NaNoWriMo Week 3; or Now That We're Properly Warmed Up...

Lots of ups and downs this week. A good day of writing on Sunday, followed by a bout of stomach flu/food poisoning on Monday (which also yielded a higher-than-average word count, thanks to having to have something to do between acts of worshiping the porcelain god), followed by a couple of days mired in court intrigue*, and ending up today with a somewhat unplanned trip to the movies.

But in spite of all of that, I am well over 30,000 words into this story, and things are beginning to roll. There is no hope on earth of finishing the story in the next 20,000 words, but at least it will be well begun!

Sadly, this week saw several of my WriMo buddies drop out of the race, for various reasons. I understand that; life happens, and there's no shame in that (says the woman who didn't even try in 2007, because we were refinishing two floors' worth of wood flooring that month).

But in watching the various lists and communities that are part of the NaNoWriMo experience, this week also saw a lot of--to be blunt about it--whining.

I'm not going to post any specific examples here, but some of the common themes I saw this week were:

- I did okay the first day, but I haven't been able to write anything since.
- I get distracted too easily by my job/boyfriend/girlfriend/television shows/lifestyle.
- I just can't find the time to write.
- When I do write, I get bored with my characters/story after five minutes.
- I don't know where my plot is going.

Now, I could address each of these excuses/reasons for not writing, but after I thought about it, I decided that there actually is a common theme among them.

These people aren't writers.

Now, I will be the first to agree that the writer's journey is different for everyone. 1,667 words per day for 30 days is not the be-all and end-all. It's definitely not "The One Right Way To Do It."

But if you want to be a writer, you've got to write. And what struck me about all of these people was that they didn't really want to write. They wanted to sit down at a computer and have a perfect, well-written story magically fall out of the sky and into their keyboards, with little or no effort on their parts.

After all, maybe they don't have the muscle and footwork to be a star linebacker, or the skill and fine motor control of a brain surgeon, or the talent and good looks to be a movie star. But they passed high school English, so that should have taught them everything they needed to know about how to write. Right?

What they don't seem to grasp is that none of these people can do what they do without an investment in certain skills and plenty of practice. You don't just show up at a hospital one morning, put on a surgical gown and some gloves, and start carving away at people's heads. You go to school for many years, and you study and learn and practice.

And if you want to succeed at being a writer, just like those other professions, you have to practice. That means you sit and you write. Maybe you don't have a plot. Maybe your characters are boring. Maybe what you're writing right now will (and should) never see the light of day. Lord knows, buried in the depths of my storage unit are spiral-bound notebooks and floppy diskettes full of writing that no one but me will ever get to read. There's one particularly soap-opera-ish series of stories that I started in college and continued to add to for the next eight years or more that is truly dreadful. Plot? What plot? Characters? Seriously? Can you say, "Cardb0ard"?

BUT...after you do that long enough, then you start to see how bits of plot can come together, how characters can come alive and be made to interact, how pacing works. You might discover that the act of writing can be satisfying in and of itself. Once that happens, you will find the time to write. You will set the distractions aside at least once in a while. You'll learn that you can write even when you don't feel like it.

Maybe you won't write every day. Maybe not even every week, or every November. But you will write.

And that's what separates the writers from the wanna-bes. Butt in chair, fingers on keyboard, making the words happen.

Okay. I'll get off of the soapbox now.

Just get out there and write something this week. Okay?


* In the story. Not in Real Life(tm).

Stay On Target; or, Did I Set The Bar Too Low?

Okay, first things first:

If there's anyone on the face of the planet who hasn't yet seen the pictures (hard to believe because I've been babbling about it all over the place), my office is more-or-less finished. You can take a little tour of it over on my LiveJournal account (which in turn links to my Flickr account).

Yes, I am all squee over it. It's a warm (okay, at the moment, a little TOO warm), welcoming space. If we ever get to turn off the fans(1) again, I'll be able to hear the babbling of the water circulating in the fish pond outside the window. There are actually two windows and an exterior door, so there's at least some airflow.

But frankly, I don't care that it's a little warm. It's my space, and I'm happy in it.

