NaNo Report - Wrap-up ORThings I’ve Learned From NaNo

I don’t know what it was this year, but I just didn’t feel the same buzz. In the past, even when I joined reluctantly I eventually got caught up in the whole NaNo spirit of things, that pull that keeps you going no matter what. But this year I really had to force myself to get the words out. At least until I got sick near the end.

But, as usual, I still managed to learn a few things about myself and my writing. So here are my pearls of wisdom, in no particular order:


Just because you kill a character off in the beginning, doesn’t mean they can’t become part of the story.

Sometimes it pays to be stubborn, sometimes it doesn’t.

Writing a NaNo novel is NOT like writing a serialized novel.

I do not get inspired by staring out the window at the endless November rain. It should be snow, damn it!

No matter how far you fall behind, if the spirit is willing you can still catch up.

Next time I want a hat, I’m going to just go out and buy it, instead of torturing myself for it.

Star Wars marathons on the television are almost as good for background noise as Star Trek marathons.

If my characters want to have sex, I might as well let them or else they start doing really kinky things.

Stride “Spark” gum works better than coffee as a pick-me-up. And it’s cheaper, too!

Sometimes, 50,000 words is not worth putting your life on hold for.

It is possible to type from a reclined position when your sinuses won’t stop dripping.

I get more writing accomplished in my office than the living room – even when I’m sick.

NaNoWriMo Report – Day 22

Well, my mental state has improved, but I’m not sure if it’s in time to save my NaNo. I’m still plugging away though.

At one point I was a whopping 7,000 words behind. I’ve been trying to make up for lost time, but I’m still around 5,000 words in the hole. I’ve had a few really good days, but they seem to be interspersed with a few not so good days.

I made some good progress on the weekend when a character I killed off at the very beginning came back as a ghost and is now firmly entrenched in the story, but then I got distracted by some reading.

It’s funny how things change over the years. I can remember my first NaNo win . . . I got most of my writing done late at night while watching Star Trek movies. Now I’m finding the television is too distracting. I get more writing progress done in my office.

To finish on time I need to write 2,300 words a day. Can I do it? I guess we’ll find out next week.

NaNoWriMo Report – Day 15

After catching up on my words last week, even leaping ahead by a whopping 250 words, I am once again behind in my NaNo. Seriously behind. This is what happens when you don’t write for three days in a row.

I have no one to blame but myself. I let myself fall into one of those funks where I’m doubting every word I write and wondering why I’m wasting my time. I know what should go in there, I just can’t seem to get it from my head to the keyboard. I’ve become seriously un-motivated.

Friday I just wasn’t “feeling” it, and let myself be distracted by other things. I tried working on something else for a while but although I got lots done on that project, I wasn’t any more stirred to get working on my NaNo.

Saturday I still couldn’t get into it, even though my friends Jamie and Heidi helped me come up with a name for a villain. I thought maybe a reading break was in order, so I read a romantic thriller, but afterwards I was no more motivated than I was before.

Sunday I started to have self-doubts about my story. I liked the beginning and the ending well enough, it’s just the stuff in the middle was turning out darker than I’d expected. So my characters stepped up and my MMC thought maybe he should tell the girl he’s an undercover agent, and my FMC decided to let me in on her back story as to why she got into writing erotica in the first place and her own sordid past. However, the bulk of my day was taken up by the Santa Claus parade and by the time dinner was over I remembered that I had posts to write for Monday.

Yesterday I finally started to hit my stride again, but I’m going to have to really lengthen that stride if I’m going to catch up.

Today is the halfway point of NaNo and I’m about 6,000 words behind.

I’ll keep plugging away and we’ll see what happens. Completing NaNo at this point is really more a question of concentration and motivation than anything else, and right now I’m seriously lacking in both. And boy doesn’t that line give me a sense of déjà vu.

NaNoWriMo Report – Day 8

I sat up on October 31, waiting as the minutes ticked away. At the stroke of midnight I was poised, ready to start writing. After much internal debate, I had settled on an idea. I knew how it began and how it ended, and a lot of what was going to happen in between. What I did not know, were the names of the characters. So, I went to my favourite baby naming site and asked my husband to pick a letter at random. After finding my hero’s name, I went through the same procedure for my heroine’s name. My villain is still known only as X.

There were several different places to start this novel, and I dithered for quite a while over where would be best. Finally, I just picked one at random, knowing I could go back and change it at any time. Actually, I’ve got a few paragraphs bracketing the beginning that could be turned into alternate beginnings.

So, needless to say, I got off to a slow start. In fact, for the first few days I was falling further and further behind. The writing was coming in fits and starts. I was spending copious amounts of time just staring blankly at my screen. By about day four I was something like 2,900 words behind.

Then a miracle happened. My characters decided to have sex. I wasn’t going to let them do this until they were safely on the spaceship, but my FMC told me bluntly that if I thought she was going to have sex for the first time on a spaceship with a man who had kidnapped her, then I had another thing coming. She wanted to have sex with him for the first time in her own bed. So I agreed, and started catching up on my word count.

Then I remembered that this was NaNo, not a serial, and I didn’t have to write everything in a linear fashion. I could jump around if I wanted. So then I wrote a rather lengthy scene that takes place near the end and again, my word count continued to climb.

And then, I added in a scene towards the end where my MMC has himself put on trial for supposed crimes against the FMC and she goes into the courtroom and proves that he’s just being a noble jack ass. And now I’m pretty much caught up on my NaNo word count.

Next week, I probably be worrying that I’ll run out of story before I run out of words. :-)