Hi everyone,
So I wrote consistently over the weekend. I even got in over 2500 words on Friday! So pretty proud of myself, especially since last night I had 800 words and really wanted to stop. But I met my word count. :)
As you can see, I am on the brink of reaching 30K. I should have reached this milestone on Friday. Nonetheless, I am excited to be reaching it today when I do my word count.
Today, I also begin the catchup phase of the Nano process. I am a few days behind, but hopefully, by the end of the week I will be either entirely caught up or even ahead. I plan on writing at least 2500 words a day to reach that goal. I feel like since this is my first Nano (and first novel) ever, I really need to win. I think the first Nano tends to set up future successes or failures. Also, if I can do this while seven months pregnant, I know I can do it no matter what.
I am also going to use a new strategy to catch up and spread my writing throughout the day. I think this will help me get in a lot more words. Hopefully way more than 2500.
I think I was randomly googling Nanowrimo the other day when I came across Spacejock's
take on Nanowrimo. He has a really good idea on how to catch up which I plan on using this week. It's best if you have at least one whole day to do this or maybe half a day. I will be doing it over five days, starting today.
Basically, for every hour of the day, from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed, you are responsible for writing 500 words an hour. After writing 500 words for that hour, you can do whatever you want until the next hour begins. He says it should take about 20-30 minutes each hour to do this, but I think that if you do a word sprint, it should go faster than that. He recommends starting at 8 am and stopping at 10 pm, but I guess it's up to you. Following his recommendation, though, would get you 7,500 words in one day!
I plan on doing this starting at 10 am and ending roughly around four or five in the afternoon since I also have homework and household chores to attend to. This would get me at least 4,000 words in one day. I should definitely get caught up and then some :)
I know a lot of us are going to have at least a day or two off this week because of the holidays. Are you guys using the day to get caught up or ahead? Or are you expecting writing to be impossible on Thursday? If you are going to spend extra time writing, what methods are you using? If you're laughing at the thought of having time to write on Thanksgiving Day, feel free to vent your feelings if needed :)
Happy writing and watch my percentage rise this week!
Hey, it sounds like you're doing great! A few days behind, but catching up should definitely be possible. The catchup method you described sounds interesting. It does depend on how fast you can write. I'm a very slow writer and find it hard to get more than 500 words done in an hour most of the time. Last night I wrote 516 words in about 45 minutes. I haven't even tried word sprints. My brain just doesn't work that way.
ReplyDeleteAs for Thanksgiving Day, I'll be spending the whole day at my in-laws house with no computer available. I suppose I could write long hand. *shudder*
Thanks! I was wondering: What is your writing process like? Do you outline or pants? Do you go in knowing what you want to write or go in blank? Why do you think you're a slow writer? Also, it's funny how we all shudder at writing long hand. We had to do that in my class the other day and everyone was freaking out because the teacher wouldn't let us use computers!
ReplyDeleteI'm a planner. I have tried writing without knowing ahead of time what I'm going to write, and it's never worked out very well. For Nano, I had the first half of my novel pretty well planned out. At least, I had a list of scenes with a goal and a brief description of what I wanted to have happen. And I had a few other important milestones planned, including the ending.
ReplyDeleteIt's essentially the same way I would write an academic paper. You have to know your overall goal and what all of your arguments and materials are going to be before you can construct a well-formed paper.
I've spoken with a fair number of writers about how fast they write and compared my average output. My average is usually about 500 words an hour, as long as I know what I'm going to write about and I'm pushing myself to produce. If I don't know what I'm going to write about, or if I allow my internal editor out of its cage, my speed is much, much slower—maybe 100 words an hour. I know a lot of writers who can write 500 words in ten to thirty minutes.
I am also a planner. If I'm just faced with a blank screen, I can't write. I agree it's much like academic writing.
ReplyDeleteI think that no matter how many words you can produce, it's still great that you are spending time writing. A lot of people who may be fast writers don't sit down to write that often. That was me for the longest time until this November.
I think you should be proud of yourself for whatever amount of words you do write this month. I think the important thing is keep going until you finish, no matter how long it takes.