NaNoWriMo Update: Days 14/15 -- Good and Bad

Daily Stats

Day 14/15 Word Quota: 5,000
Days 13 Words Written: 3,872
Cumulative Word Count: 21,391

The Good, the Bad, and the Lazy

The weekend provided a mixed bag for my NaNoWriMo efforts. Saturday was good; I hit my 2,500-word goal easily. As for Sunday? Not so much.

C'est la vie.

I was motivated Saturday to get my work done early for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to watch some of the Auburn-Georgia game that evening, and second, we planned to meet one of Jean's old friends for dinner that night. So it was important to me to get the day's writing done, and done early. And I did. Although I took my time writing throughout the day, by five o'clock that afternoon, I was done -- and I had surpassed the 20,000-word mark for my story.

Write or Die

One thing that helped me was an obnoxious little web app called "Write or Die". This is a program into which you enter your word-count goal and an amount of time, and then begin typing. The program keeps up with your word count, and alerts you when you are slipping behind in your progress. It's a nifty program to help guilt a writer into getting words on a page, and it has a particularly nasty way of letting you know when you're really behind (I won't spoil the surprise if anyone out there plans to use it). I know I will be using Write or Die more often as the month goes on.

Sunday was not nearly as productive. For some reason, I was stricken with the lazy bug yesterday. I was up early and did work on some phase outlines, but I didn't get into my writing until after 4 p.m. There were a couple of naps in between, as well as some viewing of a Venture Brothers Season Two DVD (for inspiration, of course). By the time I called it quits when Jean got home from teaching her yoga class, I hadn't even hit the 1,500 word mark.

All in all, however, things are getting easier as time passes. The good NaNoWriMo folks state that week two is the most difficult, and I agree. But that week is gone, a new one is beginning, and I'm hitting my stride.

It's going to be a good week.