Get Your Write On - The NaNoWriMo Thread

[Trom DeGrey]

Thank you all for assuaging my fears. I ran it through NaNo's word count and it spit back the same number as Word. Don't I feel silly.

[watty]

Over at the nanosite, Chris Baty is telling us that the weekend is the best for racking up the word count.

If you can be on pace (10,002 words) by the time you go to bed on Sunday, you'll be in great shape for Week Two. Consider a thrice-daily approach on Saturday and Sunday, where you do a one-hour writing session in the morning, afternoon, and evening on both days.

Thing is, he doesn't take into account those of us with SO's we don't see during the week and the need to spend quality time with said SO. My word count during the weekend is a pitiful 2,500 words when I had been aiming for 5,000. I'll just have to work harder this week.

How is everyone doing? Do you have the same weekend distractions as me or do you work best at the weekend? I see the wordcount on justin's site for everyone on this thread except Holley. Come in Holley! Have you accidentally duct taped yourself?

Keep up the good work, Team!
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[Giftofamber]

this will definitely be fun I haven't written anything that length since high school.

I added everybody

[Trom DeGrey]

I just got back from a mini family reunion of sorts and worked a few odd hours yesterday, so my weekend hasn't been nearly productive as I had wanted. I procrastinated too yesterday, so I can't blame only outside distractions. I've managed around four thousand words this weekend bringing me up to just over 15,000, but I had wanted to be at around 18,000 by tonight. Oh well. I at least got the rest of the outline done and don't have that hanging over my head now. Ready for week two!!

Ah, I do have a NaNo related injury to report though. My right thumb is sore from hitting the space bar and I can't seem to get myself to use my left thumb instead. I'm such a dork.

Giftofamber- What's your screen name so I can add it to my list too?

[vix84]

I was also expecting the weekend to be filled with time for writing, unlike the week, but I found it was much harder. watson, I agree with the SO thing. If you work all week and actually want to give your SO more than the occasional grunt and "Shh, I'm writing," you're not going to go far with boosting your word count.

Ah well. At least the pressure of fitting it in with the work week brings results.

Good luck with week two, everyone!

[Insanity]

Well, I was so busy this weekend that I wrote 0 words...

Oh boy, I really don't knoww how I could possibly catch up anymore...

Insanity

[justin]

Thing is, he doesn't take into account those of us with SO's we don't see during the week and the need to spend quality time with said SO. My word count during the weekend is a pitiful 2,500 words when I had been aiming for 5,000. I'll just have to work harder this week.

Considering the fact you managed to write twenty thousand words during the week, I think you can afford to take the weekend off.


My weeked was particularly unproductive and I don't even have an SO to blame it on.

My muse has been playing silly buggers. She disapeared friday evening leaving me unable to write anything. Then when she returned the next evening it was with a completely different story idea. She then started yelling at me to start writing that story.

Which led me to a dilemna, stick with my origional idea or switch to the new one in the hopes of being able to catch up. Eventually I decided to stay with the first idea. Though between that and spending the night with the parental units I didn't get much done over the weekend. However I'm still ahead of where I need to be, so I'm not panicking yet.

[Trom DeGrey]

Poor justin. Silly muse indeed! I'm glad you decided to stick with your original. As I was reading your post, I was thinking, "Oh, please tell me he isn't going to try and start a whole new story!" You panicked me there for a moment, my dear. Today has absolutely sucked. I didn't get out of bed this morning because of a screaming sinus headache and I just keep picking up appointments today. Good for my bank account, bad for my novel. Word count stands at zero for day seven. Oh well, I'm still a bit ahead.

[justin]

Well I was worried that if I was constantly thinking about the new story I wouldn't be able to work on the old one. Also I was getting rather enthusiastic about the new one so I was thinking that since it was only a week I might be able to dash out the ten thousand words over the weekend. As it turned out I was able to get the new story out of my system by writing the first scene.

Today I've managed to add another 2,500 to my total, so I'd say I'm back on track.

[Trom DeGrey]

WHOOHOO!!!!! Had a kick ass day (5k +) and am now half way there.

[Giftofamber]

I kept my name over there same as here..giftofamber.

Having started late Sunday night, I'm a bit behind everyone else. I've written this much before, just not since high school. I wish they'd picked December as the month of writing. I could focus better over the holidays.

[watty]

I finished. It's only a little green bar, I can't believe how mesmerizing it is, I can't stop staring at it.



