Candy corn and red wine do not mix.
Thank you for coming to my tedtalk.
Here are today’s NaNoWriMo stats:
Progress:
Day 15 Word Count: 0
Total Word Count: 10659
Where I Planned to Be: 28000
1667 words per day: 25005
Tag: Nanowrimo
Week 2 Review: NaNoWriMo Day 14
This is how far I am behind! 😀
Word Count Goal Per Writing Day: 2000
Actual Average Word Count Per Writing Day: 1642
Planned Writing Days: 6
Planned Writing Days: 4
Day 8 Word Count: 909
Day 9 Word Count: 0
Day 10 Word Count: 2366
Day 11 Word Count: 0
Day 12 Word Count: 0
Day 13 Word Count: 240
Day 14 Word Count: 3052
Planned Words This Week: 12000
Actual Words This Week: 6567
Planned Total Words: 24000
Actual Total Words: 16268
Well, so if my goal for Nanowrimo was consistency, I feel like I slid back a bit this week. I had hoped to write all but one day of rest this week, and I fell off the horse.
On the plus side, last week I wrote an average of 1615 words per day that I wrote and this week I wrote an average of 1642 per writing day. But there were less writing days, which is really something I am trying to work on.
This blog post definitely feels a day late and a dollar short, but luckily Thanksgiving is over and there is time to catch up, not only with Nanowrimo, but also with blogging.
How is everyone out there doing? Has anyone had any wins lately?
Falling off the Horse, A Haiku for NaNoWriMo Days 9-12
Falling off the Horse, a Haiku for NaNoWriMo
But it’s November!
I cry, as life gallops on
Word count in the dust
Life, amirite?
Maybe it was crazy for me to think that I would write a novel in a month and also blog about it every day. It turns out that life decided it was going to keep happening even though I made those plans! I mean, come on!
So the blogs have fallen by the wayside, as I have been trying as hard as possible to focus on the novel, and I am even behind in that.
But! I am not down and out. I am still going to for the 50,000 words this month. And, I do think it’s important to note that even as I write this sad little ditty about falling off the NaNo horse, this is still one of my best months of the year in terms of word count.
Still moving forward, still getting words down, still trying to document it.
How about you? Are you still on track? Still motivated? Already have your novel done and dusted?
Week 1 Review: NaNoWriMo Day 7
Here are the first week’s stats!
My Week 1 Review for NaNoWriMo 2021. Here’s how the numbers broke down.
Word Count Goal Per Writing Day: 2000
Actual Average Word Count Per Writing Day: 1615
Planned Writing Days: 6
Planned Writing Days: 6
Day 1 Word Count: 2042
Day 2 Word Count: 2037
Day 3 Word Count: 1089
Day 4 Word Count: 1516
Day 5 Word Count: 420
Day 6 Word Count: 2646
Day 7 Word Count: 0
Planned Words This Week: 12000
Actual Words This Week: 9750
So, this feels like good, important information to have. I had been feeling like I hadn’t written enough days this week, but in actuality, I wrote the number of days I had planned, taking Sunday off instead of Friday.
But I still didn’t meet my word count because on the days that I did write, I didn’t reach my daily goal. I probably should have figured that since I did not write enough to get my daily rewards on a lot of writing days.
Well, so now I know. I’ll be trying to catch up by encouraging myself that I can do just one more sprint each day, past the point where I might have called it a night.
Another one of the things I love about NaNoWriMo, I guess. It pushes you in ways that make you learn about your process as a writer. Trying to get back on the horse and gallop a little more each day!
Hopefully this little reflection on the stats will help me be a more consistent writer next week.
How did your Week 1 go? Can you believe we are halfway through Week 2 already?!
Novel Excerpt from the WIP: NaNoWriMo Day 6
As I am falling, I can tell there is more than snow. There is the supple bend of life, clouds of green that I pass through as I fall, and the uneven jaggedness of growth. But the snow consumes me anyway, pulling me into its murky thickness. It is so dense that I cannot breathe the air between the snowflakes.
And then I hit ground. Real, hard, brown frozen ground. It seems impossible. When was the last time my feet touched ground? My hands touched the earth?
But the snow is slipping. It’s sliding down toward me and I move away from it, against the middle of the space.
And then I realize. It is a trunk against my back, the brittle familiarity of its mottled bark. It clings to me, to my clothes, as the snow rushes toward me and stops. I turn to look at the tree, and there is something odd about it. A wave around the trunk is darker than the rest of the blackness around me, darker than the brown of the trunk itself, darker than the ground, darker than the snow refracting light from way above. I can still see the sky. But this wave of black is deep.
