Thursday, November 22, 2012

NaNoWriMo Complete

50k. Boom.

50,121 to be exact. And I still have a lot of way to go. I still have about, oh, 9 more days to go too. I'm hoping to hit 60k this year. I think it'll probably happen considering I've hit my stride. We'll see how long that lasts but I'm doing 2500-3500 word days now. If I can keep that up for 9 more days I'll add another 22,500 to 31,500 words by the end of this. 

That would be fantastic. 

It feels good to hit 50k but now I'm really shooting for the bigger numbers. 50k is really a novelette, not a real novel. I would like to pound out an actual novel length story. One of my goals in life is to eek out a 150k word novel. That's a doozy but I swear I will get it done!

In other news, Happy Thanksgiving! 

I'm sitting at my kitchen counter watching a turkey roast while writing and trying to get some other work done. Work is required for one of my jobs today so I'm really not getting a Thanksgiving vacation this year but I know plenty of other people who have to do the same thing. I'm just happy my work can be done from home. Ah, the joys of working partly from home!

Friday, November 9, 2012

Day 9

Not so good in the NaNoWriMo department today...

Ending Word Count:21,376
Words Written Today: 1,090

I'm hoping to get a second wind this weekend. We'll see... I have a lot of studying to get done and I've got some more work to do to catch up with one of my jobs. Yay for getting behind!

So, supposedly we're getting snow this weekend. NOOOOOO!!!

Things I like about New Mexico:
1. Warmer weather. 
2. No snow.
3. No humidity. 
4. No snow. 

The last couple of years, I'm pretty sure New Mexico got snow before Michigan did. Which is just disturbing.

Tomorrow's list of things to do include studying, writing, studying, and, oh yeah, writing. Yay weekends! Seriously, yay weekends!

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Day 8

Proof that my craziest days are my most productive:

University Hours Worked: 2
Library Hours Worked: 6
Online Job Hours Worked: 4.25
Words Written for NaNoWriMo: 5,731 (approximately 3 hours)

Total Word Count This Evening: 20,286

Damn.

I thought I wasn't going to get anything done today because of so much work. That was obviously an incorrect assumption because... damn.  I'm pretty sure that's the most I've written so far this entire NaNo month. I'm hoping to get a 10k words day this weekend, but we'll see... 

For some reason, I've found that the more pressure I'm under the better I do with time management. There's something about the urgency of "you need to do this now or it won't happen" that can really give you the kick in the pants you need. 

Oh, also did about an hour or two of writing on my other two projects going on right now. Yeah, that's a lot of writing...

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Day 7

Total Words Written: 14,258
Words Written Today: 1,916

And it's only 2:15PM. I'll probably get some more work done today but probably not on my NaNoWriMo novel. So we won't count those!

I feel like I've hit a bit of a wall on the NaNoWriMo novel. At this point, it's just me following random points in an attempt to get all the words down. It's highly discouraging. I should probably go over the outline again and see if I can pick up the thread of my story again.

Last year I didn't have an outline when I did NaNoWriMo. This year, I decided to try the outline thing. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I like having the outline to look at but I've already deviated so much that it's kind of pointless.  I think it also sort of stifled my "fluidity," if that makes sense. 

I felt like last year I was able to do whatever I wanted, no matter what it was. But now I feel like I have a script to follow. We'll finish this NaNoWriMo with the outline and then re-evaluate. I might never outline again... 

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Day 6

NaNoWriMo Updates:

Total Word Count: 12,342
Words Written Today: 1,833

If you count the other writing I've done today for another project (not this blog): 6,758

Holy moly!

That's a lot of writing. Dang, I don't know how that happened. 

I'm ahead (right now) for NaNoWriMo but I'm not sure how long that's going to last. I've got my NaNoWriMo project going, and a second project in the wings, as well as a fanfiction that I'm being pestered to finish by a friend. So, needless to say, I've got my fingers in quite a few pies. And priorities are shifting somewhat.

I guess the good news is I'm writing every day. And I'm writing quite a bit every day. This isn't just a few piddly pages. This is pretty decent in volume and relatively good quality (says my second glances I'm taking every night). 

The whole point of NaNoWriMo is to punch out a (really) rough draft of a novel. It's a good motivator to be able to get 50k words down in 30 days. It gives your whole mindset a good boost. A writer can use that every so often, especially when it feels like you're making little to no progress in the authoring department. 

I know I always feel much more invigorated after the madcap dash that is November. I'm hoping to keep that momentum going a little longer than I did last year. I think the momentum died out sometime in March last year. So, I'm hoping to keep up the productivity all year round this year. 

We'll see...

In other news, this election is giving me an ulcer. CNN is going off now.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Day 5

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen!

I just got home from my first ever NaNoWriMo write-in session at the Page One Bookstore here in Albuquerque. It was fun. I got a lot done.

Today's ending word count is: 10,509 (3,458 words written today)

Pretty good! I'm ahead of schedule.

I'll probably attend the next few write-ins just to get the social interaction but I didn't find myself to be anymore productive while being around people. Sure, it's a good way to block out a chunk of time to do nothing but write. And I tend to not putz around online as much when I know people are watching my every move. But, I think it can also produce sub-par work because some of it is competition against the other people in the room.

Sure, it makes you output a lot of words but the quality, I'm not so sure of. So, I think I'll continue doing most of my writing at home or out in public somewhere like a coffee shop. I do enjoy being out in public writing: it takes away the distractions of home (ie: dog, cats, husband, the pile of laundry that needs doing).

The upside: I got some good input as to whether my plot even sounded interesting. It's always nice to get other people's opinions on the matter.

In other news, I'm pretty sure I know what my next tattoo is going to be! I just need to figure out where I want to put it... Oh the complications in life.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Day 4

I know, I'm writing this post at night. And it'll be a short one with just one thing to update:

Word Count: 7,051

Whew, I'm caught up.

And exhausted. It's bedtime!