There is lots of NaNo/writing advice out there, by the way...
Anyway, on to the topic at hand.
Day One of NaNoWriMo went surprisingly well. Of course, I traded days off and didn't have to work on Nov 1. I also managed to bank approximately 6,000 words, more or less sticking to my outline. As Martha would say, it's a good thing.
This time last year, I hadn't even started.
Despite the good numbers from Monday, I can already see that this year is going to have some challenges. Such as...
1) My writing area is not neat and organized. In fact, it's something close to Laundry Central. Priority number one, after the Write-In this evening, will be to come home and create a space where I can work. This is important because...
2) I may waste inordinate amounts of time watching old episodes of 30 Rock. The routine, for the last few weeks, has been to come home, make dinner, and eat with Matt and the dogs while streaming entertainment from Netflix. Since I find it very hard to write while the TV is on, that means the only time I'll have to write is the 30-45 minutes before sleep. Not nearly enough time, because...
3) I have a feeling I am going to reach 50K, and not be finished. November is time away from the current Work In Progress, and I wanted to use NaNo to rough sketch an idea that's been kicking around for a while. So my goal is to finish (a very rough draft) in 30 days. I'm thinking I may be headed for a higher word per day count than last year if I want to finish in time.
Fortunately, I can tackle two out of the three with a plan. And as for the last one? Well, I'm hedging my bets and trying to increase productivity with 2 camper weekends and at least 7 write-ins between now and the big day. If I don't make it, though? I can always just focus on 'Why' I'm doing NaNoWriMo, which will be the topic of next Tuesday's post.
Until then, follow my progress (and Maryland's!) in the side bar, and leave your comments below!
1) My writing area is not neat and organized. In fact, it's something close to Laundry Central. Priority number one, after the Write-In this evening, will be to come home and create a space where I can work. This is important because...
2) I may waste inordinate amounts of time watching old episodes of 30 Rock. The routine, for the last few weeks, has been to come home, make dinner, and eat with Matt and the dogs while streaming entertainment from Netflix. Since I find it very hard to write while the TV is on, that means the only time I'll have to write is the 30-45 minutes before sleep. Not nearly enough time, because...
3) I have a feeling I am going to reach 50K, and not be finished. November is time away from the current Work In Progress, and I wanted to use NaNo to rough sketch an idea that's been kicking around for a while. So my goal is to finish (a very rough draft) in 30 days. I'm thinking I may be headed for a higher word per day count than last year if I want to finish in time.
Fortunately, I can tackle two out of the three with a plan. And as for the last one? Well, I'm hedging my bets and trying to increase productivity with 2 camper weekends and at least 7 write-ins between now and the big day. If I don't make it, though? I can always just focus on 'Why' I'm doing NaNoWriMo, which will be the topic of next Tuesday's post.
Until then, follow my progress (and Maryland's!) in the side bar, and leave your comments below!
My list of challenges includes 9 days staying at a relative's house early in the month. Making sure I have a consistent place and time to write is going to be really tricky.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree that for most novels the 50K idea is a lower limit. My Nano novel from last year was not finished until more like 100K words.
Good luck!
One Writer's Mind
I'm in awe of you for getting anything done with 9 days spent staying with family. :) Not that family is bad, I just imagine it'll be challenging. But you can do it! Good luck!
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