Tag: NaNoWriMo

I’ve been reading The War of Art the last couple of days in between writing sessions. It’s a lovely book. I’m almost at the end and I’ve highlighted several lines in the book that seemed especially relevant to me.

One particular section that I highlighted seemed a little more relevant at the moment than the others.

Resistance outwits the amateur with the oldest trick in the book: It uses his own enthusiasm against him. Resistance gets us to plunge into a project with an overambitious and unrealistic timetable for its completion. It knows we can’t sustain that level of intensity. We will hit the wall. We will crash.

It’s time I stop being apologetic for my speed. I understand that there are writers who are considerably faster, and there are writers who might look at my 500 words an hour and wonder what I’m doing wrong. I’ve thought the same. But I don’t care any longer what anyone else thinks, because my speed is what it is and after several years of collecting data and trying different things to try to speed up, I’ve accepted that how I write is how I like to write, and that means I write about 500 words an hour.

The unfortunate effect of this being that I’m looking at my numbers, thinking about how much effort I’ve put into the last 6 days of writing and knowing in my heart that I probably can’t reach the 2,866 words a day I’ll need to hit every day the rest of this month to reach 50,000 words in November.

These have been my word counts over the last 6 days (technically, today is still in progress but I doubt I’ll add much to my total).
1,445
1,938
1,890
571
2,418
1,989

And I’ve written for this many hours getting those word counts.
3.83
4.77
5.18
1.25
5.50
4.34

And these have been my average words per hour for the book I started for nanowrimo.
377
406
365
457
440
458

Meaning I’m only averaging 412 words an hour on this book so far. Meaning I’ll need to write for just over 97 more hours to reach the 50,000 words by the end of the month. I just don’t see it happening. That’s just a hair under 7 hours of writing every single day for the rest of this month. Daunting to say the least and knowing my history, probably a formula for burnout if I’m not careful. So this post is me being careful. I’m reminding myself that avoiding burnout is much more important than hitting some magical number by the end of the month.

I wish I could write for 7 or 8 hours a day, but I just don’t want to. I generally sit at the computer for 10 to 12 hours just to hit a 6 hour writing goal. I know that seems like an awfully low level of efficiency, but that’s what it takes. I’ve timed and tracked and it is what it is. And I’m willing to sacrifice a lot for my writing career, but I need what time I have left for my children and my life. If I were someone who could decide to write for 7 hours, sit down and write for 7 hours and then flit away to live the other parts of my life, things would be different. But if you’ve been reading any of my posts over the last couple of years, then you know how many times I’ve tried unsuccessfully to be that kind of person. It’s time to start putting the focus on working with myself, my abilities, and my limits instead of trying so hard to change them.

It’ll be a nice change of pace. ;)

All that said, I’m not dropping out of nanowrimo. But I am saying now that the likelihood of me finishing 50,000 this month is slim and I’m not going to be that worried about it if I don’t. If I can start getting closer to that 1,667 words per day average I set as a goal for myself back on the 5th of the month, I’m going to be very happy with my progress. Getting my daily word count average up is my number one priority going into the new year, and this post is really just a reaffirmation of that. I love the energy I get from nanowrimo, but I can live without the win if it means I don’t push myself so hard I start avoiding writing again.

Today I’m hoping to stick to my plan to write abut 4,750 words. :)

My first session just ended (I started considerably late, but still managed to get 666 words!). I’m a bit iffy on how much time I spent writing because I didn’t note the time when I sat down to turn on the computer and type in my password so I’m just going to say about an hour and a half. (I wasn’t intending to write. I haven’t even had breakfast yet.)

Although I’m a little under 400 words short of my first 1,000 word goal, I definitely prefer to just stick to the plan I made last night instead of trying to rearrange the schedule I made up for today.

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – actual: 666 words, 1.5 hours

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – actual: 781 words, 2 hours

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – actual: 971 words, 2 hours

1.5 hours (goal: 750 words)

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words)

Update (5:32 p.m.)— Oh my. I took a much, much longer break midday than I’d planned. I’m still feeling a little icky and I’m going to blame that for the time-creep today. Now, to get back on track and finish up at a reasonable bed time tonight, I need to write for 5.5 hours straight and only take breaks if I reach my goals early. :( This makes me sad because I don’t have a good any track record for this kind of uninterrupted work. I’m going to try it anyway and start my first time the moment I press the “update” button on this post.

And here it is, another beautiful but frigidly cold day in November, when it’s supposed to be fall but in actually feels a hell of a lot like winter around here. I mean, there aren’t that many 30 and 40 degree days in winter where I live and to have a week of them in November like this is horrible. I don’t like it. Too bad I don’t have a choice.

