NaNoWriMo Dreamwidth Writers

Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day,
and on the good writing days nothing else matters.

- Neil Gaiman



Today's word count is 36,667. Did everyone have a chance to catch up over the ( weekend? )

Day 20 - 10 days remaining

Love the writing, love the writing, love the writing... the rest will follow.

- Jane Yolen



And we come to the beginning of our third of four weekends Nano Writer! Hopefully for some, a time to catch-up. Perhaps to even race ahead because today's goal is 33,333 which is kind of ( magical... )

Day 18 - 12 days remaining

All the stories I would like to persecute me.
When I am in my chamber, it seems as if they are
all around me, like little devils, and while one
tugs at my ear, another tweaks my nose,
and each says to me, "Sir, write me, I am beautiful."

- Umberto Eco



And today's word count is another milestone: 30K! How is everyone doing? Excerpts? Questions? ( Comments? )

Day 16 - 14 days remaining

Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not
the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.

- E.L. Doctorow



So we all have them: bad writing days. Here are some tips to consider for those times you've checked your word count (for the fifth time but who's counting?) and found that you were ( a_little_short... )

Day 14 - 16 days remaining

Often I'll find clues to where the story might go
by figuring out where the characters would rather not go.

- Doug Lawson



We're closing in on the halfway mark! Is your story still on track or losing a little ( steam? )

Day 12 - 18 days remaining

Successful writers are not the ones who write the best sentences.
They are the ones who keep writing. They are the ones who discover
what is most important and strangest and most pleasurable in themselves,
and keep believing in the value of their work, despite the difficulties.

- Bonnie Friedman



So we're closing in on the end of the second week today - arguably the hardest week to survive. The honeymoon is done and now you and your characters are arguing about who's suppose to do the dishes and who left the lid up. What do you do when you think that it's time to ( dump_your_story )

Day 10 - 20 days remaining

What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.

- Samuel Johnson



Okay somewhere between the 10K and 16K word count marker, things get tough. You've been busy introducing your cool characters, writing about all the ways your story world is cooler than James Cameron's Pandora and have even set up everything you need to get your MC out the door and on his way. ( Now_what? )

Day 8 - 22 days remaining

Work every day. No matter what has happened
the day or night before, get up and bite on the nail.

- Ernest Hemingway



This seems to be a theme among writers of advice offered up to the would-be-writer: write everyday. Indeed, in her book The Artist's Way, author Julie Cameron describes how one might go about this business of "biting on the nail" by writing what she calls ( morning_pages )

Day 6 - 24 days remaining

The muse whispers when she will,
and you can't tell her to come back later
because she might not come back at all.

- Terry Brooks



Possibly the thing that proves hardest to overcome for most writers is finding the time to write, blessedly uninterrupted and distraction free. After all, no matter how much we might live in our heads, ultimately we must come away from our story and participate in the "real" world: school, the job, family and friends, laundry (wait, that's what's next on my to-do list). So what do we tell our Muse when she comes to whisper in our ear while we're ( fill_in_the_blank... )

Day 4 - 26 days remaining

Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts.

- Rita Mae Brown



It can be a leap of faith, blind trust in your character and yourself, to ignore that really annoying, insidious voice that whines in your ear: "this story is cr*p, your writing sucks..." It's hard but the only thing for it of course, is to laugh in its face and ( say... )