Thursday, November 05, 2009

First NANO update

So? How are all of you doing?

I had a very slow start. I had just finished revisions for my agent only a couple days before NaNo started, so my head was stuck in another story, AND it was stuck in edit mode. My inner editor was up front and center, ready to scream at the crap that a first draft always generates. And, the voice coming out of me wasn't from the MC of my new project. It was from my old one. So it took A LOT to shift away from both edit mode and my old story, and really get into my new one. But I think I'm there now, which is good.

I started NaNo on monday, since I'm a weekday word warrior, and have tried to hit 2500 words per day.

As of last night, I am at 8368 words, which is slightly more than my goal. It's good, but it hasn't been easy. It turns out that the few hours when my kids are at school are not enough to crank out 2500 words. I can only manage about a thousand. But my kids have been great so far, and they've been playing well for an hour or so after lunch, and that's usually enough for me to reach my daily goal. I had some time last night after they went to bed, and I got almost another thousand words written. So I'm pretty happy with where I am right now.

How are the rest of you doing? Cranking words out? Banging your head against the wall? Already panting with exhaustion? :)

Edited to add today's word count: I'm now up to 11,097!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

9 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm not officially a NaNo-er, but I'm pretty competitive...so even though I didn't sign up, I've found myself working more, secretly hoping to get to 50k even if I'm not officially doing it... :)

I'm only at 6k now, though, so we'll see! At least the Thanksgiving break will help speed up the process!

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

This is my first year to NaNo, and it is a strange and interesting experience. I am at 8,322 words so I am on target, but it is hard to push so relentlessly. I'm impressed you can jump from edits to marathon writing like this.

Michelle Sussman said...

I broke 10,000 last night. I'm trying ignore what I've written because much of it is just awful. But that's the point, right? If I have nothing written then there's nothing to revise. :)

christine M said...

We've had sickness in the house. A fever making it's way through various family members. (Plus the kids had the week off from school) so I'm off to a very slow start. I haven't even hit 4K yet - but I'll get caught up. (I hope)

Shooting Stars Mag said...

I actually started mine a week or so before Nano so I had 8,000 already written. HOWEVER, I'm not an official nanowrimo-er...i'm simply trying to get 50,000 at least done this month...so I'll have close to 6,000 by the end of november. it really is hard. i've been trying to write like crazy, but i'm almost to 17,000 words!!

-Lauren

Tabitha said...

Beth - it's great you're trying harder, even if you're not an official participant. :) And even better that you get Thanksgiving to write more! The opposite is true for me... :)

Tricia - NaNo is a mental workout, that's for sure! :) And it definitely wasn't easy to switch from full edit mode to full freewrite mode. My brain protested much in that transition. :)

Michelle - yay!!! That's awesome!!! I'm glad you're ignoring the lack of quality, because you're absolutely right. You can revise crap, but you can't revise a blank page. :)

Christine - hope everyone is feeling better soon!! I keep hearing so many people coming down with the flu and such. I'm waiting for it to hit my kids' school, and then I will be out for the count...

Lauren - that's great!!! Keep on going, and you're sure to reach your goal!! :)

J.Tuttle said...

congrats on finally switching mind modes (oh, that sounds like science fiction, doesn't it?)
It is really hard to turn off that editor. I'm making progress but it's a constant battle to not go back and fiddle.

Mary Witzl said...

I haven't done NaNo this year, and I can't help feeling a little guilty. But I've told myself I'll use the little time I have to rewrite and polish old stuff and send it out. And there's always next year!

Aubrey said...

I am loving the motivation that NaNo is giving me to crank out my book! I am right on target for the 50,000 words! SO excied! I'm at 14,425 words!