NaNoWriMo Update: Day 24 -- Renewed efforts

Daily Stats

Day 24 Word Quota: 4,000
Day 24 Words Written: 3,300
Cumulative Word Count: 34,861

Renewed efforts

After Monday's realizations, I decided to take a long, hard look at at Snakebit and where it stood with regards to the remainder of NaNoWriMo. I knew I was behind, but I didn't know exactly what I would have to do to finish 50,000 words by midnight on the 30th.

I know now.

The first thing I did on Tuesday was to review what I needed to do to reach my word goal on time. It wasn't pretty. It looks like I'll need somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000 words per day to reach my goal (not counting two days mostly-off for Thanksgiving). I'll also need more phase outlines, because I'm running out of things to write. So I made a plan, and I'm working it.

I also became un-bored with the story. That happened when I figured out that it was entirely up to me to make the story fun. Throwing in a redneck wedding to a Mississippi stripper upped the fun quotient to be sure.

So even though I'm behind, I feel good. I have a plan, and although it will be difficult to attain, it is far from impossible. I guess the most important thing is that I want this. I really, really want it. I not only want to hit that magic 50,000 word mark, but I also want a first draft finished by the end of the month. Can I get a draft finished by then? I don't know. But I will at the very least finish 50,000 words by the time the clock strikes 11:59 on the night of the 30th.

You can take that to the bank.

NaNoWriMo Update: Days 20-23 -- Falling behind

Daily Stats

Days 20-23 Word Quota: 10,000
Days 20-23 Words Written: 3,333
Cumulative Word Count: 31,561

Falling behind

After a fruitless writing weekend, I find myself in a bit of a jam. I've realized that I don't know where my story is going, I'm bored writing it, and I am 8,500 words behind schedule with a week to go in NaNoWriMo.

A bit of a jam, indeed.

Things all seemed to be going swimmingly on Friday. It was a good day for output, but not a great one where my writing was concerned. I made my word quota just before I had to leave for my shift at the Pork Palace, which was the good thing for the day. On the downside, I had a hard time writing that day and an even more difficulty getting into the story. Most of the time my writing seemed lifeless and dull. I plodded ahead until I went over 2,500 words for the day, and topped 30,000 to date. I went to work pleased but somehow unfulfilled by the day's progress.

Saturday was not even close to Friday's efforts. I didn't give myself a chance to be bored with the story because I had so many other things going on. The day's big chore was to rake the yard before the rains came. Like so many other projects, this took longer than I expected, and I ended up with limited writing time for the day. I was able to sit down and get almost 700 words in, but like Friday, I was uninspired.

Sunday and Monday can both be labeled as NaNoWriMo "EPIC FAIL" days. On Sunday, we spent most of the day cleaning the house and getting ready to have some friends over to play music that evening. I completely blew off NaNoWriMo for the day. Even when I had a chance to write, I didn't take it. On Monday, Jean worked from home, so I did not have access to the computer for most of the day, and planned not to add anything to my word count. I was glad about it; I just flat out did not want to work on Snakebit in the least. I thought I would spend the day working on some phase outlines, but I didn't even do that.

On Monday night after I got home from work, I looked at the computer and wondered why I wasn't sitting down to write. I was falling farther and farther behind with Snakebit; what was going on?

I realized a couple of things that night. One, I was getting bored with my story. I was doing a lot of exposition and introducing new characters, and not in extremely exciting ways. I was in the doldrums, stuck in a literary sargassum, and like the Ghost Pirate said in my favorite episode of the "Venture Brothers", "any way you cook it, it still tastes like hot sargassum."

I also realized that I was running out of things to write. I became a big fan of phase outlines early on in the writing process, but I've just about used up all the ones I've written. Putting it bluntly, I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to get where the story needs to go.

To sum up: My story is boring me. I'm not sure where I'm headed. And I'm 8,500 words behind schedule with more than 18,000 words to write in one week.

I'm not going to panic. I think this is exactly where I need to be right now. More to come.

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.

NaNoWriMo Update: Days 4-7

Days 4-7 Word Quota: 0
Days 4-7 Words Written: 0
Cumulative Word Count: 5,393

Ah, the best laid plans don't mean diddly when vacation is involved.

