This is my second report on my progress toward my goal of completing a 50,000 word novel by November 30 as part of National Novel Writing Month. Read more of my thoughts on NaNoWriMo.

I’m getting behind. My goal was to write 20,000 words by Saturday the 10th. It’s now Monday, and I’m sitting at 17,519. The minimum I should have achieved by the end of yesterday is 18,337. That’s not very far behind, but I’m starting to lose hope that I’ll catch up any time soon.

My problem is not a lack of motivation. The actual writing has been easier than I thought it would be. I’m a little nervous saying that, as though I’m going to jinx my creativity by admitting it’s flowing well. When I get stuck, it’s usually not for long. Until a few days ago, I didn’t have a clear idea how the story would end, but I think I have that figured out now. I’m just reaching the exciting part of my story where I’m done with a lot of the build-up and get to plunge into the action.

But the tiredness I felt in my wrists at the end of last weekend’s big writing push has turned into pain. Part of me wants to just write through the discomfort, because I don’t want this motivation to disappear. Committing to NaNoWriMo has been the best thing I’ve done for my writing since starting this blog. The rest of me, the smarter me, I’m afraid, knows that I should rest my wrists as much as possible so this doesn’t turn into chronic pain.

Because it’s impossible for me to not type and mouse at all (both work and school depend on it), I feel I should either give up on NaNo or stop blogging temporarily, maybe both. But I’m too stubborn to do either. Instead, I’ve taken a few days off writing and done some research on what I can do to ease my pain and begin writing again.

So to keep up my interest in writing on the days I take off to rest my wrists, I surf the NaNo forums and the blogs of other writers participating in NaNoWriMo. I’ve been spending far too much time reading in the NaNo subforum, NaNoWriMo Ate My Soul. One of the threads there is about other writers with hand injuries and how they’re coping. The upside of reading so much is that at least I’m staying motivated. The NaNo Monkeys podcast has also been good for a few minutes diversion every day.

If you’re interested in seeing what others have to say about NaNo, try some of these bloggers. Some of them are blogging about their experiences, as I am. Others are actually blogging their daily writing.

• Author JA Konrath is using NaNo to write his next novel.
• NaNo founder Chris Baty writes about his progress on the Breaking News NaNoWriMo blog.
• The Official NaNoWriMo blog.
• Write Anyway offers daily encouragement to keep writing.
• The Struggling Writer is blogging about NaNo and posting excerpts.
• The Mess in Progress offers daily NaNo inspiration.
• Bright Purple Polka Dots writes about NaNoWriMo.
• Brittany is writing about NaNo and posting excerpts in her blog.
• Tess is blogging about her NaNo experience.
• Pavlov’s Kitty is blogging about NaNo and posting excerpts.
• Dana is a former NaNo winner who also earns merit badges for procrastinating and word padding.
• Hed blogs about NaNo experiences.

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Posted: November 12th, 2007 under NaNoWriMo.
Comments: 4

This post is an entry in the What I Learned From . . . group writing project at Middle Zone Musings.

Forgive me for babbling on and on about the benefits of National Novel Writing Month, but when I saw this group writing project announced on Middle Zone Musings, the first thing I thought of was how much I’ve learned already from NaNo just from signing up. Even though I’m only about a fifth of the way through the 50,000 words I need to write in November, I’ve learned:

I can be amazingly productive when I’m sufficiently motivated. I talked a little last week about all the preparations I did before NaNo. Basically, I surprised myself by doing more housework in a day than I’d done in weeks, including tackling a cleaning project I’d been putting off for months. I also worked ahead on homework for what may be the first time in my life. Most importantly, I did all this without the usual 1:1 correspondence of work to procrastination. Amazing. I should decide to write a novel every time the apartment gets dirty.

I can focus. This shouldn’t be an earthshattering revelation, but I was starting to wonder. I’ve noticed lately that when I’m reading a slow-loading forum (like the NaNo forums), I start a thread loading, then I switch to Google Reader to skim half a blog post, then I switch back to the NaNo thread, and so on. Some days, my attention is fragmented like this for hours.

So I was glad to find out that I can still focus. When I get into a good flow with my novel, I can write for half an hour without looking up. And in that time, I can crank out 1,000 words. This is a big deal for me. Many of my former novel attempts have ended around 4,000 words, and that pitiful amount took long, exhausting days. I look at my word count for NaNo and I’m just astounded that I’ve produced so much in such a short amount of time.

