Iceberg Dead Ahead!

My unsinkable NaNoTanic has hit an iceberg and is sinking! 36,213 words in and I'm behind. Part of the problem is I found myself writing a scene that I knew I was going to cut, that had serious pacing priblems, and needed a rethink, but because this was NaNo I couldn't really take the time to do anything about it other than write through it. Which made it all a bit of a drag and by the time I'd finished this overlong scene (about 6,000 words) I was about 4,000 words behind schedule.

The thing is I'm not that bothered about finishing NaNo on time and though I've got behind, I have found that I can easily write 2,000 words a day and that writing that much everyday is an easy habit to foster and a lot better than struggle to squeeze out 500 words every so often. I can in theory catch up and finish NaNo on time, but don't mind if I don't as Long as I keep on writing 1,000-2,000 words a day with just the odd day off to recharge the batteries or fix a scene that just isn't working.

1st: 644
2nd: 1,366
3rd: 2,245
4th: 1,812
5th:2,287
6th: 1,684
7th: 1,724
8th: 2,269
9th: 986
10th: 1,831
11th: 757
12th: 2,409
13th: 2,043
14th: 2,043
15th: 1,901
16th: 1,572
17th: 1,571
18th: 1,571
19th: 537
20th: 500
21st: 459
22nd: 1,916
23rd: 1,414
24th: 450
25th: 1,009

November Total: 37,000
Oct average: 1,480

Halfway There (Not Livin' on a Prayer)

Yesterday A.M I passed the NaNo halfway mark when I hit 25,000 words. Which was nice.

I've Seen a few anti-NaNo post lately posted by 'real' writers. Although they were 'real' writers they were a bit weak on research. One thought that NaNoers only wrote one month out of twelve, were sastisfied with whatever they wrote, didn't edit, or rewrite and sent their NaNo draft off to the publishers on Dec 1st. Another couldn't understand how anyone could write a good 50,000 novel in a month and thought the idea of limiting a novel to 50,000 words length was stupid anyway. If he took the minute or so it would take to check the NaNo FAQs he'd see that despite being called a Novel writing month you only have to write 50,000 words of a novel to finish, not a 50,000 novel. Ho Hum. Writing, especially writing to a publishable standard is hard work, but that doesn't mean some people can't do it for fun.

Anyway, I serious about my writing, and the craft but I'm still enjoying NaNo. It's been a real spur to my creativity. Juts the kick I needed at the latter part of the writing year.

NaNo Nov word count

1st: 644
2nd: 1,366
3rd: 2,245
4th: 1,812
5th:2,287
6th: 1,684
7th: 1,724
8th: 2,269
9th: 986
10th: 1,831
11th: 757
12th: 2,409
13th: 2,043
14th: 2,043
15th: 1,901
16th: 1,572
17th: 1,571
18th: 1,571

November Total: 30,715
Oct average: 1,706

Ahead of the Game, Just

Finally caught up and recovered from my first day NaNo nightmare on Friday and today I got ever so slightly ahead by about a 100 words. So now that I'm caught up and I've getting into the swing of things hopefully this coming week I'll get ahead of myself. I have to say I'm enjoying myself and the story I'm telling. Hitting the 50,000 words and winning wouldn't be that important to, just getting a bit of momentum going has been good. I'd be happy if I came away from NaNO with a little more discipline and writing fitness and settle for developing the habit of writing a thousand words a day. However, I actually think I shouldn't settle and can do more. Plus there's 50% off Scrivener for NaNo winners and damned if I don't want that discount!

Day 1: 644

Day 2: 1,366
Day 3: 2,245
Day 4: 1,812
Day 5:2,287
Day 6: 1,684
Day 7: 1,724

Week 1 Total: 11,762

Writing Fitness

I knew I was going to struggle with NaNoWriMo. It's half my normal year's output in one month. I think previously 27,000 words is the most I've managed in one month, but that isn't the norm. 500 words a day is the norm, that's when I do write, but normally there are far too many days when I don't write. That's one of the reasons I wanted to try NaNo, to build up my writing muscles and improve my writing stamina, and build on the discipline of writing every day and get writing fit. That and to break past 500 words a day which I've become far too ready to accept as a 'day's writing' when in reality 500 words is at best an hours writing. In fitness terms that's like getting out of bed, doing two press-ups, then saying sod it and going back to bed.

So day one of NaNo was, as I mentioned, a disaster from a NaNo point of veiw as my 664 didn't even pass the 667 part of the 1,667 words a day I need to write to hit the 50,000 word NaNo target. Still, it was, from my point of view,  a relatively good writing day as I actually wrote, and wrote more than my normal 500 words, even if only slightly more.

Day two although another NaNo failure with only 1,346 words, missing the daily target again and leaving me with two days worth of catching up to do, was still a good day's writing for me.

Day three then has seen a near instant improvement in my 'writing fitness' surpassing the NaNo target of 1,667 and clawing back some of the deficit from days one and two as I manged a respectable 2,245 words.

Hopefully I'll be able to catch up soon and then stay ahead. I wonder how many words I can actually write in one day, exactly how 'writing fit' can I get in one month?. Maybe I'll find out at the weekend when there are less demands on my time. Then again maybe I'll hit the writing wall!



Day 1: 664

Day 2: 1,346
Day 3: 2,245

NaNoNiMare!

First day of NaNoWriMo and everything that could go wrong did go wrong. First I realised things wouldn't work as they are with my story so I spent the morning rejigging the plot and rewriting notes, working on structure and blocking out scenes. Over 1,500 words of notes, but not a single word of prose. But it had to be done and there was still plenty of time. Well there was until I checked my emails and found that one of my accounts had been hacked by a Chinese spammer. So goodbye another time of chunk while I sorted that out. Then a parcel arrived, product no good, company in question claiming we had to pay a 30% restocking fee on returns, in other wordscthey expected us to pay a lot of money for no product. Sent a long time fuming and researching consumer rights. Swore a lot. A lot. Learnt my rights. Won't be paying any % of restocking fee that you very much. Swore some more.

In the end I only managed 664 words. Mood I was in I daren't add the other 2 words to that. Who knows what would have happened. So day one and I'm already behind, not a good start, but at least I have made a start for awhile it looked like I wouldn't.

Day 1: 664