Last Blog for at least 30 days. . . (Unless I get writer’s block)
Well, I should be typing all of my hand written notes so I can have them altogether.
Anyway, I want to explain what is going on . . . NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) first of all I did this last year and I won with over 57,000 in 30 days. (The minimum is 50,000 and my goal is as close to 60,000 as possible, if I keep at the rate I was over the past 22 day, I will be fine.)
Last year I had migraines so bad that for about 10 days I couldn’t even watch TV. My eyes were light sensitive and I produced maybe 5,000 words during that times straining my eyes even more. I had a very weak outline and character notes when I started. . . I pretty much just let the story pull me in and take over. I fell in love with one of the main male characters, so it was really hard to get off of his scenes.
I am not a scheduled person so there were days I got 500 words written and other days where I would write 3,000 or more words. (I had 50,000 words by 28th, but I was in groove so I kept going and that was from some crazy typing on the weekends.)
Tip: Just to let you know if you are not use to it, than chances are after your first huge burst of words of 3,000 or more you might burn yourself out for a day or too. . . it’s okay. Do something else, clean the house, go for a walk, shop, do errands, bake, read, cook a huge meal and then clean again, SLEEP and then go back to you writing; it will still be there unless you left the site write or die and then I don’t know what to tell you. If you try to push when you are burnt out it will not work out that well . . . it’s like trying to burn coal that is already ashes. Just be patient it will come back to you.)
Tip: If you need more words or for a scene to go a different way . . . add prompts. Just Google writing prompts and add some extra ideas to the story line.
Tip: If you cannot get to a computer, then take a notebook and pen wherever you go. If you are on the bus or subway and you have an extra 20 minutes or an hours just write out some idea.
Tip: Take a two hour break and watch a movie with your favorite character . . . their personality or body movement might give you and idea or two for your won characters.
Some things I am doing this year. . . My general goal is near 60,000 words by 30th just beating last year’s word count and a smaller daily goal of 1600-2000 words per day whether it be hand-writing or typed. I am not pressuring myself with an exact goal as I make me feel smothered, worried and stressed out. (This is supposed to be fun.)
I did some practice writings: blogs, surveys, outlines etc in October and I discovered that I write better on certain days.
Day Percent
Monday 5%
Tuesday 10%
Wednesday 25%
Thursday 15%
Friday 5%
Saturday 15%
Sunday 25%
Another thing to keep in mind. . . NaNoWriMo is just start as an average novel is 100,000 words. (80,000-120,000 words) My novel last year finished was over 130,000 words and I didn’t finish it until May and edited it June. I had an awesome boyfriend who did not just encourage me after NaNoWriMo, but he also took the picture for my book.
I hope to look back and say that I wrote 50,000 words for my 2011 novel Driving Lies. I hope all of those in NaNoWriMo can say the same thing.