We are a full nine days into National Novel Writing Month, friends, and I MUST know how you are doing.
The wheels fell off for me this week. My little cold became a big cold and I’m still fighting away. I keep thinking I’m getting better, but then it surges in like the sniffles know I have STUFF TO DO. I’m sincerely hoping the end (of the cold, not the world) is near.
So! Let’s do our update. Same format as last week:
What was difficult this week
The cold. For sure. But even that wasn’t the whole of it. Distractions played a HUGE part in falling behind. Yesterday, I was determined to catch up. I had a 4k word day planned, but just after I’d secured a table at Starbucks, I got a very important phone call. A phone call that derailed my entire writing session. After that, I got nothing done at all. Photographic proof of me being excited and doing absolutely nothing:
But! I’m not discouraged. If anything, I’ve doubled down. I’ve taken the number of words I still need to reach my goal and divided it by the days we have left until 11/30, and generated a usable daily word count quota. I’ve even given myself a few days off and have scheduled a makeup day, because if history repeats itself, I will fall behind again.
These are all things I would recommend you do if you’ve fallen behind. If you don’t make some kind of plan to catch up, the hopelessness will set in, and there’s nothing that kills a good run at a goal like hopelessness.
What was easy this week
Word sprints! This is how I got the bulk of my words in this week. Next week I’ll do a better job of dropping a note in the Go Teen Writers Community when I’m getting ready to sprint so you can join in if you want. Intentional, quick spurts of writing are often very fruitful ways to get words on the page.
Also, this week I was much better at giving myself the freedom to write messy. I find it very difficult to turn off my inner editor, but in the service of getting words on the page, this week was a breakthrough of sorts. The sprints definitely helped here. Hoping this tool will work miracles for me as we move into next week.
One victorious moment
My protagonist has begun to develop an adventurous spirit, and it seems to be happening more organically than I would have thought. I’m enjoying watching her grow.
One setback
I’m already considering combining two characters, and I don’t like that niggling thought at all. I won’t do anything with this idea as I NaNo, but the thought is there at the back of my noggin, begging for some serious consideration. I don’t like distractions like this. BUT ANYWAY!
How about you, friends? Tell me:
I really love this! It’s nice to share what’s happening with my own draft and see how other people are doing. I hope your cold gets better!
1) What was hard this week: Having the energy to do things. I’ve managed to write at least a little every day, usually in the mornings at school, but I’m definitely behind. I’ve been tired and unmotivated all week.
2) What was easy this week: To my surprise, writing in the mornings! I am not a morning person, but I usually get to school early and I’ve found that the twenty minutes or so of free time I have before classes start is a great time to get some writing in.
3) One victorious moment: Uh, I guess last night was sort of a victory moment. After spending way too long perusing some of the NaNo forums yesterday evening, I found myself actually excited to get back to my novella and I even wrote a little before going to bed, which I hadn’t done all week.
4) One setback: Well, this next week is going to be crazy as far as homework goes, so I’m going to have to postpone my make-up days until Thanksgiving break. Hopefully, between long road trips and a wedding and Thanksgiving itself, I’ll have some time to catch up.
Every week is a little different, isn’t it? If you keep on keeping on, I bet you’ll run into motivation along the way. Wishing you the absolute best as you write.
I hope your cold gets better!
1) A book series I’ve been following for 4 years always has their book come out in the beginning of NaNoWriMo. The past 2 years it’s been election day, when I have off from school. It took me 3 days to read the book because it was 850 pages and my mom wanted me to socialize. So I’m now around 3000 words from where I’m supposed to be today after catched up for 90 minutes in study hall and in between classes.
2) My characters are cooperating and making my job a lot easier. Without having to worry about keeping them in character, I’m able to insert the pieces of my theme, which is a big part of the book
3) Today I wrote around 2K words in my study hall without stopping. I can’t sit still usually so it was pretty great
4) My rowing practice has changed, so now I have more time after I get home from school, but I still have to do workouts in my own time, which often leads to procrastination. I run better on a strict schedule.
Look at you! This is a fantastic update. We’re still so early in the process, so being a bit behind is no biggie! Keep going, friend.
I love that you’re doing these NaNoWriMo posts 🙂
What was hard this week: Put simply, writing. In years past, NaNo has been really fun and I’ve always finished way ahead of the deadline. Not this year, apparently. For some reason, it’s been WAY harder. I’m almost at 7k right now, and I plan on catching up this weekend.