Which is good, because I really need to find my Happy Writing Place. It's now July 15, halfway through my summer writing challenge, and I'm just over halfway to my goal. The problem is that with my energies focused on finishing the office, I haven't had much left to give to my writing. Last week's word count was not even what I would put out during one day of NaNoWriMo; the week before was half of that, and this week is on target to be even less impressive. Granted, this is short story writing, which is harder for me, but I'm still feeling pathetic and unworthy.

I could say that I'm having writer's block. Or I could say that the muse just isn't inspiring me at the moment. But I know that's not the problem. I know that I'm capable of putting out 1,500 words a day without much effort, muse or no muse.

I'm beginning to wonder if part of the problem was that I set the bar too low on my challenge. I have another 14,900 words to write by the end of August. I know -- because I've done it -- that I am capable of writing over 10,000 words in one day. If I had a couple of really good days of writing, I could blow past that goal and coast for the next month and a half.

Maybe I just need to up my goal. If I were to write just 500 words a day for the next 45 days, that would give me 22,500 words. Five hundred words a day is certainly do-able; if I would just quit spending my lunch hour catching up on Twitter and write, I can easily do 500 words at lunchtime.

I know that another part of my problem is that my brain has been mulling over The Daughters of August Winterbourne for the last month or so. I've had four beta readers finish it now (Beloved Husband finally finished it on Sunday), and I've gotten some constructive feedback from them. So I want to dig my fingers into it and start editing. Now.

Perhaps what I need to do is offer myself a reward of editing time once I get my 500 words per day written. That could work.

I'll give it a shot and report back in a couple of weeks. As I've mentioned before, I have a hard time swapping back and forth between writer-head and edit-head, so this will be yet another challenge for me.

And now, time to go see if I can find 500 words to say about a fairy invasion of the garden...



(1) Our house does not have air conditioning. It used to have a big whole-house fan, but that stopped working last fall and we haven't gotten it fixed yet. And daytime temps here in sunny Colorado have been in the mid-to-upper 90's for the last couple of days...

Procrastination; or, Why Do Today What You Can Put Off Until Tomorrow

Short entry tonight, because I'm about to fall asleep...

Okay, I admit it. At 11:38 pm on 4/15, I was in my car, in line, at the post office, waiting to mail an envelope. No, not my tax return. An extension. Yes, I'm a procrastinator.

Although to be fair, I probably would have gotten it done during one of the weekends between the middle of March and now, if I hadn't been sick enough to sleep through all of those weekends.

When it comes to writing deadlines, I procrastinate on those, too. I was late with an article for work recently, but after two weeks of staring at the data, inspiration failed to strike. I finally stared long and hard enough that I found my story, but it was a challenge.

On the other hand, I have had good luck with "speed editing." Seems like the longer I take to think about it, the harder editing is. So in that case, procrastination actually helps.

How do others deal with writing and procrastination? Do deadlines help or hinder you?

Write Now

Sometimes the words won’t come. Sometimes life’s lovely little curve balls overwhelm everything else. Sometimes you just stare at the screen for a while and then walk away without a second thought.

This is me tonight. It’s been a day. You know, one of those days. I need to recover physically and I need to recharge mentally. I am drained. The last thing I want to do tonight is write, especially considering my Nanowrimo struggle yesterday (only 207 words and believe me when I say they are baaaad). What I really want to do- after eating a bag of peanut butter cups and having a good cry- is crawl under the covers with a book by an author who actually knows a thing or two about plot and pace and characterization.

But. BUT.

I won’t. I need to write. I need to persevere and carry on. My story is not going to write itself (although I rather wish it would) and I am not going to feel better when I am even farther behind than I am already. 50 words will be a triumph, given my state of mind, but I am not letting myself off of the hook that easily. If I want to be a writer, I need to write regardless of what is going on around me, especially when I am just starting out and still trying to find my footing. I have to. No ifs, ands or buts. Not any more.

Writing is not always easy, but neither is life. Sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches and find the words no matter how well they are hiding.

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How is Nanowrimo going for the rest of you? I know we're all setting different challenges for ourselves and not all of us are gunning for 50k. Has your story started out like you imagined or have you already switched things up? I'm still writing about a haunted house but the particulars, especially my main character's background and ties to the house, have changed drastically. I've also decided to switch from third-person POV to first-person and I think this will make a huge difference for the better. If something about your story isn't working, what are you doing to fix it?