NaNo 2008 - Week 2

Okay folks. We enter the week two marathon here, where catch up is possible, plots look like they have been drained, but still have writing left to be gotten.

How goes things?
(I break from the cake that is birthday to say I hit 15100 last night! WOOT!)

I'm starting week 2 at 8415 words. I plan to do some catching up this weekend. If I can get 5000 words out in the next 2 days I will be back up to par. I am happy with the progress I'm making. Having an outline has been a big help. The writing will need LOTS of revising but I will deal with that later. One of my main characters just changed her name but it suits her so much better.

I've been to two meet ups in my area and met 13 other women writers. It's exciting to meet people with the same goals as myself. Very encouraging.

Keep going strong everyone. This is the week that most people give up. If you can get past this hump you can finish this thing. Even if you can only write a sentence or two a day, get something written. You will be so happy you stuck with it when you cross the finish line.

I hate my NaNo novel. Next year it's back to what I love to write ~ historical mysteries and/or romances.

I'm up to 3,000+ words (can't be bothered to be more accurate) and figure I need to write 10,000 words this weekend to be close to where I should be. Like that's going to happen. Oh, well, I think I can do at least 5,000 more, which will help. I tend to be a late starter anyway so am not too worried, it's early days, except for the fact that (did I mention yet?) I hate my NaNo novel.

Am meeting up with some fellow WriMos for write-ins this afternoon and again tomorrow afternoon. With any luck, I'll be inspired and get some writing done.

Congrats to gilroy on his amazing and stupendous word count (what, you haven't slept all week?), and good luck on your writing to becky and everyone else. Write lots, write often, forget about it being good.

*grumps off to pour a third cup of coffee*

Is this not the place to mention that I'm up to 27,000 words, then? ;)

I'm approaching 9K. My husband has been so supportive until today, when he loads Dr. Who into the DVD player. How can you NOT watch WHO once you heard the theme song? So I've lost the afternoon. Looks like it's going to be a late night for me.

Caty ~ Sure you should mention your 27,000 word count. In fact, you should shout it from the rooftops! Congrats!

Don't mind me. I think I just must have woke up grumpy today. I feel better now. In fact, I went to a great little cafe this afternoon and managed almost 1,000 words! Tonight I hope to double that. So, I'll be up to about 5k before I go to sleep. I hope. *crosses finger, toes, eyes*

So behind, around 4k......... But I don't hate my novel. I found this great book, Scribner's Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction, today, which is intended as a teaching tool. I've already taken the first story, "Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story" by Russell Banks, apart and found it very helpful.

I'm even more behind, so much so that I'm not going to post my word count. I'm planning to spend some time working on it this evening, and I have Tuesday off, so I should be able to do a little bit of catching up then.

citygirl ~ Thanks for the tip on the short fiction anthology. I've got it on my TBR list for post-NaNo reading.

*hugs everyone who is behind* Does it make me a bad person that it makes me feel so much better to know that other people are behind, too?

I have quit NaNo no less then four times in the past week. Which is why I haven't written consistantly, which is part of the reason I'm behind. The other part is something I knew would happen, I was just in denial: The wonderful challenging fantasy story I started with went kerplunk. I love the idea to pieces, and maybe someday I'll try it again, but it's just *not me*. I don't *do* fantasy. Especially with NaNo, writing so many words a day, it needs to be something I'm familiar with.

Which is why I'm now writing my.... *mentally counts* 6th novel in the "Master/slave bdsm semi-porn" area. ..... Yeah.

My wordcount, last time I checked, was 8.1k. Haven't checked in awhile, but haven't written all that much more.

My tip of the week, since I don't think I posted it last week, is simple:

If you type a wrong word, leave it in. Don't delete it, as it will elevate your word count.

If this seems like cheating, think about it a moment. You're writing your first draft, which means that people expect you to have goofy wordings and badly written sentences! So whose to say that a bad word is going to hurt you down the road?

My husband returned to New York yesterday, so I (unfortunately) have more time to write now. I'm just a little over 30k now.

We are looking at the possibility of a massive ice storm tonight (though it may go a bit west of us), so we'll see if I have power through the next few days.

I get the feeling this is going to be an odd NaNo on all sides.

I passed 10,000 words, and there was great rejoicing. Lots to go, but every night I think of some small thing to write and it gets me started the next day.

The hard part for me is not spellchecking and perfecting my word order and picking the first name that pops into my mind instead of seaching around for the precise fit. I can always change it next time through.

Also, my typing speed is improving enormously. Much more effective than my Mavis Beacon program!

Good luck to us all! (note faint echo of desperation there)

I did not get those 5000 words written this weekend like I planned. But 2000 is better than none.

I went to a local meet up at Starbucks (no one else showed up) and worked on a baby delivery scene. I had to leave because I started crying when the baby was born. *nods head in shame* I just keep telling myself I can edit the sappy parts later. I want my book to have feeling but I end up crying every time I write. It's getting ridiculous.

One time in high school I had to read a short story I'd written in front of the rest of the class and I ended up bawling. :)

I'm about 3K behind. I took the day off to be with the other half, who has been tremendously supportive, feeding me, doing my laundry and dishes and listening to me prattle on about characters and plots this entire month. We went hiking and saw the most amazing waterfalls today. My brain needed the rest. Now, back to the grindstone.