What was easy: I’ve actually surprised myself this week by not getting totally stressed out when I fell way behind. I even took one whole day off, even though I probably should have been trying to catch up. So it’s been easy to give myself breaks, and I’m counting that as a good thing, because it’s something I’ve never been able to do in the past.
One victorious moment: Last night, I added in a brand new character, and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE HIM!!! He’s an old Japanese piano teacher, and I plan on having him help my protagonist figure out part of a mystery.
One setback: Realizing that I actually have no idea how I’m going to write this thing. Usually I’m a pantser anyway, and I’ve always done fine that way, but I’ve been planning out this book for a while. And it’s having the opposite effect I wanted–it’s actually slowing me down. So hopefully I’ll be able to push past that soon. 😀
Isn’t it weird how each book and each season of our life makes the writing a bit different? It happens to all of us so you’re not alone. I’m so glad you’ve discovered a new character to love.
I hope you get better soon!
1) What was hard this week:
Probably the same thing as the setback question below. Knowing that even if I finish my manuscript this month, it won’t be 50K unless I can figure out a lot to add to it.
2) What was easy this week:
I feel like I’m starting to fall into my groove. As long as I get as much of my homework done at school, I can write for about an hour once I get home after school and again in the evening after supper.
3) One victorious moment:
I fell really behind, because I’m not finding a lot of time to write, the first few days. Then the past couple days, I’ve been trying to really hard to write more words to try and catch up. It’s been really nice to watch my word count climb.
4) One setback:
The story I’m working on is a revamped, re-plotted version of my first story idea. My old draft of that idea is about 20K, so one of my goals for this new idea was to be actual novel size, or at least 50K. My setback is that I’m already getting close to the third act and I’m only at about 13K. So now I’m not sure what to do to make it to where I can write enough on it to win NaNo.
Stories that end up being too short are common. Don’t stress a thing. I say keep going and when you feel like you’ve wrapped it up, go back to the beginning and work hard to fill out your story world. As you go through it, look for ways to add or embellish story lines. You might even consider talking through a few of your ideas with a writing friend or two.
1) What was hard this week
Distractions and motivation. I’ve written almost NOTHING this week. >.<
2) What was easy this week
Working on marketing stuff unrelated to my NaNoWriMo project. I relaunched a Kickstarter campaign for another novel I'm editing earlier this week and I've been working on promoting it.
3) One victorious moment
…A random new character popped up in my novel (as always) and he's cool? I'm not quite sure what I'm gonna do with him yet, but he exists.
4) One setback
Lack of motivation. This novel is difficult to keep moving, so it's harder to get into a groove with it. 😛
Motivation is always the thing, isn’t it? But I BELIEVE IN YOU! Learning to write when our muse is off doing other things is so difficult but a necessary skill and I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT (also, preaching this to myself at least once a week, btw).
Hi Shannon! Sorry to hear about your cold, but I hope you are on the mend! Thanks for sharing about your NaNo progress and giving us a chance to share ours.
1) What was hard this week
Adding to my word count. I suddenly landed two new jobs this week (a regular job and a freelance writing job), which I am SO excited about, but that didn’t allow me to focus on my novel much at all.
2) What was easy this week
Despite my lack of time, I’ve felt inspired to expand on some planning for my novel, which has made writing easier on the days when I’ve actually been able to do it. The planning keeps my inspiration rolling and gives me more details to include in my chapters.
3) One victorious moment
Having some MAJOR planning pieces fall into place for my magic system in this novel. It was awesome!
4) One setback
It’s just frustrating not to be able to keep up with my word count the way I did for the first three days. It’s for positive reasons though, so I have to keep that in mind. Not sure how I could ever get back on track though…
1) What was hard this week
During editing this week, I’ve had to cut a lot and found the scene I thought was the best when I wrote it reads flat and lifeless. It’s key to the story and I have to totally re-write it.
2) What was easy this week
I was able to cut a lot of poor writing and found my manuscript didn’t even miss most of it.
3) One victorious moment
I began refining and found I’m very pleased with the hooks in my first two chapters.
4) One setback
I’ve been reading that it’s generally a mistake to start a book and move quickly to a flashback, yet I planned and wrote my second chapter as the day before my first one. I’m agonizing over whether this is a major problem and whether I have to re-structure the beginning of my story.
Cheers Miss Shannon, I know we are all curious what your excellent secret is about, but glad it’s good!
Hope you’re feeling better soon.