My plan to write 4,000 words today

Funny, that, right? I went from a 3,000 word goal that I haven’t yet been able to meet to a 4,000 word goal that I hope to meet two days in a row so I can have Sunday to get those paperbacks finished.

I’ve been trying to do a few hours of those paperbacks each night for weeks now and it just hasn’t happened. So last night I decided that what I really need is to get started on it and then have the time to keep with it until I’m done. This seems to be my pattern. When I finally manage to get into something, it’s hard to shift my mind into a different space. I have no trouble focusing deeply on something, but I have significant trouble focusing on what I think I should be focused on! And that statement deserves that exclamation point because it is key to understanding my problems with procrastination. I procrastinate so well because once I’m working on the wrong things, I can’t seem to break away from those things to put my focus on the right thing. Just like with this blog post. I wanted to start writing at 7:30, but decided I absolutely needed to start this post first and now it’s 7:51 but I could not stop until it was done (which it isn’t yet but will be as soon as I add my session goals).

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – actual: 565 words, 1.25 hours – If I want to make this goal today, I really need to get my speed up. I’m getting into flow, or at least I feel like I am, but I just can’t seem to go.

Interlude: I started my second session and 27 words into it, I needed to revisit one of the scenes from my last book in the series and bam, I read almost half the book. That’s the trouble with writing exactly what you enjoy reading! I need to have these scenes solid in my head for the sake of continuity (and to figure out how the hell this book and that book are going to work together) and I have mentioned I don’t do any advance plotting, haven’t I? Anyway, ideas are coming fast and furious and my brain is busy sifting through them to find the ones that might work, but this is complicated. The overarching plot has grown quite a bit through books one through four and I’ve got this book and the next that have plots concurrent to the one in book four.

I’d say it was a mistake, but I actually love it. One of my favorite things is to see characters I love from the perspective of others while showing that sometimes what one person sees in an event can be totally different than another’s perspective of the same event. I get to the play with that in this series so much that it actually makes me a little giddy when I think about it. Absolutely giddy, I say. :D

But all that said, this has thrown me off my game for today because I was supposed to have finished my second 2 hours/1,000 words and I used up 1.75 hours reading my previous book instead. I can’t count the time and now I’m going to be either trying to squeeze in another two hours somewhere or lower my expectations for today’s word count.

I really don’t want to do that, so I guess I’ll find some way to fit it in.

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words)

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words)

Update (7:26 pm)—

I’m just about to start my last session of the day. I went from feeling pretty good this morning to feeling not so good at all after lunch and so I’m sitting here hoping I’m going to feel up to at least 2 more hours of writing. I’d really rather just go to bed early and sleep for the next 10 hours. But I’d also really like to end the day with at least enough words to keep me from losing any more ground this month. Just over 1,000 words would get me to 1,667 for the day, and I know I should at least try to reach that amount. It’s just 2 hours.

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words)

Yeah, I know. I bailed. :(

I seem to be holding steady to my motivation to write. Now if only I can form an awesome, indestructible habit before the next crushing bout of disinterest hits. :D One can wish, right?

My plan to write 3,000 words today

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – Reached 575 words and 1.45 hours working on story #1 because of a couple of unavoidable interruptions
2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – Reached 325 words and 1.32 hours on story #2 (nano story) because I spent too much time reading parts of my previous book starring my current main character. The timeline in this story is going to be a bitch to get right because there’s some considerable overlap going on. I’m not sure this is a good idea. Yikes. But … not sure I want to work the story differently either so I guess I’ll keep moving.
1.5 hours (goal: 750 words) – Reached 350 words and 1 hour working on story #2. I actually napped! I thought I hadn’t fallen asleep but since 40 minutes disappeared in the blink of an eye, I’m going to have to accept that I did. ;) Because of that, I got started late and had a hard time deadline that I had to stop at.
.5 hours (goal: 250 words) – Reached 688 words and 1 hour working on story #2. 

The weird split is because of having to be somewhere in the middle of what I’d planned to be my third session of the day. I decided I didn’t want to cut it short, so I just split it up in a way that fit into my day.

Well, it’s definitely not looking like I’ll make it to 3,000 words today, unless I’m able to write 1,750 words in the next half hour. :D

So, I’m ending the day with 1,938 words, 4.77 hours of timed writing time, and an average pace of 406 words per hour. It’s unlikely I’ll do more, although not impossible.

