NaNoWriMo — Update Number One

Hey, how’s it goin’?

Me? I’m entrenched in words and lovin’ it! This whole NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) thing is going pretty well. I don’t want to jinx it or anything, but I’m 50,000 percent sure I’m gonna finish this time. Nothing’s gonna stand in my way. Not a major life event, not an illness, not a meteor, surprise volcano, or supernatural alien attack (that’s when the aliens that come to invade Earth are also ghosts — spooky). Yup. no jinx here. It’s all happening. The book, she writes herself. Why, right now, she’s in the background, crafting a perfect first draft. I don’t even need to lift a finger! That’s what’s so great about NaNoWriMo. All you have to do is commit yourself to wanting the 50K word count and boom! You wake up 30 days later and there it is. Donezo a la bama bing funzo!

Sorry, what happened? I blacked out for a paragraph there.

Truthfully, it is going well. I’ve got my NaNoWriMo buddy Ron Dean who’s gonna expound on his monthly process and progress below. Make sure to tune in for his side of this wild ride! He’s been helping me keep it real, keep it fresh, keep it going! Because that’s the most important part of NaNoWriMo. Above all else, you gots to keep the words going. How many? Do the math, brah! 50,000 words divided by 30 days = 1,667 words per day. That’s not chump change! Though I expect my novel to be well over 80K, that 50 is a HUGE chunk of the pay dirt. That phrase doesn’t make sense, huh? That’s all right. We’re leaving it in. No time to go back. Only forward. Always forward.

Any one else want to help?

Twitter for NaNoWriMo

I don’t spend a lot of time posting on Twitter but I do put mindless stuff up there from time to time (including links to bloggys). There is a fantastic #WritingCommunity on Twitter. Its members cheer on other writers, post helpful writing articles, and basically give each other comfort in the fact that there are LOTS of us out there, grinding away at our craft. Because it is a grind. You think pimpin’ ain’t easy? Try writing.

The #WritingCommunity has many subsets including, of course, #NaNoWriMo. I’ve recently become a part of a small, positive group of writers on Twitter, led by Lana (E.M. Bujour). Lana has posed a couple Writing Challenges I’ve been involved in. The latest was a five day test to write 10,000 words. At 2,000 words a day (easy math), it seemed doable since I was already aiming for 1,667 for NaNo. Lana’s five-day challenge ended this past weekend and I’m happy to say I was able to reach the 10K goal (and then some) in five days. So thank you Lana, for your daily words of encouragement and for organizing a space for a handful of us to brag about our first draft accomplishments. I don’t know about yours, but my draft ain’t great! But guess what, world? It’s a first draft! Dem’s da bones!

As Young Adult novelist Phyllis Reynolds Naylor said, “The first draft is just a skeleton — just bare bones. It's like the very first rehearsal of a play, where the director moves the actors around mechanically to get a feel of the action.”

And just for fun, here’s my daily word counts for the first 10 days of the month: 3065, 817, 1607, 1726, 2016, 2030, 2410, 2462, 1577, 1702. I told you it’d be fun!

So here in this bloggy, I’ve just wasted too much time writing about writing and not actually writing (even though it was writing). I’m gonna jump back into my work-in-progress.

Hey, Ron Dean! How doth your NaNoWriMo grow?

NaNoWriMo:

The Ron Dean Way

NaNoWriMo progress update: PANDA WATCH edition!

What!? You’ve never seen Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and therefore have no idea of the importance and immediacy of a PANDA WATCH? SPOILER ALERT! (a spoiler isn’t really forthcoming, I just like saying it). The movie’s climax unfolds at the San Diego (San Dee-ah-go) Zoo. Competing news teams race to be the first to report the imminent birth of a baby panda, and more than a few drops of blood and tears are shed. Nothing mattered more than that panda, and San “Diaguns” were glued to their cathode ray tube sets waiting for PANDA WATCH updates the same ravenous way I wait for last night’s chicken wings to heat up in the microwave. It is with that level of urgency that I offer you my latest NaNoWriMo word count progress! (Is your pulse racing yet?) 

LIES

When I first guest blogged about my NaNoWriMo aspirations a week-and-a-half ago, I made a great show of not caring about word count and instead vowed to focus more on writing with regularity. But after ten days I’ve become addicted to words. I’m writing regularly and with volume; my average daily word count is almost two thousand! It’s getting easier and easier each night, and I’m having fun to boot. The scenes are flowing, the ideas are pouring out like so much champagne and bubbling up out of nowhere like so many carbonation bubbles. I’m jonesing for my next fix--I left off at a particularly fun bit of tense dialogue last night. 

Can I keep it up, though? I must admit a fact that may cast a pall on my first luminous ten days. Truth is, I’ve been working on my novel in some form or another for over a year (this is my first novel attempt, and I’m pretty sure I’m making all the mistakes I’ve been warned against). Every major plot beat that I’ve written this month has been outlined in great detail since August, and after ten days of NaNoWriMo I’ve nearly exhausted those beats. Soon, I’ll have to switch my writing focus to a whole group of new characters in a completely different setting. I suspect that’s when I’ll start to drag. There will be excuses to miss a couple nights, too (I’m looking at you, Thanksgiving and Black Friday!) I don’t want to stop--the past week-and-a-half has seen my best productivity ever. Will I be able to keep it up? STAY TUNED!

IMPERSONAL DATA FOLLOWED BY PERSONAL ENCOURAGEMENT

If you’re curious, here’s my daily word count breakdown thus far:

NaNoWriMo (1745, 1934, 2880, 1796, 1396, 1903, 2473, 1000, 1300, 2576)

The math teacher in me thinks that a line graph is in your future. I hope my y-axis daily word count hovers near 2,000 instead of plummeting like housing did in 2008. But enough about me, how about you? If you’ve had a slow start to NaNoWriMo and need a boost, then look no further than my concluding sentences. YOU CAN DO IT! NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER SURRENDER! PANDA WATCH!