Showing posts with label NaNoWriMo. Show all posts

Last night I realized I was *THISCLOSE* to hitting the final NaNoWriMo marker. I had been typing away feverishly all day, seeing the end of the Work In Progress coming ever nearer. I figured I could finish it and the 50K in a few days. I thought I might get 5K, or even 7-8K, as I had hit my minimum word count goal (for NaNo being much higher at 3.5K a day) very early in the day. I was just zipping along, paying no mind to the lost weekend and relaxing into the flow of words.

And then I found the Holy Grail Of Words.

Awhile ago (trust me this story is worth it) I had an odd dream that is really a sign I may spend too much time on Twitter. @Gripemaster, or as he is more commonly known, Voldetweet, was the starring antagonist in an Indiana Jones-esque search for the Holy Grail of Words. He was a floating, 2 dimensional avatar, evil and scary and hellbent on getting the Holy Grail of words before I did. I prevailed in the end, but was describing the dream the next morning, Voldetweet revealed he had made it into a Horcrux!

I'm so sorry y'all for not posting sooner, but NaNoWriMo has been kicking my butt.

I used to have pretty steady days, were I'd write about 1-2K words a day, but recently I've been having problems with that. Every day feels like a battle to the death for every word, and there have only been a few days in which I've succeeded. And when I do triumph, its fantastic, I got 6.9K total words on Tuesday and hit the halfway point of NaNo that night. But it didn't come without a cost - yesterday I wrote nothing. I couldn't get my head straight, I'd pushed myself far too hard.

I'd gotten to about 5.4K around 7pm when I started getting soooooo tired, really wanted to go to bed. But then I realized I was so close to the 25K mark, and I, with the encouragement of a bunch of my writing buddies, set off for the gold. 7pm may seem like child's play to you, but with my ADHD medication and my problems sleeping, I should have listened to my body and left it be. But I didn't. I stayed up until 10pm, past when I should have been doing my nightly wind down routine, and got those words.

This is SO going to be my month.

I don't know what happened, but the moment midnight came I was typing faster than ever and got almost 2K words within an hour using Write or Die. I was at the kick-off write-in for my NaNoWriMo region, and every time I hit my goal WoD would trumpet my success. The first time everyone looked around in confusion, then started clapping, and every time after that they'd make jokes about it. It was a lot of fun, and I got a lot of words to boot.

Of course, though, I get sidetracked easily. Hence, my Muse has gotten her own blog, I'm writing this post, and I wrote one as a guest for another blog, which will be up either tonight or tomorrow. Yesterday I had a difficult conversation with a friend, one I didn't want to have, and I ended up being torn from the mood to write. In order to get out of it, I went to a NaNo social.

I plan on 10K a day with a minimum of 8K, hoping to finish my current WIP with NaNoRebel. Then I'll move into the sequel for regular NaNo. Yesterday I only managed to get 5.6K, but hey, its more than I've gotten any day in the last two weeks. October was a very difficult month for me in terms of writing, but this month I have a  renewed vigor to get the story out, and its really exhilarating. I can feel the words straining to get out and I'm so excited to be writing with such gusto again.

Speaking of which, my writing buddies will likely see this and pull out their whapping sticks and come after me for writing 2 blog posts and setting up one for my Muse and letting her write her first post.

I need to go run and hide with my laptop before they find me.

Lately I've been adding a bunch of friends as NaNoWriMo buddies, and its awesome to have so many. Its wonderful to have that competitive edge, the camaraderie as we all seek 50K in one month. But something occurred to me when I had a bit of a crisis yesterday.

Writing buddies aren't just for NaNoWriMo. I personally think they're for every writer, all year long. Writers need friends who are also writers to help through the tough bits. I found this out last night, when two of my Twitter Friends became, truly, my writing buddies.

I was writing along, though having a hard time getting from one sentence to the next. Something was bothering me and I couldn't figure it out for hours. My muse wanted me to keep going, but I just questioned what she was trying to hide from me. Then I realized I didn't think an aspect in my story was convincing. It was one I had taken from the inception of this idea, but in my regular afternoon slump my inner skeptic felt it was lame and gave me another idea. So I stopped writing, waiting impatiently for a friend to get home from work so I could tell her the problem.

And then she ganged up on me. With my muse. Another friend got on Twitter, and I dragged her into the conversation to take my side. Of course, she didn't. She joined the enemy camp. *grumbles* Traitors.

As you may have read in the last two posts, I'm doing a 2 in 2. Writing 2 novels in October and November, finishing the current WIP in October so I have a sense were the sequel I'm writing for NaNoWriMo will be going. The day after I signed up for NaNo, I hit and went above my daily #writegoal word count of 3k, but since then I haven't been able to get to 2k or higher. The problem with this is I don't know how long either novel is supposed to be, and I need to finish this WIP before November.

But I haven't been meeting my #writegoals.

A combination of things have been to blame - sleep problems, my ADHD meds wearing off too soon or kicking in when I'm doing something other than writing, distractions a la Twitter, and areas in the story that I only have a vague idea of have all contributed to the lack of prolific words. This makes me angry at myself, because unlike most other writers, I don't have a job or kids, so I devote my days to writing. My current word count doesn't reflect this, unfortunately.

I wrote my first draft - admittedly so riddled with plot holes it couldn't even stand for its mommy - in 29 days, all of it in longhand. I knew afterwards it wouldn't work, and I began a total rewrite. So while I know I can get the bones down for my story before NaNo, I know I can't do it longhand this time - I need to be able to go look back at previous scenes to ensure I'm not causing unnecessary problems. Scrivener (only for Mac at the moment) is a godsend, and has helped me keep up what little momentum I've been having.