I did a lot of redrafting stuff today in my early sessions, and in my later ones, I was working on scenes that overlap a previous book’s timeline so I’ve had to put in a lot of attention to detail. Maybe tomorrow I’ll be faster when I try this again!

I climbed back on the writing wagon today! I have no idea what made today special, since I couldn’t even start writing until late afternoon today because of an out of town appointment that kept me busy from 9 AM until 3 PM.

I’m very happy but I’ve got to make this short so I don’t short change my night’s sleep.

1,445 words in 3.83 hours working on 2 stories for an average speed of 377 words per hour.

I did lots (and I mean lots) of redrafting of the last scene I’d written on story #1 and the opening of story #2. So I feel like I came out really good for the time I spent and all that I deleted. I wanted to work for 4 hours (in two 2 hour blocks) and my goal was to write about 500 words an hour. So really, I did do great.

I updated my NANO word count (which is for story #2 only) but since I didn’t record anything for a few days between the 1st and today my total’s off a bit at 1,515 on that story. Going forward everything should be correct.

Yes, I’m back to tracking my time. I’ve decided I actually like comparing myself to myself.

There’s no day 3 or 4 of NANO 2014 because I wrote zero words on those two days. I’m not sure why I’ve decided a late start is going to work out well for me this month, but hey, I can work with it. Day 5 is going to be a zero word day also because I’ve spent all the time on the computer I want to spend today.

As an aside, I spent most of the day updating my financial records and sales spreadsheets instead of writing and, after some messing around with a few calculations, came to the conclusion that it was time to reset.

I’ve been experiencing word-count-goal creep again, harboring unrealistic (for me) expectations and setting silly goals that have nothing to do with what I need and what I can do.

My all time daily average word count (for the last 28 months) is 693 words a day. It needs to be better. But it doesn’t need to be that much better. So I’m aiming for a 1,667 words a day or higher average for the foreseeable future. Write daily when I can. Try not to fall behind. Try to keep myself writing, because we all know how momentum works. Objects in motion and all that. :D

I didn’t write a thing. I did, however, watch a lot of television, get a crick in my back, sniffle a lot because of a runny nose, and have a weird little drink I mixed up before bed. Then I looked at the clock on my stove, saw it was 12:35 a.m. and thought I was seriously late going to bed. But when I sat down to shut down my computer, I noticed it said 11:35 instead. That’s when it hit me that the time changed—over 22 hours ago and I didn’t even notice.

Well.

Tomorrow isn’t quite here yet after all. Goodnight anyway!

National Novel Writing Month starts today.

I wrote 100 words. And not on the book I’m doing for nano. :D

How’s that for a progress update?

I’m not done for the night by any means but it’s obvious I’m not going to get much further than I am to 50,000 words. :) I’m still trying to finish my book and the holiday has wiped me out. I’ve barely passed 500 words so far today.

Day 28: 30,133
Day 29: 30,653

Day 29 isn’t a final count, but I’m not going to update this number again so we’ll just pretend that’s as close as I made it to winning NaNoWriMo this year. I’ll have to work harder next year! Or, actually, I think I’m about to start a new challenge for myself… Ooh. ;)

Even when I don’t quite make a success of these challenges, I often feel like just putting in the effort pushes me past my comfort zone and gets more work out of me. :D

Day 26: 28,579
Day 27: 30,029

I finished day 25 at 23,892 24,093 words.*

It was also the first day of my 15,000 in 3 days challenge.

*Hah. I got in a few more minutes anyway.

Still making progress but embarrassingly s.l.o.w… ;)

Nov 23: 18,390
Nov 24: 20,157

Also, I’ve noticed on my spreadsheet that I now have a streak going. I’ve written every day since November 5th. Gonna see how long I can keep that going.

Next I’m going to see how many days in a row I can write a minimum of 500 words, but that one will have to start today because yesterday I only netted 279 words with all the type, delete, type, delete I did trying to get the story to move forward. :o

Of course, my ideal word counts would be, oh, say … 5,000–6,000 a day. Pfft. I’ll get there someday.

Finished the day at 18,111 words. At least I’m still moving forward is all I can say!

16,630 at the end of the day. So a net gain of about 1,383 words for the day. Could be worse! :)

My count for NaNoWriMo is 15,247 at the end of day 20. Sigh. I have a feeling this book is going to keep going slow for me, so I’m not getting my hopes up that I’ll finish NANO with my 50,000. The 30th isn’t here yet, though, so no giving up!

I’m making progress, but it’s slow. Maybe too slow… I bought some new music to help me zone out in my writing. Thought maybe my current batch wasn’t working for me. Now, let’s see what the new music does for me today. 

