NaNoWriMo 2010 - Day 5

[ladyseishou]

Day 5 - 25 days remaining

I do a first draft as passionately and as quickly as I can.
I believe a story is valid only when it's immediate and passionate,
when it dances out of your subconscious.

If you interfere in any way, you destroy it.

- Ray Bradbury



A popular writing aid that is a favorite for many Wrimos is Dr. Wicked's web site: Write or Die, a particularly fiendish creation wherein you type in a word count goal and a time and start to write. Simple enough, right?

Well the catch is that if you stop writing there are evil consequences that range from annoying pop-ups that remind you to keep writing to a mode that will actually erase your hard work if you dally too long.

I think what work bests about this method is the incentive it provides to keep you writing, that the fear (or annoyance) of "punishment" actually acts to beat down the voice in your head that urges you to stop, rewrite, rethink, redo... In other words, it helps you help yourself to kill your "inner editor" so that the words of your story can flow, immediate and raw, passionate and real.

And there will be typos. For me, lots of typos. And your characters may not stick with your original outline, change sex, and adopt a new point of view. But if you give them the chance, who knows what new really cool stuff you'll discover?

Today's Word Count: 8,333! Did you beat it? Tell us about it! Excerpts? Questions? Frustrations? Amusing typos?

...Keep Writing!

Comments

[angrboda]

I can smell 20K! I can't believe how well it's going this year. I swing back and forth between hating and loving my story, and my characters are totally not doing what they're supposed to all time, but I feel like I'm getting there. And the more I write the more I feel like the end of the first draft which I started last year is within sight. And that's a really awesome feeling.

I haven't used that sort of tool, I would find the punishments to be too distracting. Instead I try not to get myself too mired down in writing. I limit the time I spend on it. I can't sit down and think, "I have to write 3000 words now." That becomes completely impossible.

Instead I sit down and think, "I have to write concentrated for 15 minutes now. Then I can go do something fun." And in those 15 minutes I can average 7-800 words. So then it's just a question of taking out 15 minutes of the day a few more times during the day.

Previous years I've had trouble with burning out. I'd write and write and write in an effort to get as far ahead as possible, and do 15K in two days or stuff like that, and then the next day barely managed to get 500 words out if any because I was just SO sick of it all. I have avoided this so far with putting another limit on myself. I did 5K the first day (note I haven't been to work this week. On holiday) and then allowed myself only 3K the next day, then 5K the next and then 3K and so on and so forth. When I go back to work again on monday, I'll take down a little more to 2K on work days and 5K on not workdays. So far I haven't felt any signs of being burned out, and all in all, I think it's actually resulting in me churning out the words even faster this year than previous years.

If all goes well and I can keep this scheme up when I go back to work, I should reach 50K with record speed this year.

[ladyseishou]

That's what that smell is, eh? May I say, it's pretty awesome! And it sounds like you've found a great system to manage burn out - kudos! as burn out can be a major problem.

Ah, love and hate, know it all too well myself. For me, I revel in the love and write through the hate knowing that love for the story will be right around the corner again. And chocolate too. Never underestimate the power of bribery. I like your 15 minutes plan!