Monday Musing - Finding Time For NaNoWriMo
A week from today is the start of National Novel Writing Month. During November amateur and pro writers alike commit to writing 1,560 words daily in an attempt to complete a 50,000 word novel in a month.
Another demotivator courtesy 101 Reasons to Stop Writing.
The goal of all this shared experience madness varies among its participants. Some folks use the event as a quick way to get out a first draft of a novel. Others use it as a way to build healthy habits to springboard into regular writing beyond the month of November (It takes 30 days to build a habit). Still others just like to know that they are participating in something larger than themselves.
I personally have completed two NaNo novels. The first became Bride of Tranquility (available now in trade paperback from Yard Dog Press or in E-Book Format from Baen Books). I put the second one in a drawer because it requires an extensive rewrite.
I am not choosing to participate in NaNoWriMo anymore. I’ve found that for me personally, the novel that I end up with after a month of intensive writing is too much of a mess.
But if you are planning to produce a novel next month, here are some helpful resources to keep you from becoming overwhelmed with your life outside the book over the next month.
Fly Lady - Fly Lady is a program that emphasizes small daily routines for staying ahead of the clutter. Some gold nuggets of advice include: unload your dish washer as soon as the dishes are dry. Put dirty dishes directly into the dish washer instead of piling them in the sink. Keep a box of cleaning wipes in the bathroom and use one each morning to wipe down the counter while you get ready. Beware though. If you sign up for the Fly Lady mailing list you may receive as many as ten pieces of mail daily.
365 Days of Slow Cooking --I love the idea of the crock pot. Just pile your food into the slow cooker and turn it on. No stirring, no minding. Just stick the crock in the refrigerator and it's done. The Blogger at this website brings you a new recipe each day. The food ranges from casseroles to stews, soups and drinks to deserts.
Google Docs - Author Peter Brett wrote a novel on his Blackberry in the two hour block of time he had while traveling to and from work. If your PDA, iPod, iPad or net book is internet capable, why not use it whenever you have some down time to squeeze out a few more words toward your daily goal? I am using my Palm Pre to compose this post in a Sunday night in a Panera Bread using a program called Scratch Word Processor while my husband has a business meeting. There are similar word processing apps for the iPod and Android platforms, or so I'm told.
Write or Die - I have not personally used this program but I hear good things about it from fellow writers. Write or die helps you break down your writing goals by the day and then into hourly blocks to make it more manageable. If you are prone to over thinking your writing (or getting distracted) this program puts you into a race against the clock to finish. If you fall behind your word count, the program will 'yell' at you. Depending on your settings, this can simply take the form of changing the background colors (more red the further behind you fall) or if you are suicidal, you can set it to start deleting words at an increasingly faster rate the further you get behind.
For those of you about to start NaNoWriMo, I salute you. You are only 37 days away from your first draft. Good Luck!