(Holley, if I'm not supposed to post the image, let me know and I'll link to it instead.)

I noticed a few of you -- Urnie, Roz, Trom -- are at 70%+ already. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!! You're doing wonderfully. If you're still working away, CONTINUE THE GOOD WORK!!! You'll get there.
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[Insanity]

Hey watson!

That's great! You made it and it's only the 15th!!!

WOW! Congrats!

I'm totally blocked.... I'm a looser!



Good luck to everyone who is still struggling !

Insanity

[Trom DeGrey]

Yay watson!!!!!!!!!!!!! You need to start a new NaNo. 100k in 30 days. LOL!! Seriously, though, that's just awesome. I've been struggling to break that 40k barrier the past few days, but I'll finally get over that hump tomorrow and then it'll be a race to the end for me. Knock on wood, but I've been surprised at how quickly I've been able to turn this out. It's total utter screaming crap, but it's gone by fast.

Good luck to everyone else!!

[vix84]

Woohoo, watson! That was impressively speedy!

Celebrate the finish line, and make sure you don't go near a pen and paper for at least a few days.

[maudmac]

Wow, that is so awesome! Congrats, watson! What are your plans now? Is your novel finished? How do you feel? Are you happy with it? We have to know!

I'm still behind. I've had lots to do outside NaNo and I buckled down and got most of it done so I'd be able to spend the bulk of this week writing. Then there's Thanksgiving for the rest. I'm not worried, but I will sure feel a lot better when I get up there around 30K. And my plot has really come together, too, quite by magic, it seems.

Cheers to everyone who's been crazy or courageous enought to give this noveling business a shot. I hope everyone's doing well.

[Urn of Osiris]

Way to go watson! I'm so frikken jealous. I'm getting to the point where I don't know if I have enough story to fill the 50K. I've ignored most of my phone calls and have piles of paper falling everywhere. I haven't seen the laundry floor since October 31st. I'm hoping to hit the 40K mark tomorrow. I'm just worried that I'm going to have to write 5000 words of fluff.

*sends writing vibes to the NaNowrimo shamalamadingdongs*

[Trom DeGrey]

I just had to toss this in here cause I'm feeling so nauseous after reading it. I haven't spent much time roaming the NaNo forums, but I looked at a couple of them tonight including the 50k and still going thread. There was someone in there that hit 50k in NINE days. Someone else posted in the thread that had a word count of over 100k already. I've said it once before in this thread and I'll say it again now.

Dude, that's sick.

[watty]

*bows* Thank you. Thank you, Team. Thank you Insanity, Trom, Roz, Holley and Urnie. Thank you justin for the counter and Debra for being my mentor and the g13 team for the teamwork. And Car who is here with me every day and who messaged me the congrats even as she had to rush out to catch the train.

Dude, that's sick.

actually a few people finished very quickly, and they are genuine word counts -- as opposed to some cheaters (yes I am going out on a limb and calling them cheaters) who uploaded 200,000+ words on the first day. With the new view profile feature, you can actually see the progress of people over the course of the last 2 weeks.

I, um, finished in 9 days too last year, but I'm certified nuts anyway. This year, I started off with a target of 5k words a day, and I wrote from around 8pm to bedtime, which is usually around 1.30am-2am. If I didn't need to go to work, I would have been crazy enough to aim for 10k a day.

Just go on your own pace, there are people who type faster, or don't need to go to work, or who got hit by the lightning of inspiration. At the end of the day, we're all winners simply because we participated.

What are your plans now? Is your novel finished? How do you feel? Are you happy with it? We have to know!

questions questions questions.

Actually I feel kinda meh, there was a little whoo-hoo when I finished, I posted it here, I updated on justin's site, and I posted on the g13 group. I started with a simple list of characters and managed to get to 20k by the first week. After that, there was no question that I'd finish, so that took the pressure off a bit. It's certainly nothing like the huge adrenalin rush I felt last year (which had time pressure, and it being something new, and I'd never written so much before).

This year's story is nowhere as good as last year's, I couldn't wait to get to 50k so I could wrap it up, even though I could have continued and added may be 30k. I can't even bear to re-edit it and change all the small caps and fix some formatting problems. So yeah, I consider it finished.