8:36 am: 14,581
9:45 pm: 15,147

Between 8:30 AM and 9:45 PM I don’t even know how much time I spent writing, but I know it wasn’t much. I spent a lot of time reading forums and blogs today and … I don’t have a good excuse for that when I know I should have been writing! I’m going to write for a few more minutes before I call it a night but I doubt I’ll bother updating here again tonight. Maybe tomorrow I’ll just keep it simple with a short little progress post at the end of the day.

Today’s going to be a great day! Let’s skip the preamble and get right to the point of this post.

8:32 am: 13,305
10:45 am: 13,880
1:28 pm: 14,165
2:29 pm: 14,426
9:40 pm: 14,581

Between 8:30 and 10:45 I wrote for 1 hour (timer). The other hour and fifteen minutes has dispersed into nothingness… Or maybe I spent too much time up and wandering around, having breakfast, and reading forums I’m not supposed to be visiting until I’m done writing. Bad me! Bad, bad, bad. My pace is off too. I’m tracking at 575 wph. I wanted to hit 1000 wph. It makes a huge difference in how much word count I’ll accumulate. Sigh. Perking up! Moving on! At least the writing is going well. :)

Between 10:45 and 1:30 I wrote for … 15 minutes? What? That’s right, though, and I’m deeply disturbed that I have no clue where the rest of that time has gone. I just had to knock myself off an embarrassingly gossip-laden website where I ended up after searching for I don’t even remember what and following links until I was staring at an article about [redacted for the sake of not embarrassing myself further]. O—ka—y. Done. Getting back to writing. I was feeling good about my progress today and I want that feeling back!

Between 1:30 and 2:30 I wrote for 30 minutes. Pace is now 561 wph. Yikes! I must try to relax more as I write. Too judgmental. Too critical. See, I’m even being critical of how critical I’m being. And now I’m judging myself for that. :p I need lunch. Then back to writing.

Between 2:30 and 9:40 I wrote for 15 minutes (timer). Had things to do, not the least of which was getting myself to a grocery store before my kids decided to revolt because of the lack of food in the house. :D I’m going to try to get just a little more written today because I’d really love to hit 2000 before I call it a night, so I’m outta here before I waste what little time I have left rambling.

And calling it a night even though I got nothing else written. Oh, well. Tomorrow will be here soon enough to try again. ;)

Today is a dreary day outside, as was most of yesterday, so there’s really nothing stopping me from giving myself a big ol’ dose of carpal tunnel. Sounds like fun, huh?

9:21 am: 11,227
12:10 pm: 11,991
1:47 pm: 12,376
2:44 pm: 12,442
5:03 pm: 12,737
8:38 pm: 13,113
10:30 pm: 13,305

Between 9:30 and 12:00 I wrote at least 30 minutes (timer) but probably closer to 1.5 hours because I let myself start out slow and didn’t turn on the timer until I felt like I was back into the story a bit. :) I’m trying for a decent run today but I’m going to have to spend more time with the timer going and less time on my breaks!

Between 12 and 2 I wrote for about 30 minutes (timer) and maybe just a little more, but mostly I kept hoping my headache would go away. It hasn’t yet, but I’m writing anyway. It’ll have to get a lot worse than this to keep me from writing today. :) Too many words to catch up!

Between 2 and 2:45 I had lunch and still managed to write a few words. Yay! Also, my headache has eased finally. I’m very glad to get back to writing without it.

Between 2:45 and 5 I wrote 30 minutes (timer) and then had a nap so I can get in a lot more writing tonight without feeling like I’m going to fall asleep at 8 pm. Or that’s the plan anyway! Now the real work begins. I want to write at least a few thousand more words tonight. The good news is that I’m happy with my story and where it’s headed so I’m not finding myself bogged down the way I was a few days back. The bad news is that there’s still so much story to tell that I could get in trouble with my deadline if I go long. (A usual occurrence for me.)

Between 5 and 8:38, whoa! I have no idea what happened to all that time, but I wrote for about 45 minutes (timer). I’m getting my butt back to work. I have more writing to do! And I hate forums. They suck me in and … yeah, moving on. I must write and not waste time thinking about interesting forum topics that will use up all my words. I should make a rule or something—oh, wait. I have one. No forums until writing is done! Why do I keep forgetting that?

Between 8:30 and 10:30 I’m not sure how long I wrote, but it wasn’t long. I got what? Less than 200 additional words? I think I’m just tired. Calling it a night. I have a few tricks that worked to keep me writing today that I plan to put to even better use tomorrow so I absolutely plan to do much better with my word count tomorrow. Count on it! :p