But.

All the excuses in the world won't add words to my WIP, and so I just have to put on my Big Girl Panties and hunker in for the long haul, which is scarily short in time.

I need words, and Write or Die by Dr Wicked is saving my writing. Tomorrow I go to visit my in-laws, which means we'll be playing games, having fun, chatting. So today I need to get 6k words down, 3k for today, 3k for tomorrow. I'm doing this by going for 1k intervals on Write or Die, not worrying about cleaning up the scenes until I've gotten all 6k out. This is good. My meds start tapering off after 1pm, so getting the words out now and cleaning them during the distraction phase is better for me. I can edit in short bursts, but I prefer to write for long periods of time.

This is working so wonderfully, I plan to implement this tactic for all my writing here on out, unless something prevents me from doing so. The Concentrate app for Mac, which blocks other apps, websites, and the like, is good, but I can still find ways to amuse myself away from my writing. With Write or Die, particularly in Kamikaze mode, it forces me to just GO, just write what pops in my head. More often than not, its the best way to take the story forward, and the ways my characters had been wanting to go anyways, if I'd listen more.

So, now I'm off for another round of Write or Die. I suggest you at least try it out too. Let me know what you think. ;)

After having suddenly become a NaNoer last Friday, I've been working like crazy to get this October WIP done by Halloween. (hey, I like candy too, probably more than any snotty kid) I've had an awesome up and a few downs, but overall I consider this a good start to my first ever 2 in 2.

Whats that? Remember, I have to finish a WIP I started on Oct 1st, then get at least 50k on a novel in 30 days in Nov, so my friends and I have begun to call it the 2 in 2, meaning 2 novels in 2 months. Because this is an endeavor made of WIN, when I succeed I will be receiving a trophy.

THATS RIGHT, I'M GETTING A FREAKING TROPHY!

In preparation, and because I'm just not sure how long these novels will be, I took the plunge and started using Dr Wicked's Write or Die. Not the kamikazi, because I'm a wimp like that, but its been really good for me. Often times I slow down when I hit a scene I'm unsure of because I'm trying to get all the details. With Write or Die, I can't sit around thinking, or heck worrying about spelling, so I get the gist of the scene down. Then when thats done, I clean it up, make it look presentable and coherent, and move on. The best thing is I invariably add around 200 more words to a scene I've done in Write or Die, and it takes me less than half the time to spit it out of my noggin than if I'd toiled without Dr Wicked.

I've also gotten some awesome support from my Twitter friends, and its kept me pretty much on track. Throughout the day I tweet about my current progress, and my cheerleaders either *shake pompoms*, *throw confetti* (I love that part), or *whap!* me if I haven't made much progress without good reason, like my ADD has taken over or I've been sleep deprived. They're very good about helping me through the afternoon, when my meds wear off and my mind begins to wander. I'm so glad I began tweeting before NaNo, because I don't think I'd ever keep up without the support I'm getting, and the accountability for not reaching goals or slacking off. My tweets about my progress during the day look something like this:

Current Accountability: 3,619 words down, 1,381 to go to hit todays #writegoal of 5k. Have headache. Will power through.#amwriting

ALSO, I've joined a writers meetup group in my area, and I'll be going to the NaNo write ins and meetings in my region, which is thankfully relatively close. I'm finally getting out of my lonely writers bubble, and I'm really excited by this. Nervous too, but I'm ready to face my minor social phobia and rejoin the land of the living. ADD and panic attacks can do that to a girl, but I'm so much better now, and I've found my place in the world, finally. Its with all you fabulous readers and writers, who love words and stories as much as I do.

Well, my twitter writing buddies are *whapping* me to get started on my daily #writegoal, so off I go!

So I've been hearing about NaNoWriMo from just about every writer on Twitter. I've checked it out before, but because I'm working on a WIP already, I was all "Eh, I'll do it next year, I'm not prepared." Then today my friend @allikat was all "Go to the San Antonio Forum on NanoWriMo, talk to my friend Jami she's awesome!" (I'm sure you she is) so I did and it looked neat as usual but my muse was all "Nah, we're not ready, don't press that button that says sign up and put in all the required information". But then I wanted to post to to one of the forum topics and so I clicked that damn button and input all the required information, thinking I'd sign up on the website and be kind of like a motivator with pompoms and confetti with GLITTER (if you follow me on Twitter, this should be familiar by now) and not actually be writing 50k words in one month during the holidays, but no, as it turns out I WAS SIGNING UP FOR THE WHOLE SHEBANG.

I'm on Chapter 2 of a major rewrite for the current WIP, and because I can't write two novels at once, I need to finish it by November. I don't even know how many words this WIP is supposed to be, so I've no idea how many words a day to aim for. Do you know what all this means? I HAVE TO WRITE A WHOLE NOVEL IN 29 DAYS, THEN AN EXTRA ONE IN *counts days in November* 30 DAYS. *dies*

I won't back out of NaNoWriMo now, but I feel like my muse is toying with my emotions, being all "Oh, no I don't want to do that, we aren't ready" then recruiting a Twitter friend into her little scheme and sneak attack me into signing up for it and now she's laughing at me. Do you hear that? Its maniacal.

Oh wait. Thats me.

So now that I'm signed up, I'm going into a panic attack. Thanks.