Wednesday through Saturday of this past week, Jean and I went to Orange Beach for a family trip to visit her parents and a number of other relatives. I was looking forward to the trip, but I was apprehensive to a degree; yes, I needed a week off, but how would I handle NaNoWriMo while I was out of town?

I could have soldiered on while I was on the coast, staying hunched over a laptop in the condo while Jean and her family went to the beach or had some amazing seafood dinner, but that wasn't going to happen. For one thing, I don't even own a laptop and there was no way I would be writing longhand. For another, I WAS ON VACATION, for crying out loud! Through these two realizations, I was eventually able to rationalize not doing any "real" writing -- "real" meaning adding to my word count -- while I was at the beach. NaNoWriMo could wait a few days.

But I wouldn't ignore the project; there is too much at stake to take off that kind of time right at the beginning of something like this. So I made a plan: While Jean and I enjoyed some much-needed beach time, I would knock out seventeen or eighteen phase outlines (in a most relaxed-and-groovy manner, of course). Doing so would give me momentum to come back for my first non-vacation WriMo week; when I got back, so the plan went, I would simply have to flesh out the rest of the phases. The goal of 50,000 words would be easy to reach.

Yeah, yeah, sure.

As it worked out, I did much more vacationing than outlining. There was good food, good company, and I even had an opportunity to visit with my own aunt and uncle while we were down there. Crowds were nonexistent, and the weather was nice -- if a bit breezy. I saw dolphins swimming in the morning, and a sunset that caught the breakers with a light like nothing I had ever seen before.

It's not difficult to understand how NaNoWriMo was pushed to the background, at least for a few days -- except when I was excitedly telling one of Jean's third cousins all about the project.

I wasn't a complete beach bum during the trip. I worked out three nice outlines, two of which come next in the storyline. The third just popped up out of nowhere, and I'm saving it for later on. These phase outlines give me enough material to work out the story through Tuesday, my next non-writing day -- and the day I will work on phase outlines again. Yes, I've put myself a bit behind. But not so much that I can't make it up, and quickly.

Besides, the trip was totally worth it.

NaNoWriMo Update: Day 3 - My planned gamble

It is a calculated gamble, yet one with which I am -- almost -- comfortable.

Tuesday was the first of what will be five straight days with no additions to my NaNoWriMo word count on Snakebit. I have to admit that I'm nervous about this. Momentum means a lot to me as a writer, and with two good days in a row under my belt, it seems a shame to put the brakes on my progress. But it's all part of the plan, a plan into which I put much thought and effort. I just have to keep reassuring myself that it will all work out.

Why the sudden stop? There are a couple of reasons. First, yesterday was Tuesday, and Tuesdays are planned non-writing days for me -- it's part of the plan. Today, however, is when we head to Orange Beach for a family trip. We will on the gulf through Saturday morning, and I expect not to have access to the internet during that time -- much less a computer. Besides, what kind of family vacation includes hammering out a novel while everybody else has fun? I wouldn't do that to myself nor the rest of the family, so I included trip days as non-writing days in the plan as well.

Phase Outlines

However, just because I'm not adding to my word count doesn't mean I'll not be working on the story. I will be.

One of the tools I've found quite helpful is a free PDF download of a book by Lazette Gifford: NaNo for the New and the Insane. The book contains lots of helpful tips and tricks, but one that has really helped me is her "Phase Outlines". As she puts it:

Phases are written out as key phrases
that will bring the action into focus.
A phase can be clues to dialogue,
if that's what the section's
focus is centered around,
or it might be a little bit of description,
or a set of actions... anything
that will make the story move
another few hundred words.

I used these for the first two days of writing. I wrote down a list of ten or so phrases before I sat down at the computer, then used those as buliding blocks, expanding on each phrase until I had said all I wanted to say for that particular bit before I moved on to the next phase. Looking at a blank computer screen knowing you need 2,500 words is daunting; knowing you only need 250-300 words to complete a phase is much less intimidating.

So while I am enjoying the salt air at Orange Beach, I'll be working on phase outlines for much of the story; with some hard work and good luck, I'll have phases written out for the rest of the story by the time we get home on Saturday. On Sunday, I will begin hammering out words again.

So, there won't be any updates for a few days, and I'm going to hate seeing my word count stay the same for the better part of the week. I'm also concerned about losing my momentum. We'll see how it turns out.

Sure, it's a calculated gamble. But I'm feeling like a winner right now.