Hi all,
I know several of you ProgressiveU'ers are also NaNo'ing this month so I thought I'd start a thread here for you to share your progress and help keep one another motivated to keep chipping away at that 50k!
How are you doing thus far? Have you hit any bricks in the road or is it all going well for you? As someone else pointed out... getting started is always the hardest part. Don't give up too easily if you're having trouble... you can make it! :)
Good luck, all!
I made it to 318 words after midnight... and to 1680 for the day. I may add to that later as my personal goal for the day is 2500. But... I want a hot bath, meatloaf and a few minutes of complete and total do nothingness before I write anything else!
The kiddos wore me out yesterday and I'm still recovering :D
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~Fallon~
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.- Russell
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I managed to get out another 1790 words today, two pages of which happened while soaking in the tub. (Awesome how possible that is!) :) Now, if I can just find the same level of motivation to get essays on constructive conflict done... I'll be a happy camper.
Total so far... 3532 words
And C.. where have you been hiding today? I tried to IM you earlier and couldn't get you. Sadness!
:-(
(Edit) Instead of posting a new comment... I'm just tacking it on here... 1711 words on day 3 for a total of 5243. Yay!
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~Fallon~
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.- Russell
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I hate Yahoo. I really, really do. It likes to close on me without warning for no apparent reason. I really should know better than to think I could go all day without getting any messages....
As for me, I'm up to 3505 right now. I have to do a chapter of Nutrition before I can go another round, though.
~C
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Trade you! I have to write about The Team That Didn't Work... and a dictator. And I still have to answer a question about Hobbes and Leviathan. None of it sounds the least interesting today.
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~Fallon~
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.- Russell
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Thanks to a little encouragement from Fallon, I'm sitting at 1880 words right now. I too would like to make it to 2500 words for the day, simply because I'm not sure how much time I'll have during the week to write, and that little bit of padding on the weekends will definitely help.
And despite what NaNo suggests we do (just write, no editing), I'll probably edit some as well, because my word count tends to go way up when I edit. I tend to write the basic plot first, then go back and add in little details that I think are important, or little bits of foreshadowing for things I've written later on.
~C
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You know, someone broke it down the other day and said if you type 60 words per minute and you write for an hour straight without stopping, you've made it to 3600 words. If you figure in all the stops to think, to get a drink, etc... you can still make the minimum in a decent amount of time. And once you've done that, you can then edit the hell out of it.
So... I'm operating on that theory this year heh. No stopping for an hour straight. And once the timer stops, I can edit until my heart is content. It probably works better in theory than it does in practice, but it's worth a shot :D
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~Fallon~
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.- Russell
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We're into day 8, and I'm short of my goal so far. I'm sitting at about 10,600 words right now, and need to write about 3000 more today in order to catch up. That's what I get for having two days where I wrote nothing (in my defense... my mom came home after being gone 5 1/2 weeks). I'm into the meat of my story now, but I'm just kinda winging it, so it's not flowing quite as easily as it did in the beginning.
Here's hoping I can hit the word count by the end of the day, so I can at least attempt to stay on track for the rest of the month. On the bright side, I still have work on Monday, but apparently it's always really boring, because the soldiers don't have to work, but everyone else does. So maybe I'll get some good planning in then :) And Tuesday I don't have to work at all. Hooray.
~C
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I'm still at 8089 words and don't know when I'll get a chance to catch up. I'm going to attempt to write some tomorrow, pain drugs or no pain drugs, so I don't fall any further behind.
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~Fallon~
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.- Russell
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I've seen some interesting variations in writing for those of you who are my writing buddies on the NaNo website. With a week to go, I have about 15K to write. I hope to write 5K by the end of the day today, and will be plowing through it Thanksgiving weekend when I make the trip up to my grandparent's house.
~C
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I'm really curious to know what this NaNo thing is. Care to share?
"Consistency is not a human trait" - Maude, from Harold and Maude
Write a 50,000 word novel between November 1st and November 30th. You can't have written anything counting towards that 50K before November 1st, and you can't write anything after midnight on November 30th. It's intended to get people to focus on writing, rather than making a perfect first draft. I know a few popular authors take part in it each year.
It amounts to about 1667 words per day.
~C
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Good luck to all of you! I would love to try that, but my plate is pretty full right now. mvenus929, I found it interesting when you said that you usually start your writing with the "skeleton" so to speak, and then build on it when you edit.
