NaNoWriMo 2009 Signature Banner

Instead of writing (like a good NaNoer should be), I've been playing around with signature banners for the NaNoWriMo site. Here's what I came up with for this year's novel.

And I'll be posting the last ten days' worth of word counts in the next twenty-four to forty-eight, so stay tuned!

A Day of Infamy

This day will live in infamy for two reasons I think are very important.

1. I let myself get distracted by the Phoenix Suns/Orlando Magic game and trash talking through the second half with one of my World Race squad mates... that might have started sooner if I hadn't been at work or on my way home through the first half. The time I spent on that was not time spent writing. Therefore, I did not write a single word for the novel tonight.

2. After all the effort I put into talking smack about the Magic (which was, eh... not much - guess that should teach me a lesson, huh?), they totally handed the Suns their heads on a silver platter. 22 point loss, and the end of a 4-game winning streak. A season opening winning streak, at that.

To add insult to injury, I logged on to Facebook after the game to find my squad mate had posted something on my wall.

 Thanks, Mike. I love you too.

In all seriousness, though... I think I came to a writing flow blockage because there are two camps warring inside my head over control of where the novel will go. Poor, unfortunate me has to moderate between them and decide who wins. On top of the Suns losing tonight.

Wow, I'm having a hard time letting that go.

Anyway, to the point. Things don't always go the way I want them to... in the 'real world' or my world. There are times when I have choices to make regarding the next step I take. Depending on what's going on around me, the likelihood is that I will not get what I want. What I have to do is stand up, brush the dirt off, and get back to the business of living...

which means picking up the pen and paper and scrawling out chicken scratch to be typed up later in the day, and embellished as it is typed.  10,000 wasn't in my reach today. But tomorrow's a new day, and I've got a new chance to get there.

Day Four

Day 4 Word Count: 0
NaNoWriMo Total: 7,386

The sun sets today on a day of shame. Not a stinkin' word on the novel, and no way to spin it otherwise. Guess I'll be spending some extra time at the computer this weekend to catch up.

Switched Plots

Here's how I imagine the conversation would go if someone I know were to ask me about my NaNo progress.

Them: "Hey, I heard you were doing NaNoWriMo again. How'd that go last year?"
Me: "Good, I guess. I won."
Them: "Awesome. Can I read the novel?"
Me: "Not yet. It isn't anywhere near ready to read."
Them: "Oh... so, how's it going so far this year?"
Me: "Really well. Funny story, though - I had an idea at the beginning of October I was fleshing out, but on November 1st, it decided not to write itself."
Them: "Not to..."
Me: "So I switched plots."
Them: "You switched plots. Um... wow."
Me: "Yeah, I know, crazy. But this plot's been rattling around in my head since November of last year, so these characters are absolutely ready to spill the beans."
Them: "Okay, well... nice to see you, Cat. See you next year."
Me: "Actually, two years."
Them: "Two?"
Me: "Yeah, I'm going around the world next year."
Them: "Oh, yeah... that w... global trek thing?"
Me: "The World Race... yeah. So I'll be in my last month of that at this time next year, and not able to do anything for NaNo. But, you know... you could help me..."
Them: "Bye!"

Yeah, I guess that's a weird sounding conversation... now that I've put it into words on the screen. And maybe I've lost my mind for switching plots, but who are you to question it when the juices are flowing? Hmm?

In general, I don't advocate switching plots during NaNo... but with any rule, there seems to always be at least one exception people are willing to allow. For me and NaNoWriMo, here's the list.

1. It's November 1st, the plot you've been working with the past month isn't translating into anything in the word processor, and there's another plot that's been simmering for awhile with characters jumping out of the pot for the chance to get a little love.
2. You started writing November 1st with no plot whatsoever.
   

Well, those are really the only exceptions to the rule, as far as I'm concerned. If you've got any more, show me some comment love and post them here so I can write a post later on in the month about what fellow NaNoers think constitutes a valid exception to the rule.

Until tomorrow night!

Day Three

Day 3 Word Count: 2,487
NaNoWriMo Total: 7,386

"Tomorrow" has held up very well for me... at least yesterday's tomorrow, anyway. In three days, I've never seen less than 2,100 words, and two of those days, I've almost encountered 2,500!

The average so far is 2,462 words/day. I want to see if I can raise that average. If I manage to get to over 2,500 by November 15th, then I will adjust my goal for the rest of the month by raising it to 3,000 words a day. At the rate I am writing at this moment, at the end of the month my manuscript will be 73,860 words... not too far short of a length publishers actually like. If the story is anything publishable is another story entirely, though.

Onward to Day Four!

NaNoWriMo Writing Habits

I'm curious, as a returning NaNoer myself, about the writing habits of some of my fellow writers. Here are my questions:

1. Do you do all your writing strictly at your computer? If not, then how often would I find you with a journal where you write odds and ends when you have no way to get to a computer?
2. Am I likely to find you in a stone cold silent room, or jamming to some hot tunes? If you're a jammer, are you likely to be sporting sound reducing headphones or cranking it up so loud the neighbors are on the verge of calling the police because your music is loud enough to be considered noise pollution?
3. Does your flow come better early in the morning, or late at night?
4. How much do distractions throw you off track for your writing target for the day?

 Answer any of the above, all of the above, or make up your own question about writing habits and answer it. See you tomorrow!

Day Two

Day 2 Word Count: 2,164
NaNoWriMo Total: 4,899

Today was a really rough day on the word count. Between the Day One post and two thirty this morning, I added about 2,000 words to my total, and went to bed with bright visions of well over 6,000 words in just two days. I came back to the computer three hours later to find that the computer had somehow erased everything I wrote in that three hour time period. A minor heart attack ensued.

Instead of a very healthy 6,500+ word count tonight like I was anticipating when I went to sleep, I am staring at the 5,000 mark. I'm a little bit ahead of where I was when I went to bed... which is something.

I console myself with the knowledge that I am still well ahead of my goal so far, and that I am light years ahead of where I sat at this time last year. As for what tomorrow holds? We'll see.