Day 28 Shaking My Head

My current word count is 28,368 which is quite a long ways from 50,000. With two days left, I'm hoping for a miracle and a spike in my creative juices. Write or Die has been very helpful the last few days, I just wish I had been using it since day one.

My Twitter friend and fellow Nanoer @ganymeder has already exceeded the 50,000 word goal. I asked her what her secret was and she said, "Just break my daily word count into 500 word chunks-2500 daily M-F & weekends off. Plus I eat my veggies." I thought that was great advice. Since it's a little too late in the game to try that, I will definitely keep that in mind for next year's NaNo and possibly for JulNoWriMo as well.

As I mentioned in one of my tweets last night, even though things look bleak, I'm going to continue to add to my word count until the clock strikes 12 midnight on November 30.

This has been a wild ride and I really hope to do a better job of preparing for next year's challenge.

If you've already met the 50,000 word goal, let us know what your secret is. If you are still chugging along, do you think you will make it? If you feel that there's no way in heck that you'll meet the goal (as do I) let us know what your weak spots were and how you plan to work around them next time.

As always...Happy NaNo-ing!

Day 14 Feeling More Confident

Good thing I'm not writing with a typewriter. As much as I mess up, I wouldn't have any ribbon or paper.

I took JanFlora's advice and wrote a little on Write or Die. It did help quite a bit. Write or Die helped me to keep in mind that it didn't matter that whatever I was writing wasn't perfect, I just had to write something.

Victoria Mixon's advice was to spend a whole day outlining the rest of my novel, which is what I did yesterday. I added a few paragraphs to my total word count, but I was mostly trying to get all of my scenes and chapters in order, thanks to Scrivener for Windows.

Since I know exactly what I want to happen for the remainder of the book, today I was able to push out 2,338 words. I'm still about 6,400 words behind, but I feel confident that I'm going to catch up and win this thing.

Thanks for all of the great advice and support.

Happy NaNo-ing!

Day 12 What's really going on?

Last November 12th, I was at a little over 20,000 words. This year, I'm at 13,937. (Shaking my head)

It was my intention to share my daily word count and my life happenings throughout the month of November, but have fallen short because I have been ashamed of my paltry word count.

This year's NaNoWriMo has been really hectic for me. I anticipated this going in, but I was and still am determined to participate and win this competition.

When the month began, I had numerous computer problems, but thank God and all of the angels that I was able to get a new one. Of course now my problem is either not having the time, energy, or ideas to put anything on paper. Kind of crazy all the way around, right?

The last few days, I have had all kinds of off days to catch up on my word count. I have been kinda slacking, but don't slap my hand because the free time isn't over just yet. With three weekends and one more holiday between now and November 30, I should be flying across the finishline like my pants are on fire.

According to the NaNoWriMo website, I would have to write 2007 words a day from now on to finish on time. If I continue at the average words per day that I'm shooting out (1162), I won't finish until December 14. This to me is losing. Losing is not an option, so 2000+ a day is what I'm going to have to push out.

If you're having issues, please share how you are handling them.

If you are on or ahead of schedule, please provide a few pointers for the rest of us.

But no matter what...

Happy NaNo-ing!!!

Day Three

I got a chance to do a little research for my story during my lunch break. Finally, I also got the chance to order my new computer. Hopefully I'll be using a trouble-free PC within the next week or two.

Once I got to my dad's house to pick up D, I began staring at the Twitter screen on my phone, wondering why my followers kept dwindling. Of course that wasn't helping me get any writing done, so I put the phone down and grabbed my notebook and pen. Then I began wondering how much Spanish I could include in my novel without irritating my English speaking readers. Should I translate every phrase? I have to, I thought, because my main character's Spanish is pretty limited so she would always be trying to translate in her mind before responding.

When I got home, I read through my notes while my nutty laptop did it's thing. CHKDSK scan, spyware update, etc.

Finally, I began typing and by 11:02 pm I had hit 1675 and I was through for the night. It was time for my nightly treat for a job well done--Facebook games!!

How are you doing so far?

If you want to be my NaNo buddy, add me.

Day Two of NaNoWrimo 2010

I was too exhausted to write this morning before work. Not surprisingly, I couldn't write on my lunch break because my manager had me hemmed up in her office most of the day.

I did get a chance to read a NaNo tip that talked about making a writing soundtrack. For example, if you're writing a romance, you should make a list of love songs. Since I'm writing about criminals, I'm gonna have to pull out the hip hop. May be a tad bit of R&B for the steamy sex scenes. LOL

I didn't feeling like setting up in the kitchen so I dealt with the kid jumping on me while I typed. I made it to 1,700 even though I wanted to make it to 2000. Maybe tomorrow.

How did your second day of NaNoWriMo go?

Day One NaNoWriMo 2010

The plan was to starting NaNo-ing at midnight but I had to put the kid to bed first. I woke up after he fell asleep, I didn't even look at the clock because I was sure it was time to get started but I was exhausted.

When my first alarm went off at 5:45 am, I grabbed my notes and laptop and propped up in the bed. I was hammering away when my second alarm went off at 6:00 am. I had gotten in 344 words by the time my third and final alarm went off at 6:17 am.

I've been struggling with the title for book for a week now but I'm going to leave it alone until about the 25th. I should have a better idea of what the title should be by then.

You wouldn't believe how many times I wanted to pull out my notes while I was at work but I had to let it be. I just glanced at my notebook on the edge of my desk every so often.

After getting off work, and paying a few bills, I picked up D from my dad's house and headed home.

While my laptop took it's time booting up, I located my thumb drive and got my notes together. I was trying to set up shop in my bedroom, well more specifically on my bed. Unfortunately, D had decided that he wanted my back to be his trampoline, so I had to more to the kitchen table. I made a note to self to clean up office by shoving all of the clutter covering the floor into the storage room under the carport.

I had to save everything I had written earlier to my thumb drive while my computer was in safe mode. It had just refused to cooperated under the normal mode.

I wanted to test out the Scrivener software but decided against it. Microsoft Word was already giving me problems I couldn't stand dealing with anything else.

After saving in safe mode, I rebooted to normal mode and still wasn't able to pull up the document. Not willing to be outdone, I rebooted the computer again and returned to safe mode. The stupid cursor kept jumping around the document but I was able to get the job done. For about 30 minutes. I thank God that the system asked me if I wanted to save my document before it kicked me out. So I rebooted and added a note to the calendar on my phone to make sure I remember to order a new computer tomorrow.

I had to kick D out of the kitchen several times, threatening to put him to bed early if he didn't let mommy work.

By 8:37 pm, I had finally made it to 2025. Which gave me a little cushion in case I fell short one day. Hopefully, day two will gross another 2000+ as well.

What a day!!

What obstacles were you able to overcome to meet your NaNoWriMo quota for today?