National No Writing Month

Did I use that one last year or did I just think about using it? I suppose I could look it up. It wouldn’t even take that much effort. But whatever. This is a writer’s blog so I suppose there should be the occasional post about, what’s it called, writing, and I figured with November looming two days away, this was the perfect time to do it.

So are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? I’m not, although I planned to. I got bitten by the writing bug back in September and it was strong enough that I didn’t want to wait almost two months. I suppose you could say I completed my own personal NaNo. Although I won’t be able to flash the badge, I’ll be flashing one in spirit.

Wait. That somehow sounds wrong.

Anyway, keep remembering that it’s about quantity, not quality, and no one has to hear about it again after November 30^th (which is what happened to my last NaNo piece, by the way). It is an exercise of discipline. If you fail? Don’t freak out about it. Sometimes the writing stars align and sometimes they don’t. Either way, I think we can all agree that no NaNo books are readable come December.

What are your tips for National Novel Writing Month? Are you participating or marveling at it from the sidelines?

PS. Happy day before Halloween! Don’t let the Slenderman get you!

Seriously. He’s coming.

Na No Writing Mo

That’s kind of what it felt like. I won because I put down the 50K words, but I’m not satisfied with the story. It will probably be a while before I come back to it because honestly, the whole thing ticks me off. I want to print it out so I can hold it in my hands and yell at it.

Don’t even try to tell me you’ve never felt like that.

The whole business of writing is weird, isn’t it? NaNoWriMo is a great act of discipline, but I think we can all agree it’s about quantity, not quality. Writing 50K in a decentrough draft is more impressive, though. Unfortunately, the conditions in my brain and in my life weren’t lining up this time so it was a lot more of a chore than usual.

All of writing is like that. There are times when things work. There are times when they don’t. There are times you force yourself to write and in the end, have to delete your forced words as unreadable. There are times when those words are just as good as the rest of the novel, too.

There are a million factors that create a book. Not all of them are in the writer’s control. The true task is never stopping the flow of words.

Man, I’m deep.

A Momentary Lapse

Apologies are in order. I haven’t been as good a blogger friend as I should, and I neglected in visiting my friends. There’s no excuse for it and I’m sorry if I haven’t dropped by recently.

I get lazy sometimes and over the past few months, it’s been building. When I opened my reader, I’d think “Well, I’ll comment on the post tomorrow, or maybe wait until their next post.” It kept happening over and over until I finally realized that I wasn’t making any effort at all. I just kept saying “tomorrow.” It’s very intoxicating because really, tomorrow never comes.

Obviously, being in the middle of NaNoWriMo isn’t going to help me get back on track, but I’ll do better, I promise. Social networking is very important to writing—we have to connect with people. But I tend to forget that you have to continue connecting. It’s not a one-time thing. It requires effort, daily effort.

So baring death by NaNo-induced brain cramp, I’ll see you around.

NaNo Day…I don’t even know I’m so tired

NaNo isn’t coming as easy for me as it did last year. I’m not sure if it’s the story or what, but I have to force myself to get down those 1667 words—and all the while I’m reading about people who already left the 30K mark in the dust. Yeesh. It makes me look at my pitiful 15K and go “really”? I’m still on track to finish November 30, but this means I need to step it up because there’s no way I’m going to be able to write on Thanksgiving. Ack, this is really a labor this year.

But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s an act of discipline. Part of me is whining, pleading to give up because the story isn’t going to come out how I like anyway (in truth, it’s a little sparse in places). I wish I could pull that part out of me and kick its butt until it realizes that that isn’t a good enough reason to give up.

NaNo is about commitment. It’s about meeting goals, in quantity if not quality. I will not fail unless I just don’t do it. It may not come out as another HUNGER GAMES, but it will be a story, perhaps one I can return to some day and work on.

Now if you’ll excuse me. I have a story to attend to.

NaNo friends: how are you doing? Are you enjoying the challenge?

On Manuscripts, Past and Present

Whelp, I did it. 50,000 words in thirty days. Or less than thirty days, if you prefer. Parts of it are quite good, but I think I’ll pare it down and make it into a short story (a long short story, anyway). I was thinking “Hmm, this would be better in short form” around 15,000 words, when I already reached the second part. I had to add at least 10,000 words of filler (mostly dialogue) just to make the fifty K mark.

Still, in all, it was a fun experience. I’m not sure if I’ll do it next year. If I have a good idea, the time and am in the mood to write and not edit, then most definitely. But I didn’t like the deadline so much. I felt parts of On the Other Side were rushed just to meet my internal marker. There were parts I skipped through just to get through instead of taking the time to meditate on them like usual.

I honestly think that when I am in writing mode, I can churn out forty K words a month. It’s about how long it took me to write my last one (almost 80,000 words in two months, not bad). Obviously, speed rarely equals quality. Nothing I turn out is ready to be looked at, rushed through or not.

So, how are your projects (NaNoWriMo or not) going?

Wherein I Run Out of Catchy Titles

Sorry, nothing interesting today. My creativity is going into my NaNoWriMo project and my Thanksgiving Post (duh-duh-duh-daaaaaah!). It’s kind of a biggun’ (and funny, at least in my opinion), so get your high speed DSL ready. But don’t worry. Despite its largeness, it won’t take forever to read. It’s Thanksgiving! You’ll all be busy with your families!

Except for my out of USA friends. For you guys…happy fourth Thursday in November. Hey, at least you get the internet to yourself because everyone in the States is being forced to interact with their families.

Did I say forced? Slip of the fingers, I assure you.

Have I intrigued you yet? I hope so. Nine days and you can see what I’ve been up to for the past two weeks.

Yes, I got it ready that far in advance. Because I’m dedicated.

NaNo Update! Yay!

Well, I'm over halfway done. Yes, it is a bit early, but I always do things as soon as I can get them done. I'm one of those "what if something happens?" people. Even for a contest that I don't need to win. Yes, it is also a bit ridiculous : )

The story is coming along pretty much how I expected. A few scenes have been added here and there, but overall, it's what I had in mind. Since I'm a pantser who never outlines anything (until afterward, at least), I never know the specific details anyway. I knew they were going from point A to point B, but I didn't know quite how it was going to happen. I waited until I was on the computer to think of that.

Not much else going on! Hope my fellow NaNo-ers are writing well, whether they're at the 21,000 mark or not. I know it's more of a quantity instead of quality contest, but some people just can't churn out whatever. I myself have doubts over some paragraphs or scenes, but cutting them out would drop my precious word count. Besides, that's what rewrites are for!

So, with nothing left to say, here are some cute kitties:

 Cute aside: he was running back and forth with that slipper in his mouth for hours.

Balance, balance...

Just a cat. Sleeping on a wood box.