NaNoWriMo 2009 Day 8

[ladyseishou]

Day 8 - 22 days remaining

Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else.

~ Gloria Steinem



During NaNoWriMo, what else is there?

Today's quotation was submitted by Nano Writer mbeancntr - thanks!

Sometimes finding time to write can be difficult, we have so many things in our lives: family, school, friends, work, that it feels like writing a 50,000 word story in four weeks is an impossible thing to do. But You Can Do It! Today's word count to beat is 13,333! How's everyone doing? You can do it! Just keep writing!

Comments

[juliet]

13,968! The buffer creeps slowly upwards again.

The thing with weekends is that there's so much social time to work around when trying to fit in the writing... (Also writing is surprisingly tiring!)

I'm finding it really interesting, though, to discover that I can write 1,667 words or thereabouts pretty reliably in 45-50 minutes, if I have a clear idea in my mind of where my story's going. And the advantage of writing in largeish chunks every day is that the story is always kicking around in the back of my mind, spawning new little bits, and making sure that I do know where it's going.

[ladyseishou]

Hey, there's a lot of brain work going on when one writes! It is tiring! But your word count is right on the money! You're doing great!

[eien_herrison]

24,104 words so far today, about 1k off of what I wanted. Got to plan another chapter, but I might be able to do some more writing later once I've started plotting. I just need to plan out which plot I'm going to be using for the next chapter.

[ladyseishou]

Your word count is great!! Plotting seems to be working out really well for you! I know that some plotting helps me too - gives me something to aim for while managing what feels like a hydra with many snapping, snarling heads. Good luck!

[murdering]

16074 words tonight, and I would write more- but I need to work on essays for school. Ah, well. Always tomorrow.

[ladyseishou]

Fantastic word count! Good luck with the essays!

[xyndarella]

I was aiming for 14k words. Open Office Writer says my word count is 14,064 and the NaNo site tells me I came in at 13,969. Either way, I was very happy to reach that mark!

I am taking the less is more approach. Needing to reach the daily word count sometimes feels like a chore, so the less words that I have to type every day to do that is a good thing. As a reward, I keep on writing until I am done for the day. Writing with a deadline isn't so fun but once I've reached the number, it becomes pleasurable again.

In comparison, having written 14k words is just mind boggling to me, especially when I still need to have written a whole 50k by the end of four weeks. I'm realising that the closer I get through the daily word count goals to keep me on track, the less I actually have to write. It's not as intimidating anymore, which makes a first NaNo year experience a lot less scary! :)

[geminianeyes]

Are you making use of the progress report? It's a wonderful tool to help you keep track of how many words you need to write each day to reach 50k, and how long it'll take for you to reach it based on your current pace.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/NanowrimoUtils/ProgressReport/50502.html <-- Just change the 50502 to your profile number and you can see yours! (the 50502 is mine).

Also, WOOTS! 14k in two weeks is a great achievement! :)

[xyndarella]

Ooh no, I haven't been using the progress report at all! That is such a nifty feature. I've just been using the little graph that charts my progress under Nano Stats on my author profile. Thank you so much for pointing that out! :)

[geminianeyes]

You're very welcome! I love that feature, it's one of the things that keep me motivated to write. :)

[dragonscrawl]

I've never actually used that, but I keep picking up downloadable spreadsheets that do much the same thing. It's always awesome to know how much more (or less) than the average I have to write each day.

[geminianeyes]

I prefer to use the one on Nano, because I make it a point NOT to download any software productivity (aka like OpenOffice and MSOffice on my comp). :P

I don't want to work on work at home, so I use GDocs, Q10 and other sites instead. XD

[dragonscrawl]

The only computer I use to write is also the one I use for school, where they've forced software productivity stuff on me for the sake of classes. I've put these to my own writing-related uses, like when I've used Access to help me keep track of possible story prompts to work from.

I might need to play around in GDocs when it's not NaNo season. Although I had to make use of it once for homework, I haven't done much more than "Oh hey, I'm sharing a file with myself".

[geminianeyes]

Haha, I started using GDocs for a simple reason: "Oooo I can access my documents everywhere now!"

I don't really use the sharing function, as you can see. XD

[dragonscrawl]

I only used the sharing function because it was relevant to one of my classes (we were learning about tools for collaboration at the time). GDocs really needs to be my backup locale, though...

[geminianeyes]

There's also writer.zoho.com which is a bit more stable than GDocs (could be a connection prob on my side though) and it has more formatting options. :3

[geminianeyes]

Also...

*stares at Ed* :D

[dragonscrawl]

Ed's my default "I like writing and reading" icon, useful when a NaNo specific icon does not apply. He's so helpful and handy to have around that way.

Oh hey there, you have a Trek-related icon that amuses me.

[geminianeyes]

I believe you might be interested in this post then: http://community.livejournal.com/acid_graphics/16684.html

[dragonscrawl]

...Yes, yes I am interested in that post.

[geminianeyes]

:D My icon says it all.

[ladyseishou]

I didn't know about this link either! Thanks!

[geminianeyes]

You're very welcome! :)

[ladyseishou]

Great word count! And you've hit on one of the really neat things about NaNoWriMo - the discovery that we're all capable of doing something that often seems too hard or crazy for us to try - like writing a novel in four weeks - that's really turns out something we can do if we take it a little bit at a time!

[sonjadenise]

Absolutely nothing, nephew took over my day, and now two of my favorite TV shows are on. Not even going to pretend I'll write anything before midnight XD

[ladyseishou]

Well that's what having a little word count padding is for... Monday can be a good time to get back into it! Good luck!

[dragonscrawl]

This weekend was a productive one on NaNo, not so much on homework. Oh well. I'm now over 17k, with plans to push through to 18k before the night is through so that I've got plenty of buffer to make up for the fact that I really need to study for a test on Thursday.

And, because today I introduced the last of my main cast, an excerpt:
“You’re an idiot, Sam.”

Samuel blinked, recognizing the voice before the speaker even came into view. “Finnian Breckenridge? What are you doing here?”

With a snort of disbelief, Finnian fixed his green eyes on Samuel. Some passionate emotion was lurking in the depths of his eyes, although there was little other sign of it on Finnian’s face. “Fixing you. When’d you get the idea that it would be a smart idea to take an airship anywhere without a medic on board?”

Samuel frowned. “I had George hire the crew…”

“And you figured he’d hire the medic, huh?” Finnian shook his head. “I’d have figured you’d know better than to set off without a medic. You didn’t even think to question it, did you? Sam, you knew full well the skies were dangerous. I offered up a decent enough example of that. Or have you forgotten why we met in the first place?” His voice grew increasingly sharp as he spoke.

[ladyseishou]

Yeah for the word count! And I like that name: Finnian Breckenridge! And a doctor! I imagine that he'll bring additional fun to the story!

And good luck with the test on Thursday!