I am exactly the opposite. All through elementary school my teachers wrote "TOO WORDY" across my papers. I have a tendency to use run-on sentences, and since I've started blogging here, I notice I tend to say the same thing over and over again. I haven't been writing at all since I had my baby, so I'm sort of learning all over again.
I find your approach interesting, and I wonder if it would help me to discipline myself. I just started school last week after 4 years, and since it's online, there is a lot of writing. It feels good to be back in the scholarly community.
Even though I'm not a NaNoer, I'll be checking on you guys in this thread to get more ideas about writing. Who knows maybe I'll join someday.
"Consistency is not a human trait" - Maude, from Harold and Maude
Yeah, after I had to write things that couldn't exceed a certain word limit (including my history internal assessment in high school, and multitudes of scholarship and entrance essays for both college and medical school), I learned to not be verbose. I mean, I can write some things that are very wordy, but... I write strangely, at least when it comes to creative writing.
I write exactly what I see in my head. If I can't see it, I can't write it. I'd like to think that this helps other people see what's happening as well (and some people have told me they can when reading my writing). After I got the basic idea of the plot down, I go back and add the details. This is beneficial in two ways. First of all, I don't lose track of what the plot actually is. It's already written down. Secondly, I can read through it again and see what I need to add to really make people understand what I see.
I started really writing again back in July, when Fallon convinced me to do JulNo... same idea as NaNo, except it takes place in July, where you have an extra day during the month to write (and it tends to be a little less hectic, because it isn't during the holiday season). Since then, I've been participating in writing communities that post challenges, and have tried to bring this to others as well (though the creative writing challenges we have here). That's been really beneficial to help me refine my writing style, and now I'm ready to actually write a novel (in July I just wrote a memoir to help with my mental state at the time).
~C
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I absolutely love writing. I don't mean "I love to write". I mean, I love to study and understand the process of writing.
I have already decided on and am faithful to my chosen best writers. I wrote my first poem in fifth grade. I was so frustrated and angry with my teacher who kept giving it back to me with big red letters at the top that said "PLEASE REVISE". I really hated her at the time. By the time she approved my poem, I was so pleased with it that I no longer resented my teacher.
I have never really thought that I would make writing a big part of my life, but everywhere I go in life inspires me to want to write. It's not so much a need to write to make others see my point of view. It's more about writing in effort to reach out to people, hoping to make a connection, and if I fail I hope to be receptive enough to understand why, and I hope to not alienate people enough that they will be willing to provide feedback.
I am glad to see NaNoWriMo. I held back with my own writing in response to harsh criticism from a mentor. I decided I wasn't interested in being that vulnerable. Things have changed, and my writing and ideas are no longer what defines me. I am now defined to myself by my effectiveness in relationships primarily with my family, secondarily with my friends, and now tertiarily with my audience. Hopefully my writing can serve as objective evidence to my growth process.
"Consistency is not a human trait" - Maude, from Harold and Maude
The website is nanowrimo.org. They have all the information you could need on it. I hope you sign up, it's a real challenge.
P.S. Does anyone want to exchange nanowrimo pen names? Post them if you do, I'm Angel15116.
Like what you've read? Well, then here's more:
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tricia0711
Mine is Senedra. It will be so nice when traffic slows and the NaNo site is able to handle the load again. I have a list of people I need to add to my buddy list.
How is it going for you this time around?!
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~Fallon~
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.- Russell
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Because of a paper I had to write, I lost a day of writing. So I'm only at about 2,000 words. I plan to make up for it by staying up late and carrying notebooks with me wherever I go. Hand writting somehopw seemed more satisfying than typing during JulNo, so I'll give it a shot. Good luck to everyone.
Like what you've read? Well, then here's more:
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tricia0711
I'm Chelle-Lynn.
~C
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If you made it through today, congratulate yourself! You're officially one day beyond the point in which most NaNoWriMo's give up. That's right... most that sign up don't even make it past day two. But, you did! :)
While, in theory, it should be smooth sailing from here.. it rarely happens that way. 50k is tough! But... not impossible!
Charlotte Dillon has created a page on her site designed to inspire you to keep going even when the going gets tough. Bookmark it, print it out, hang it up... whatever it takes to keep you writing!
You can do it :D
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~Fallon~
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.- Russell
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