering bit about which you will say, "Yes! That's what I've been looking for!"

Whatever you do, don't delete anything of the previous stuff you write. Keep it all.
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Holly, I just cleaned my toilet yesterday morning. I know where you're coming from.
It's so easy to fill the time with something else. We have to work to make sure the novel gets its priority.
But yes, taking laptop (or at least paper) everywhere is an excellent start!

And put on the blast helmet and whack away at the temptation to read or research or to do other things (well, except for taking care of your little boy!). Get those words going!

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poetT / Teri
ML in the black hat

Two days ago I loved my novel. Today, I'm sick of it. Bleh! Chris Baty said Week 3 would be easy! He promised! He promised! (throws fit on the ground). (fit over now : )

There have only been about two days out of the 21 so far, when I felt like my writing for that day was atrocious, so I guess that's not bad. It's OK if every day doesn't produce something sparkly, isn't it? Today, all my characters did was have a mishap with the blender, spewing strawberry smoothie all over the walls, and shop for a very long boring time for wedding rings. And throw a couple of snowballs at each other.

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You, uh been working on that novel? You know, the one you've been working on for about five years now? You got a, got a big stack of papers there? Got a, got a plot-line working? Friends become enemies? Enemies become friends? (Stewie to Brian--The F

Hey Davila
I've been looking all over for my copy of No Plot No Problem, but I can't find it to read Week 3 (which is over now?!) to see where I was supposed to be, and how to get over it.

I've been having problems with getting forward motion in my own plot as well.
But it is normal to have some down days. And you still reveal things about your characters' characters by how they respond to smoothie cleanup and playing in the snow.

Anyway, today is a new day. Kick them in the pants and get them into some conflict or working on solving that next problem....

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poetT / Teri
ML in the black hat

haha, I borrowed mine from the library after getting my kansas city library card{all by myself! *accomplishment!*} during the traveling marathon of awesomeness of doom

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NaNoWriMo 09: Grasps Of Reality
NaNoWriMo 10: The Child Inside {GoR Prequel}
Important Characters: 8
Character Deaths: 1 planned
Dares used: 6
Dream sequences: 3 or 4
Species Used: 5
Beverage Of Choice: Coffee <3