My brain needed rest today, too. I only managed about 500 words, if that.

Happily got past 26K yesterday, so even for my extended goal of 60K instead of 50K I have a small cushion of being able to slack for a day.

So not going to happen. This book is dragging me along. Though I have a few scenes that will hitting the cutting room floor when I go to edit. Breakfast scenes and shower scenes can be reduced to a few minor sentences for the story. :>

*stabs November into little tiny pieces*
I love my story. I'm very happy writing my story. I have ideas for my story and am not having writer's block. However, because of the few days where I "quit", I am infinitely behind and can't seem to catch up. I have done at least 2k each day for the past 3 days, but it's not enough.
In order to be caught up, I need to have 25k by the end of Saturday, correct? I have 15k. It is not going to happen. I struggle to just get 2k a day.
If Nov. had a few more days, I could do it.
And WTF about Thanksgiving??
Gah. I told myself I wasn't going to worry about winning, and just write. But it's hard. lol Especially since I don't usually win, but I did last year, so now that bar is a little higher.
*stops babbling*

Okay, Heather ~ step away from the keyboard and take a deep breath. Better? Now, go online to the NaNo site and look up my word count. Does that help? lolol (or, as I would write if this were my novel, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha)

Heather, if you're having trouble catching up, let go of the plot you have in your head (or at least loosen up on it) and let your characters talk. For me, at least, dialogue ramps up word count by leaps and bounds and usually ends up finding a way to advance the story better than narration would.

Aside from that, just write and don't worry about your word count for a while. As long as you're writing every day you're still making progress. :)

*huggles Storeetllr and JackFrost* *smiles* Thanks.

Ah, JackFrost, that sounds good, but dialogue is what's slowing me down! I had a few uninspired days but have used them to move the plot along. Still behind, but have written several thousand more words this month than I would have done otherwise!

Slammed into a writer's block wall, still at 8k, hate my novel.

*falls into gloomy despair*

I'm at 13k, I'm still building the first half of my novel; and I'm not too sure what's going to happen in the second half. I'm afraid of what will happen when I get to 25k or thereabouts. I'm praying that the first half will tell me what must happen in the second half.

Any words of wisdom?

Don't be afraid. NaNo above all, is about having fun. Maybe some of the stress is causing the block. Relax a little bit.

citygirl, I think it will tell you where to go next. I used to always read interviews where authors would say they didn't know where the story was going and I never believed them until I did NaNo. I am always amazed at how the story breathes on its own.

Words of wisdom from the local cheerleader :>

- Two NaNoisms heard at my last write in:
* When in doubt, kill a character, see what happens.
* When stuck, get two of your characters into bed together and write... ahem, you get the idea.

- Don't use contractions. I mean do not use contractions. Yes that is it. It will sound weird, but go back and change them when you edit.

- Those nice compound words like bookend? Make them two words. Ignore the Word spellchecker objecting to this desperate and weird lay out of words.

- Unless you are splitting the word at the end of a line, lose the hyphen. Again, ignore Word and its corrector.

- That room the character just walked into, start answering questions about it as if the character is examining every niche: What does it smell like? Does the furniture feel unusual? Any sounds or other annoyances that could be expounded on for a paragraph? (For descriptions, try to expand to as many senses as possible. This has a two fold effect: draws your reader in more, and gives you more words.)

- The character closed their book... Now is standing by the door. What happened in between? Try to detail movements step by step.

- My old addage: If you typed the word, whether its correct in the sentence or not, LEAVE IT IN! This is a rough draft. I have cat writing upping my count. You'd be amazed what kas dgbas h gpaan can be shifted to after an editing phase. :>

Um, okay, I've lost my extra tips somewhere in my novel. Will get back to you with more shortly.

Selkie_girl, extra tip for you: Listen to your characters. Most times a block means you are asking a character to go against what they feel is right. Find out what can turn them to working with you rather than against you.

#27 "Ignore the Word spellchecker objecting to this desperate and weird lay out of words."

Better yet, use Notepad or Wordpad, neither of which has a spellchecker.

And each day start a new file. That way you can't go back and re-read yesterday's work.

I have a *very* good tip that works wonders for me... Some people say they just can't write like this, but... When I have to write a squicky/violent/otherwise-unpleasant scene, or when I'm word-warring and don't want to focus on spelling mistakes (if I see it, it slows me down), I make my Word box very small and move it down at the bottom of the screen, hiding everything but the blue top of the window. As long as I have it set to that window, I can type and type without ever seeing what I'm typing. I've flown through scenes like that.

A simpler way is to make the text white, but that bugs me for some reason.

To put a spin on something 27 said: When in doubt, have two guys come through the door with guns. *grins* That will liven up the story!

And yeah, many non-writers take that "characters coming alive/redirecting the story/etc" as crap, but I have seen it happen so many times. If a scene is simply wrong, I may be stubbornly pushing on, because dangit I outlined it and it is going in this story! But that character will tell me otherwise.

I've set the font size to too small to look at easily. That speeds things up since I can't check back at what I've just written.

I like the idea regarding hyphens and contractions. I will have to try that myself.

Oh, and instead of pausing for the perfect word, I just throw in the imperfect synonym, even if I had just used that word in the previous paragraph. I'll work on the perfect word order and selection later.

Hey, NaNo had done wonders for my typing speed!