Midterm week - how to cope?

well, no midterms for me, but I know weekends will be my bear, with husband and kids home and wanting to get all over the computers... so lots of writing will have to be done during the day when they are all away.

one can never drink too much tea....

November is FINALS WEEK at my school. And then I'm going to visit someone for our two-week fall break. I feel your pain, and also beg for advice. T_T

I'm concerned about this too. Hopefully I can get everything done, tests and novel included. Goodbye social life! :(

I don't know how things work for you, but in every school I've ever been to there are no classes during finals week - just tests. So really, you should have MORE time rather than less because you won't be in class (or if you're in high school, you won't be doing anything in class). If you're worried about studying taking up too much time - START NOW!

NaNo 2006 - Divergence: 50,021
NaNo 2007 - A Love in Darkness Wrought: 50,023

The only advice I could probably give is to have a set amount of time for writing for each of those 5 days (or 7, if you're using the weekend before for major studying) and stick. to. it. I know that when I have things to write and things to study, I wind up sitting there with a blank stare on my face and I waste time that could've been spent.... studying and writing! Set aside an hour or an hour and a half to write, and don't let you fingers stop moving. Just type type type.

Also, try to increase your word count goals by just a little bit for all the other days of November. That way, if or when you do fall behind during exams week, your total word count won't suffer so badly.

I hope I helped, I'm not wonderful with advice. :-) Good luck!

NaNo '07 - Our Happy Ending (made of failcakes)

Ha! I'm doing my midterms NOW, so I'll be long done by the time November rolls around. ;)

Okay, but seriously: school should come first. I know that NaNoWriMo is fun, but it likely won't determine the course of your entire life, not like your highschool (or university) marks will. Do your studying first, then writing. Or work your studying into the story. Like, if you have a highschool character, have him study for his math midterm. Or use the stuff you learned about Tudor England in Social Studies class to make up a fictional monarchy. Review is review, however you look at it! :D

I intend to live forever: so far, so good.

My midterms are coming up this week, so I don't have any problems with November.

All I can really suggest is whenever you take a study break (I recommend taking breaks during your study-age so you don't have a complete breakdown) write for like 10-15 minutes. Then stop and go back to studying.

But then that would be sort of hard ... what happens if you become super inspired? That's cool ... write down your ideas so you can remember what it was when you come back to it later. :3

Just keep in mind that your school work is more important than a writing hobby. After all, we're paying for our education. :P

Oh, man, I feel your pain. The first year I did NaNo, I also had to write a research paper for school. That sucked.

Here's my advice: use NaNo as your "study break". When you've studied your brains out, write your novel. When you can't write, study. Write during some meals; study during other meals. Give up on more than 6 hours of sleep per night. If you're a partier...don't. Lots of alcohol, in my experience, makes writing harder. Can't speak for any other substances.

Best of luck!

See Girl Write: the life of a college writer, trying not to flunk out.

For the last three years, November = Final/End-of-Yr exams for me, and I managed to win in the last two. This is the first year my exams are in October, and I only have 1 exam (maths) in November. I wrote mainly on school computers during lunchtimes and about an hour or two afterschool to make it.

The key is to be really really PREPARED by November (that way, you don't have to get headaches over plot problems and can focus on school material -I had a really detailed chapter-by-chapter, scene-by-scene outline, so I knew exactly what happens, just had to write it down), write really really FAST and EFFICIENTLY (i.e. give yourself one hour to quickly add another 1K rather than sit there for three hours refusing to move until you finish 1K or whatever word count goal it might be (if you don't make yourself rush through it, it'll take hours), and plan your scenes for the day in your head in between class, in morning teas/small break times, so when you finally sit yourself down, you can just write it), and seriously TURN OFF THAT INNER EDITOR. For students who have tests/exams, they have to be really efficient with their time, no time to sit around and pick at their prose, and inner eds are the absolute TABOO. DON"T re-read what you wrote the day before, only the last two sentences to get you back into it, and aim to be typing/keeping your fingers MOVING in the time you set yourself to write. Incomplete sentence? Fix later. Typo? Fix later. Need to check what colour the character's eyes were? Guess a colour and type a quick note on Notepad so you can remember later. It is better to make a quick note about something rather than break the flow of thought/typing to look something up. If you feel bad about leaving an error, just convince yourself (and the Inner Ed) that you have made a note, so you will definitely go back to it eventually.

What really helps me is the keyboard-typing noises. If I'm not banging my fingers on the keyboard at impressive-sounding speeds, I'm not being efficient and producing words. And that sound CANNOT be produced from "backspace" or "delete" >_>

04: Untitled (35K)
05: Fairy Dust (51K) WON!
06: The Queen's Spymaster (50K) WON!
07: Wish Upon a Dream

I don't have exams, but I've got three big assignments due in throughout November, plus I'm gonna be at my mum's until the 5th or so, so I have no idea if I'll even get started before then. Not good!

2006: Of Lost Causes - failed miserably.

2007: Those Who Wait

One snarky ex-con, one stressed university student, one psychotic teacher and two generic best friends. If I'm really lucky, there might even be a plot!

November is a pretty hellish month here as well, and I don't really have the option of studying or working problems now, because we don't know what material they're going to be on yet. What I am doing, however, is making sure I have all my plot details worked out in advance, because when I don't plan, I'm exactly the kind of writer who, halfway through something, will realize that the story is actually going to go in a completely different direction, meaning I'll have to head forward with no idea where the plot is going (plus no foreshadowing or setup in the earlier chapters).

Also, the way my exams fall, I've got my second round of tests in the last week of October. I've got one light week and then a difficult (problem sets, but no exams) week in the first half of November before the exams go back into full swing, so I've got two weeks to build up a buffer of extra words. I'm planning to shoot for 2500 or so words per day during the first two weeks, so that I can afford to write less when the inevitable rain of examinations hits.

If I were you, I'd work out when in your schedule you have to be studying for something (remember to start early), and when you have time to write. Then, during the weeks (or days) that you have time for writing, try to shoot for way more than the minimum 1667 words. This way, you'll still be on track later even if you have to completely abandon your novel for a few days.

On days when you have time to write, make sure you're actually writing. If you have writer's block, take a quick walk or do some homework and then go back to the computer. Usually the prospect of avoiding actual schoolwork is enough to get the creative juices flowing. If not, put something, anything down on the screen. Even if it's the most horrible, wooden-sounding dialog in the history of the universe and you're essentially expanding your outline point by point, you're still moving the plot along. You're bound to hit something exciting sooner or later.

I hope this helps!

I just remembered that I have a test on Monday. XD Ahh great. Almost forgot.

Personally, if I had large tests during NaNo which I'm sure I will but to the extent of midterms.. I would switch it up. Study a bit for a test, write a chunk of words, study more, write some more and so on.

And have plenty of caffeine, coffee, and snacks around. ;D

nanowrimo blog

I'm horrible at studying. I'm inefficient and waste a lot of time sitting at my desk trying to study. If anything, NaNoWriMo may even help me by using time when I feel like I'm working but not actually doing anything to do something relaxing. It's about setting myself a daily timeline. I did it last year (no NaNo, just plain studying) and it worked, but I've started slacking after the summer. So, timeline, timeline!

Thanks, everyone. n_n These tips really help.

NaNo '06: A title-less, miserable failure.
NaNo '07:
----------------Status: Hit a dead end...