I knew this, intellectually. I’ve read Anne Lamott’s book Bird by Bird several times now, and this is one of her key lessons. But it wasn’t until I started working on NaNo that it really hit me how genius this is. Hell, even no less a Great American Novelist than Ernest Hemingway said, “The first [...]
I did it. I don’t know how, exactly, but I did it. I wrote 50,000 words into my novel in a month. I won National Novel Writing Month.
That’s not as trivial as it might seem. Fifty thousand words is roughly the same length as Brave New World, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and [...]
I think I’ve figured out the culprit behind this week’s mini-block. I’ve fallen into a comfort zone and I’m having trouble pulling out of it.
The best writing I’ve done this month has been stuff I wasn’t sure I could do. It’s only when I get out of my comfort zone as a writer that [...]
As I knew would happen, I got hit by a really nasty writer’s block/depressive episode in week 2. In the space of four days, Josh ate up my 6,000 word lead and then opened a 3,000 word lead of his own. I just couldn’t get unstuck, and grew to hate my book, my characters and [...]
Josh has had a really hard day, hard couple of days, and this is really close to piling on, but he’s got a nice and even 6,000 words to catch up to me, two solid days at my 3,000 word per day pace.
That said, today was tough. I only got a bit over 500 words [...]
After napping my way to 12 words yesterday– yes, twelve words– I managed to push up to just over fifteen grand. I’m averaging exactly my goal of 3,000 words per day, and I’m on target for a 21,000 word first week. w00t!
I’m at 10,548 right now, and I still have a write-in to go to tonight with three 30-minute timed writings. I should get my 3,000 words for the day easily and might push all the way up to 12,000.
I can’t believe I’m doing this. I’ve had this kind of output only once before, when I [...]
Today was hard. In more ways than one.
First off, I tried to write this morning sans caffiene, and that was a big mistake. Huge. I couldn’t quite wake up (it didn’t help that it was about 50 degrees fahrenheit in my apartment) and mustered only 600 some odd words before crashing on my couch for [...]
Day one of NaNoWriMo is off to a rollicking start: 5,045 words right out of the gate. This is by far the most I’ve ever written in a single day, and you know what?
It was easy.
I just let myself go, I have my internal editor not only gagged, but bound, tossed in the basement where he [...]
It takes 21 days to create a habit. So I figure, why not use NaNoWriMo as the opportunity to create a new writing habit. So instead of sleeping in until 7:30 or 8ish, as I often do (I work 9-6), I’ve decided to start getting up at 5:30 am (gads!) and shower, start a pot [...]