The writing challenge that knows you have a life.
Understatement of the year -> NaNoWriMo is an interesting experience. This challenge is revealing all sorts of things I didn’t know. This isn’t the first time I took my writing seriously, but until these last nine days, I didn’t really see what I was capable of and I can now also see my own personal limits.
I’ve often struggled with all of my distractions. As a stay at home mom who also works from home, distractions are my reality and social media compounds the issue. Having this word count goal hanging over my head has gotten me to see my day in a whole new light.
I had a productive week. Yes I did. For the girl who’d never written more than 3k in one week, I’d say writing over 9k was certainly productive. However, there were a few things around the house that didn’t get done and I’m not sure if they’ll get done until December, lol.
Thank goodness I’m not hosting Thanksgiving this year. 🙂
I’ve always said I’m a mix of plotter and panster. My plot lines change and grow as I go, but I struggled this week when I didn’t have things plotted. I averaged 1300 words a day and I’m now 1k behind my NaNoWriMo goal. My most productive hours were those that had been pre-plotted. Sure, things still changed while I went, but only those scenes that had a direction got the easy traction.
Hi. I’m S.J. Maylee and I’m a plotter. 🙂
NaNoWriMo is revealing. I’m still not sure if I’ll win, but I’m looking forward to what else this journey will reveal.
You can find me here: http://nanowrimo.org/participants/sjmaylee
The nominations are still open for the First Annual Evernight Publishing Readers’ Choice awards. I’d love your support. There are 36 exciting categories. You may skip categories, however nominations are limited to one per category per person.
Enter your name and email address at the end of the nomination form for a chance to win a $25 Evernight Gift Certificate!
I believe you have until November 15th to nominate your favorite Evernight books and the semi-finalists will be announced and voting begins on November 17th. Click the pic to find enter.
The Goals – week-5 results
- Spend at least 1-hour a day with my characters- done.
- Daily progress in writing craft, word count, editing, and/or plotting- This goal is definitely done. I started the week ahead of my word count goal because I knew I was starting the week out of town. The rest of the week I kept going and pushed the word count. Plotting troubles sent me on a detour the last couple of days and I lost my footing a little bit, but I hope to catch up today. I wrote over 9k this week. 😀
- Take care of and be kind to myself- half done. My week started with spending time with my in-laws. My FIL is in hospice and it’s an incredibly hard time. Lots of tears were cried this week and it looks like it’s going to be another hard week ahead. It’s definitely a perfect time to be kind to myself and I’m doing the best I can. I’m letting the tears come, but I could be doing a better job taking care of my physical needs. Week 6 Priority.
What you might have missed here this week:
S.J. Maylee 
According to my NaNoWrl updates, my book will be done in may 2014. So l’m off schedule…lol. Good luck this week…
for me;
flnlsh Love ln Disguise
get new printer up and running
take care of myself…l got sick last week so l have to do more of that
lol, Nancy. Starting in November and finishing in May sounds a bit more realistic. Good luck this week. I hope you feel better.
yeah, that sounds about right…oh and l forgot…get new keyboard. Hope my sinus infection goes away too and thanks.
I’m a plotter, too! I draw a plot incline marking out major plot points as my road map, but daily writing begin with jotting down the actions and images I need to accomplish in short snippets so I know what I’m writing ahead of time. This also serves to get my brain into writing mode.
You’re right, Cate. It does get me into writing mode. That’s probably better than procrastinating in social media. Three cheers for plotters. 🙂
Congrats on your productive week. Isn’t it amazing what we can do when we really put our minds to it? Keep up the fantastic work!
Oh boy, I couldn’t even contemplate NaNoWriMo without plotting! (Hello, I’m Jennette, fellow plotter!) But wow, does it show us what we’re capable of! I had no idea until the first time I did it. 1,000 words isn’t bad – you can catch up. And even if you don’t, you’re still that much further along, which = winner in my book!
Wow! That’s some awesome progress. I once had a 25k-word week, and when finished, I thought, “So THAT’s what I can do?!!!” Which was only half-true. That’s what I could do…if I let the laundry go until I have to wear that ratty pair of undies in the back of the drawer, if my family doesn’t mind eating fast food every night, and if basic grooming is optional. LOL! Okay, maybe it wasn’t that bad, but these bursts of creativity and progress are not my own personal norm. Still, I think it’s awesome to pull out that kind of focus and oomph during the month of NaNoWriMo. Keep going, and you can make it to the end of the month! Best wishes!