I like to write. This shouldn’t be news either. But because I was always giving up on other writing projects, I was starting to doubt that I actually liked to write. I knew I liked to create stories (i.e. scribbling notes about characters and their troubles), but when it came to writing it out word by agonizing word, I always stammered and quit. The forced pace of NaNoWriMo has let me finally give myself permission to fail horribly. And that has freed me to enjoy writing again, for its own sake.

I’m looking forward to the other lessons that NaNoWriMo will teach me about myself and my writing. I’m sure there will be many. I still have 40,000 words and 24 days to go.

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Posted: November 6th, 2007 under Inspiration, NaNoWriMo.
Comments: 5

This is my first report on my progress toward my goal of completing a 50,000 word novel by November 30 as part of National Novel Writing Month. Read more of my thoughts on NaNoWriMo.

I had a busy writing weekend. My goal for November 5th was 10,000 words, and I reached 10,225 words on Sunday. This puts me comfortably over the 8,335 word minimum I need to have today in order to finish by the end of November. Now that I’ve begun, I can say for sure that the genre I’m writing in is contemporary fantasy. My working title is “Heartwood,” and you can read a very rough excerpt here.

Overall, I’m having a blast, and it seems the storyline is progressing well. I am slightly concerned about running out of story before I hit 50,000 words, but I’ve also noted several places I need to go back and flesh out scenes and descriptions. I’m enjoying the process of discovering who my characters are as I write, and sometimes they develop in ways I hadn’t anticipated earlier in the draft.

For the most part, I’m resisting the premature editing that’s been my downfall with other novel efforts. Now, when I realize my main character’s personality is varying from scene to scene, I remind myself that I can fix it later, when I rewrite. In the past, I would have started revising at the beginning to make sure the character’s voice was consistent throughout. But that always led to me getting bored with the first few chapters and quitting. Now, I’m not even dividing the story into chapters. I mark the ends of scenes with a few asterisks and jump right into the next part. One of my goals for NaNo is to develop a healthier perspective on my own efforts. First drafts are called “rough” for a reason.

Another of my goals is to develop a more consistent writing routine. I’m enjoying spending a block of time writing every day. I’m hoping I can continue this habit through November and beyond, as I learn more about the routine that works best for me. I’ve found I can type for about an hour before I need to get up, stretch my wrists, or use the bathroom. If I write longer than an hour, I notice that my wrists are getting tired. I’m trying to follow most of Dumb Little Man’s tips to avoid RSI.

NaNoWriMo continues to grow in popularity each year. In an email sent to participants by NaNo founder Chris Baty, he reported that 90,000 people have signed up to participate, the largest number ever. One of the aspects of NaNo that I’m really enjoying is reading the forums and witnessing other writers’ struggles and triumphs. Writing a novel is always portrayed as a completely solitary pursuit, and it’s nice to find out that it doesn’t have to be. A friend and I met this weekend to do timed writing sessions, and we found it to be productive enough that we’re planning on doing it again next weekend.

So far, I would recommend NaNoWriMo to anyone who would like to start making their dream of writing a reality. Stay tuned to see if I feel the same way at the end of the month.

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Posted: November 5th, 2007 under NaNoWriMo.
Comments: none

Are you still stuck for ideas for National Novel Writing Month? Or are you working on a novel at a more leisurely pace? Here are 85 resources on Character, Point of View, Dialogue, Plot, Conflict, Structure, Outlining, Setting, and World Building, plus some links to generate Ideas and Inspiration. Too many links? Pick a few at random and bookmark the rest for later.

Character, Point of View, Dialogue

10 Days of Character Building

How Characters Deal with Conflict

Name Generators

Name Playground

The Fantasy Cliche Meter: the Good Guys

The Universal Mary Sue Litmus Test

Priming the idea pump (A character checklist shamlessly lifted from acting)

How to Create a Character

Seven Common Character Types

Handling a Cast of Thousands - Part I: Getting to Know Your Characters

It’s Not What They Say . . .

Establishing the Right Point of View: How to Avoid “Stepping Out of Character”

How to Start Writing in the Third Person

Web Resources for Developing Characters

What are the Sixteen Master Archetypes?

Character: A compilation of guidance from classical and contemporary experts on creating great dramatic characters

Building Fictional Characters

Character Chart

Fiction Writer’s Character Chart

Character Building Workshop

Tips for Characterization

Fiction Writer’s Character Chart

Villains are People, Too, But . . .

