NaNoWriMo -- The words keep on rollin'

NaNoWriMo week 4 starts monday. It's the home stretch and I'm primed for a big run.

In week three, I made the biggest strides, yet, to eat away at my word shortage. TECHNICALLY, there is no shortage. The first two days of the month I spent trying to finish the short story I was working on. That was about 3000 words over those two days, but I chose not to include those in my NaNo project. I'm trying to keep it honest.

Heading into week 4, I'm 1.6 days behind. If I hold the productivity that I've been making than I'll cross 50K with a couple days to spare. I will have won NaNoWriMO. It will be my biggest writing achievement to date. That leads to the next challenge: Maintaining that productivity after NaNo is over. If I can do that, the first draft of my first novel will be done by Christmas (projecting between 80 and 100K words total.)

I guess that will be the test for whether or not I've really learned something in the month of November, then, won't it?

50K FTW!!!
^JR^

NaNoWriMo working for me

The second week of NaNoWriMo is called the 'sophomore slump'. Not for me. I had a 2 day word deficit going, but I'm chipping away at it steadily. The novel started out pretty rough, as I said in the previous post, but I've written some scenes that I'm pretty happy with.

I've also stumbled upon the Farpoint Media family of podcasts. I've found some really good writing related shows that i'll be listening to regularly. I personally recommend DragonPage, Cover to Cover with Michael R. Menennga and Michael Stackpole. You can check out the full line of podcasts at Farpoint Media

That's all for now.

50K FTW!!!!
^JR^

A little off the pace

My NaNoWriMo word count is off a bit, but I'm pretty pleased with my progress. Write everyday, dammit. That's the montra, and I've been close. I do need a couple of big days to get back on track and I hope they happen soon so that my word deficit doesn't get to be insurmountable.

They say the first week is the honeymoon. Your excited, your determined. The second week is coming up and everyone says that's when it gets hard. The novelty of the endeavor has warn off. Your internal editor is sreaming that you're writing total crap. The impulse is to go cycle back and fix what you've done.

That's not the point of NaNo.

Writing...and writing regularly...is the goal. The stuff I've written so far is probably some of the most disjointed I've ever done. The beginning flails about and all together it flows like clogged sewer line...but I'm doing it.

My one complaint (if there is one) is the lack of science fiction novels being written in my local NaNo region. I haven't looked at every profile, of course, but there seem to be a butt load of fantasy, some of which is World of Warcraft fan fic.

Noticing this took me back to the discussion I had with Rick Novy about Fantasy Vs. Science Fiction in publishing. I still think it's easier to break into fantasy. More titles published. The publishers are more likely to buy lots more first novel manuscripts if they seem competent, throw them out into the market and see what sticks. i don't think Sci-Fi has that luxury.

But enough of that. Back to NaNo work.

Out.

^JR^