NaNoWriMo Day #3

Day two sucked!

There, I said it. Things got too busy. Work was nothing but meetings. The second I got home I was in the car to attend parent teacher conference, and then every Wednesday I host a movie night for the neighborhood so by the time I finished yelling at my son's school counselor for putting him in retarded classes (two P.E. classes and a class he got straight A's in the year prior) I prepped for that. By then, my night was done. So no writing time.

Today got better. After work I went to a local dining area, ordered some food, and went to town on my story. Afterwards I went to my writing group and discussed writing in general. All-in-all, it was a good day for writing and for NaNoWriMo. I'm still a little behind on my word count, but I'm  making progress so I'm a happy camper.

In the meantime, feel free to play this music video in the background to keep you inspired while you do NaNoWriMo!

NaNoWriMo Day 1

Okay, I've signed up for NaNoWriMo (for more info, see the previous post). And why? you might ask.

 I need to push myself, that is why. I'm not anticipating writing a best seller here, but it is better than what I've been doing lately when it comes to writing. I'll need to sacrifice some of the things I'm doing now but with most things in life, when you sacrifice something you can get dividends elsewhere.

 I've found a quiet place where I can get away from everything and really work. And I slammed out over 1,000 words when I ran out of water and my nose started running. But by the time I got in to take care of both those things real life caught up and I wasn't able to get back out.

 Lesson learned: Bring more water and Kleenexes next time I venture out so I can work longer undisturbed. So, 3% of the month is gone and I'm 2% towards my goal. At least it is 2% closer than nothing at all (wait, doing the math on that, and it really doesn't work that way... but I digress).

The thing I'm concentrating on with this story is conflict. It started off small (a wife arguing with her husband and her feelings of being neglected) and I was getting it escalated when I got pulled away and didn't return. Hopefully I can finish it tomorrow.

 So, with each story, I hope to focus on a specific aspect of writing. Today conflict. Next, I don't know. Dialogue? Humor? Wonder? I'll keep this updated as I make progress.

I hope everybody else is rocking their NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo 2011, Should I?

Last year I signed up for NaNoWriMo. What is NaNoWriMo, you ask? NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month and (literally) hundreds of thousands of people attempt to write a book of at least 50,000 words. If you do, you win. For more information, or to sign up for yourself, visit the NaNoWriMo website.

So, did I "win" NaNoWriMo? No, and yes.

I did not achieve the 50,000 word goal. I don't think I even crossed the 10,000 word mark. So why did I add the little "yes" at the end up there? Because the entire reason I signed up for NaNoWriMo was to learn more about the writing process. And I felt I learned a lot!

The biggest thing I learned was the need for outlining, which I've already covered in previous blogs. But it was also great to see a character get developed in front of my eyes and end up taking me in directions that I hadn't even considered. I also found that when it happened I was both enthralled and infuriated. Hence, the reason I need to become a better outliner.

I've had a few people ask me if I planned on doing it again. Until this time I've been saying, "No, not for me this year." Primarily it is for two reasons. 1) I don't have a suitable outline and 2) I don't know if I can make the time commitment. There are a few other cons, but I think the pros outweigh the cons so I won't dwell on them too much.

Yesterday I was giving NaNoWriMo some thought and came across an idea that would help take care of concern #1 (not having an outline). What if, instead of writing out a book, I write a number of short stories instead. This would enable me to practice the craft (something I should be doing anyways) and could possibly even help me stumble across the story I'm looking for. I did a little searching and it turns out that NaNoWriMo is okay with this idea, so I can do it and not feel guilty. If I can shoot for one short story a day I should come pretty close to the 50,000 word goal.

But then there is concern #2, the time commitment. Time seems to be the commodity I'm always short on. And while I think the motivation of NaNoWriMo could help me find more time to write I still don't know if that is going to be enough. So while I need to shoot for 2,000 words a day, I don't know if I can realistically pull that off.

I do have a couple of days throughout the month where I can play catch-up, but my biggest fear is that I'll use that as an excuse: "Oh, I'm busy tonight, I'll just write twice as much this weekend." That always leads to me needing to write 7 times as much over the weekend. I've got to avoid doing that as often as possible.

I admit, I'm mostly talking (errrr, typing) to myself here. Should I do NaNoWriMo and give it my best shot? I'm leaning towards yes, but I'm not 100% sold on the idea. So, dear reader, your task (should you choose to accept it) is to convince me to do it. I'd love to read your feedback on if you are doing it or not and why. And if you think I should do it, SELL ME ON IT. That is all.