What next? Take a few days' break from writing, but there are too many projects and stuff I'm working on, some with deadlines, that I can't be the slacker that I want to be. One of the first on the list is to wrap up Elemental (Please read it, if you haven't already. shameless plug). Someone asked if we could post something on how the project came about and the mechanics of getting 7 writers together like that. Car and I will work on that. Then it's just a matter of looking at what I was working on -- at least 2 secret projects, plus Lamplight of course. In 2 weeks' time I'm going to India for a business trip, it's my first time there. The 2 weeks before Christmas my gf and I are visiting New Zealand, and we are very very excited about that.

So basically the reward for pushing myself to write this much is, push myself to write even more. It was a good experience, I had writer's block all October, I think nano helped me loosen up and I'm feeling less blocked now. (No snide remarks about bathroom plumbing please.)

Good luck everyone, you can do it.
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[Trom DeGrey]

Anyone else feeling fatigued? I sat at just over 40k most of the week. I made myself sit most of the day today and I pushed out over 7k to bring me within about 1,700 of the finish line, but I'm really feeling tanked on this right about now. I figure I'm about 30k from the story actually being complete, so I'm not even sure I will ever finish it, much less edit it (and no doubt cut about 40k of it ). Am I the only one sucking wind on this novel writing marathon?

[Trom DeGrey]

Well, I made it and I can honestly say I thought I was going to cry when I hit Word Count and it came up with 50,240. You're right, watson, that green bar is kinda mesmerizing.

Anyone?

[vix84]

Hey Trom,

*clinks beer bottles*

Congrats on finishing! It was so exciting! Bless that little green bar.

Are you planning to start editing any time soon? My story still has about 30K to go so I'm going to give myself a break and then keep going. I have no motivation whatsover to do so, though.

[Trom DeGrey]

Heya, vix! Congrats on finishing! I'm not sure how much longer mine will take. I don't know that it will be another 30k, but it very well could be. I just can't judge right now. I didn't outline these last few chapters in as much detail as I did the first 40k or so. I think it's a little too cliched for me to consider editing and sending it around to try and get it published, but it was a great exercise for me in getting to know all my characters for future stories. I'll finish this one, but I don't really know what I'll do with it. Editing will take quite a while cause it's quite a stinker in its current form.

Now that I have a better idea of what kind of layout will produce 50k, I think I might try and really challenge myself next year (Not that this wasn't a challenge in and of itself! ) by trying to write a story that comes out right at around 50k. It should be interesting. I'm glad this is over for me at the moment though.

[watty]

Trom and Roz -- CONGRATULATIONS!!! You did it! Well done, and your first year too. It is a fantastic achievement. Definitely worthy of a beer (or other beverage of choice) in celebration.
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[Trom DeGrey]

Wow, as mesmerizing as the green bar was, that purple bar that screams WINNER! just makes me giggle everytime I look at it now. I'm giddy.


Five more days! Good luck to all the other NaNo Kittens pounding away!!

[maudmac]

Whew! And wow. It's over. It feels weird.

Congrats to everyone!

justin, thank you so much for the beautiful word count thingy you made. I see from it that the Kitten wrimos did really well this year. Combined, we wrote over 300,000 words! That is so awesome.

So, how's everyone feel?

Me, I feel kind of meh about it all. My first year, I was ecstatic for weeks. My second year, I was crushed under a big meteorite of depression on December 1st. This year...I don't know. I'm not ecstatic or depressed. I'm just still busy with school, as I was before November and as I will be for another two weeks...and then in January...and next year...and the year after that...and forever...

I think this year, finishing NaNo doesn't feel like The Beginning of a Fantastic New Life or The End of My One Month of Happiness or anything special. I'm happy about it, of course, but it feels like...just another NaNo. *shrugs*

[justin]

Another writing project came up around the same time as NaNoWriMo so I decided to stop working on NaNoWriMo in order to be able to focus more on that.

Still it wasn't a waste of time since I made a good start on a story I've been mulling over for a couple of years now. I'm going to go back to it once I've some more time.

Congrats to everyone who made 50,000

[watty]

It's that time of year when we can toss spelling and grammar out of the window and focus on one thing only -- word count. Yep, nanowrimo starts in a few weeks. We had a few participants last year, who will be doing it this year?
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[MagicPancakes]

I'm scared but I think I'm going to try it this year. Its been a really long time since I've written anything and I think this might be a good way for me to get back into it.

[sarah07]

I promised my roommate I'd try this year, so I'm going to be participating.