Top 10 Tips for Writing Dialogue

Dialogue: The Best Action

Speaking of Dialogue

Writing Believable Dialogue

Dialogue Tips

Writing Good Dialogue

Advantages, Disadvantages and Skills (character traits)

The 100 Most Important Things to Know About Your Character

How to Write a Character Bible

Character Development Exercises

Plot, Conflict, Structure, Outline

How to Write a Novel: The Snowflake Method

Plot Tips: Write Who You Are

Effectively Outlining Your Plot

Conflict and Character within Story Structure

Outlining Your Plot

Ideas, Plots & Using the Premise Sheets

How to Write a Novel

Creating Conflict and Sustaining Suspense

Plunge Right In . . . Into Your Story, That Is!

Fiction Writing Tips: Story Grid

Tips for Creating a Compelling Plot

Writer’s “Cheat Sheets”

The Thirty-six (plus one) Dramatic Situations

The Evil Overlord Devises a Plot: Excerpt from Stupid Plotting Tricks

Conflict Test

What is Conflict?

Monomyth

The Hero’s Journey: Summary of the Steps

What is Plot?

Outline Your Novel in Thirty Minutes

Plotting Without Fears

Plot Planner

Novel Outlining 101

Writing the Perfect Scene

Setting, World Building

Magical World Builder’s Guide

I Love the End of the World

World Building 101

The Art of Description: Eight Tips to Help You Bring Your Settings to Life

The Power of Place

Creating the Perfect Setting - Part I

Creating a Believable World

An Impatient Writer’s Approach to Worldbuilding

Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions

Setting

Character and Setting Interactions

Creating Fantasy and Science Fiction Worlds

Creating Fantasy Worlds

World Builders

Ideas, Inspiration

Quick Story Idea Generator

The “Write” Idea: 8 Tips for Finding Topics to Write About

Solve Your Problems Simply by Saying Them Out Loud

Busting Your Writing Rut

Newsworthy Inspiration for Fiction Writers

Writing Inspiration, or Sex on a Bicycle

Bubbl.us (online mind map application)

Creative Acceleration: 11 Tips to Engineer a Productive Flow

The Seven Major Beginner Mistakes

Complete Your First Book with these 9 Simple Writing Habits

Free Association, Active Imagination, Twilight Imaging

Random Book Title Generator

Finishing Your Novel

How to Write the Great American Novel (funny video)

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Posted: November 1st, 2007 under NaNoWriMo, Writing.
Comments: 11

The harder I work to get my life in order before National Novel Writing Month starts tomorrow, the more I wonder if I’m taking my preparations a little too far. I’m afraid I’m going to be exhausted before NaNo even begins. On the plus side, I haven’t done this much cleaning and cooking in a long time. At least the apartment looks better.

I’m planning on hitting the novel hard during the first few days to take advantage of my initial enthusiasm. To get us over that hump and make sure we survive the month of November, I have:

• shopped for groceries,
• stocked up on soup ingredients, including chopping and freezing extra veggies,
• baked muffins and seitan (my favorite recipe),
• finished laundry,
• cleaned the bedroom,
• taken our paper, cardboard, glass, etc. to the recycling center,
• cleaned litter boxes,
• backed up my hard drive, and
• finished my homework for one class for all of November.

Also, I’m having a friend over on Saturday for a writing session, and I’m having almost as much fun planning snacks and lunch as I am planning what I’ll write. That may not be a good sign for my novel. But as with other creative activities, I find that the more I cook, the more I want to cook.

No wonder I’m exhausted. I’m wondering if I’m going to have any energy left to write a novel. Luckily, I have time tonight to spend cozying up to my characters and plotting their lives in a little more detail. An additional distraction, however, is the flood of other fiction ideas I’ve had since I decided to do NaNo. It seems the more I write and think about writing, the more ideas I have.

My enthusiasm for NaNo waxes and wanes. Sometimes I look forward to the writing, remembering the feeling I have when I’m really deep into something. And I look forward to the end and the elation I’ll feel when I finally finish a first draft. And then, with dread, I imagine posting here that I’ve failed, given up. I imagine the questions from all the people I’ve told I’m writing a novel in a month. They ask, “How’s the novel going?” and all I can say is: “Well . . . ”

But for better or for worse, NaNoWriMo begins tomorrow. Wish me luck.

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Posted: October 31st, 2007 under NaNoWriMo.
Comments: 4