Thursday, November 18, 2010

Week number....?

Number 3? It's the 18th so I'm suppose to be at 30k so I'm going to say yes. This is disorienting. I hope you'll forgive me for messing up my regular posting schedule. It's been pretty hectic around here. Everything will be normal when December comes around.

Any who... 30k. That's where I'm suppose to be. Where am I actually at? Just broke 15k an hour ago. This is going to be a long month. Actually, it won't be and that's the problem. It will only make me insane... Even more so than usual.

But it's OK because I think I've figured things out. Today is another of my personal NANO MARATHON DAYS! Last time I tried that I did a ten minute sprint (seeing how many words I can write in that time limit) ever 30 mins. It got me the daily word requirement which is good but I needed more if I'm going to catch up. So I was reminded by someone on the forums about something that Mr. Chris Baty himself said in his book No Plot? No Problem!

He suggested that you take a day where you have time 2 hours of spare time at least three times during the day. Get up early, eat, then write three times in 30 minutes blocks separated by 10 minute breaks. (So 30 mins writing/10 mins break /30 mins/10 mins/30 mins)

After that you can go do whatever you want. Then come back after lunch and do it again and the same after dinner. If it goes well you should get about 6k that day. Awesome, right? I write by hand so I think I'll be doing good to get 4k.

I figure it like this.* At the end of my first round I got 1087 words. If I get that the next two times I'll have 3261. If I get that for the 7 days of my Thanksgiving Break I'll only have 3000 a day to still be able to win.
*This should not be confused with me liking math.

Ugh... This is starting to look improbable. Not impossible, just improbable. But I'm not giving up! And neither should you. Let's keep going! I better get back to work.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Behind after week one.

And so begins week two of NaNoWriMo. Just a really quick update from where I am. You may notice that the title doesn't seem as excited as Day 1 did. That's because it's been a very tiring weekend for NaNo.

I started off fine. I was on track every day and I thought I was doing pretty good, but Friday night I didn't reach my goal before midnight. You see, me and my sister have this bet going on that I will owe her a dollar for every day that I'm behind on my word count. (And just a side note in case she reads this, from where I'm at now that bet seems highly unfair. We will have to rewrite the rules of this thing.) That was when the motivation stopped driving me from that end. I had stacked up all these days that I was doing good and then it stopped. Don't get me wrong, 50000 words is still my main motivation and goal. I'm going to carry on but maybe not so hardcore.

It was a bitter sweet moment losing that four day streak of awesomeness. The next day my allergies caught up to me and I didn't feel like writing a thing. So you know what? I didn't. And it's OK. I told myself that I had 5 hardcore days of awesome so I deserve a day of rest. Sunday was a write-in so I went and wrote 2000 words that day taking me over 10,000 and only a day behind!

Where am I at now? Let's not talk of such things... OK, so I'm at 10,255. Not bad and not great if you like to be on schedule. But who needs a schedule anyways.

Hope you all are doing well on yours. Onward toward 50k! After a piece of 10k celebration pumpkin pie. :)

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Day 1!

Whew! I'm wore out.

Surprised to see me? It's Monday you say? Well, I neglected to mention that I will be trying to post here every so often during November to let you know how I'm doing and to see how you're doing! Surprise! And now I'm about to pass out.

Yesterday was Halloween of course so I went trick or treating with some relatives and some little ones. I got home at a pretty good time actually. I had enough time to get comfy with my notebook and a little coffee as I waited for the minutes to pass to midnight with a pencil in my hand. As soon as it hit I started writing. I think I got a few hundred as a head start but now I'm proud to say that I'm ahead! 1774 words on day one. Complete awesomeness for me anyway. I'd say I'm off to a good start.

Anyways, how are you doing?! My NaNo friends, are you on schedule, ahead, behind? How'd you spend your last free day? Non-NaNo friends, how is what you're working on?

Off to sleep while I can now. Keep those words coming!