I've been saying for the last several years, 'I should really do National Novel Writing Month- but not this year, it's too crazy. The first year I'm not unbelievably overscheduled
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Isn't it? I keep wondering if I can sneak around my subconscious by letting myself 'goof off' writing SG fic after my NaNo words are done for the day--but it's really danged hard to outsmart myself. I always seem to see it coming.
Yes, we do need to do that at some point. Maybe January? December's always insane- I'm trying to finish unrealistic numbers of knitted things for the holidays and have a zillion family birthdays, and everyone at work is trying to use up their vacation time while we're all trying to get stuff done before the end of the year.
Every year, I say that I'll do something for Nano (never the actual 50K, but post every day, or write snippets of fic/actual fic every day - both of which have been attempted) but I never get past day 5.
[And because I saw this post when it was still barely only the 1st (1155pm), I went and posted, so as to give myself the opportunity of 'posting every day for a month'. I give it til about Tuesday...]
Yep, you're right, new job. But I haven't actually posted about it, so you've done awesomely well to remember that. I've been composing the Post Of Awesome, And Also Complete Insanity in my head for about two months now, but haven't quite got around to writing it yet. It can be summed up as: new job = awesome; have moved out of home; hate Edinburgh (mostly just the drivers) with a passion; have bought a flat; haven't killed anyone yet. It's been... hectic to say the least. *g*
Oh good! I was hoping that the reason you haven't been around much is being busy and not something so ghastly you couldn't write about it! (Actually I first read this as you were 'composting' the Post of Awesome, which would have explained why I didn't see it, except that it makes no sense whatsoever...but that's my brain at the moment!)
So- Yay! Flat and Job and Boo, Hiss to the evil traffic. And- leaving home is probably kind of mixed...I found that it's sad on the one hand, but really helpful in the not killing members of your family department.
I did NaNo last year and won! It was a wonderful feeling. If you keep writing every day, (and it isn't that much per day), you end up with the needed word count. It felt so good uploading that final count. I think I carried that feeling for months!
The premise is to write and then fix it later. You know that most of what we write in the first draft gets changed anyway. So why bother being a stickler with punctuation / grammar / etc. Some days my muse took me in directions that I would never have gone and it really changed the direction of the story. I never planned on editing it, but if I had . . . whole chunks of writing would have gone out the window. It was very freeing.
Good luck! (I'm using my NaNo icon as a lucky charm for you.)
Thank you! Yes, 1600-1700 words a day isn't that much, especially when I've been known to do 5000 on a good writing day. Mostly, I need to get enough sleep, I think- it's sleep deprivation that sucks all the creativity right out of me. But I definitely also have to resist the urge to revise and edit as I go. That's where I tend to stall out. Also, cannot let wordage slide- if I let myself skip even one day, I'm in trouble!
Ah! But that is why I wrote EXTRA whenever I could. The extra was needed because I knew I was going to visit friends for Thanksgiving. So I calculated the words-per-day based on a 25-day month instead of 30. Some days were more muse-inspiring than others. Some days, whatever I wrote sucked . . . but I WROTE.
Regarding the sleep deprivation and creativity . . . what about doing dialog between characters on those days? I did a lot of character development that way. Sometimes I realized that the character would never have responded that way so some of the details of the plot had to change. I had little index cards with the traits of each character written down.
God! You're making me wish I could do it this year. We just won a grant and I'll be running the rather-large project. So I won't have the time or energy this year. But I think I'll live vicariously through you.
Give yourself a pat on the back if you made your word count today!!
Ah, I did set my word goal for a bit over the actual minimum. I don't have any days this month (that I know of!) that are going to be so bad that I couldn't write. And I'm hoping for at least a few days of flow, where I really get wrapped up in what I'm writing and blow the goal out of the water.
Dialogue's an interesting idea for when I get stuck. I'll have to see what happens. I'll post some word counts as I get up- I'm a bit over 1800 at the moment (yesterday's count), so- so far, so good!
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I do want to work with you on that story we discussed...um...a while ago. November's not good for me either, so that lets me off the hook.
Good luck on the original fiction! We'll still be here when you get back.
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Every year, I say that I'll do something for Nano (never the actual 50K, but post every day, or write snippets of fic/actual fic every day - both of which have been attempted) but I never get past day 5.
[And because I saw this post when it was still barely only the 1st (1155pm), I went and posted, so as to give myself the opportunity of 'posting every day for a month'. I give it til about Tuesday...]
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So- Yay! Flat and Job and Boo, Hiss to the evil traffic. And- leaving home is probably kind of mixed...I found that it's sad on the one hand, but really helpful in the not killing members of your family department.
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The premise is to write and then fix it later. You know that most of what we write in the first draft gets changed anyway. So why bother being a stickler with punctuation / grammar / etc. Some days my muse took me in directions that I would never have gone and it really changed the direction of the story. I never planned on editing it, but if I had . . . whole chunks of writing would have gone out the window. It was very freeing.
Good luck! (I'm using my NaNo icon as a lucky charm for you.)
Reply
Reply
Regarding the sleep deprivation and creativity . . . what about doing dialog between characters on those days? I did a lot of character development that way. Sometimes I realized that the character would never have responded that way so some of the details of the plot had to change. I had little index cards with the traits of each character written down.
God! You're making me wish I could do it this year. We just won a grant and I'll be running the rather-large project. So I won't have the time or energy this year. But I think I'll live vicariously through you.
Give yourself a pat on the back if you made your word count today!!
Reply
Dialogue's an interesting idea for when I get stuck. I'll have to see what happens. I'll post some word counts as I get up- I'm a bit over 1800 at the moment (yesterday's count), so- so far, so good!
Reply
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