I reach out and touch the soot. I bring my fingers close to my eyes and even in the darkness, I think I can see it. It is familiar, this wave of soot. The way it hugs the tree into a crest. The sharpness of the curve in the trough. I know this tree.
I step around it and my foot snaps on a twig. I look down to see one of Cole’s manufactured friends. And as I bend to reach for it, the snow comes tumbling again. I can feel myself being pulled under, the bubbles rushing away from me, and the light is getting further and further away and I am boring into the water droplets looking for something to hold on to or some kind of answer.
Note:
This is a snippet from the novel I am working on for NaNoWriMo. I hope you enjoy it. I’m documenting my journey each day.
Here’s yesterday’s stats:
Progress:
Day 5 Word Count: 420
Total Word Count: 7107
Where I Planned to Be: 8000
1667 words per day: 8335
Yesterday was supposed to be a day of rest, but an idea came to me and I needed to get it down. Yay for momentum!
How is everyone else doing?
Rest and Double Down: NaNoWriMo Day 5
How do you decide when to take a break and when to push yourself?
This is something that I often struggle with, and today is no exception.
NaNoWriMo forces me to wrestle with this in especially poignant ways.
I’ll give my progress first, so you can see the dilemma:
Progress:
Day 4 Word Count: 1516
Total Word Count: 6684
Where I Planned to Be: 8000
1667 words per day: 6668
My plan for this month was to write 2000 words per day on writing days so that I could take time to spend with my family on Fridays and also have Thanksgiving off.
Right now, I am on track for the official NaNoWriMo count, which counts 1667 words per day (4 days x 1667 = 6668), but you have to write all 30 days without fail. I have met myself and I know I need some breaks, hence the 2000 per day.
Today is Friday. I had planned to take today off. I am a mere 1316 words away from being right on target. I know I can easily reach that word count today if I skip the pizza prep and just show up for dinner. But then, I will not have taken the day off.
It is tempting to get on target. I could catch up in an hour or two, probably.
But like I said, I know I need breaks. Things need to rattle around in my head so that they can come out the way I want them to. And I know that when I don’t take breaks, the muse or writer’s block or anxiety or whatever you want to call it forces me to. I will have major FOMO as my kid and husband hang out together. I’ll resent NaNoWriMo and writing in general, and the block will snowball.
So, I am trying to stay on top of it. I am giving myself a pizza and movie night, even though I am not on track, so that tomorrow, I am refreshed and can go at it hard.
Tomorrow is Double Down Day in the Heart Breathings Word Sprints Facebook Group (highly recommend), and my small group of friends is meeting to write, and my local NaNo group is meeting for a virtual write-in, so my plan is to jump on a little bit of each of those and catch up.
My goal is to write 3316 words tomorrow. Tonight, I get pizza and wine!
How do you decide when to let yourself rest and when to push yourself? Do you have any tips to make the most of resting?
Why do NaNoWriMo? NaNoWriMo Day 4
It’s a new moon today. A time for listening within. A time for setting intentions. It has been making me think a lot about my whys. Why do NaNoWriMo? Why write? What exactly am I hoping to accomplish?
As the days get shorter and my energy wanes, it seems a herculean task to expect myself to write more than I do at any other time of year. Especially as the to-dos pile up with the holidays and the end of the year.
And yet…
I still do NaNoWriMo. Even after losing the first six times, like a glutton for pain and disappointment, I still wanted to do it. Why?
Why do NaNoWriMo?
I have heard people give a lot of reasons about why they do NaNo.
- Camaraderie. If you ask a WriMo why they do it, so many will answer that it’s the camaraderie. And the community of it is huge. There are tons of authortubers who take part. Facebook and Instagram are covered in it. There are groups for local participants, groups for participants in different genres. You can go around the world on discord or write for 100 hours straight on youtube. Even as an introvert, you feel like you are part of something larger.
- The Challenge. Sometimes you just need something to kick you into overdrive. I love a challenge (see my posts on writing challenges and submission bonanzas) and I think of NaNoWriMo as a dare. Who said I couldn’t finish a novel in a month? I’ll show them!
- Taking yourself more seriously. You can’t sit around waiting for inspiration to strike when you are on a deadline like this, even if it is self-imposed. You just need to get your butt in the chair and do the best work you know how to do. Get down to business.
- Taking yourself less seriously. This is maybe counterintuitive, to take on a big challenge like this to take yourself less seriously, but hear me out. You cannot be precious about your words and your work when you are trying to write a novel in a month.
- Finally finishing something. While I think most winners of NaNoWriMo come out on December 1st with a completely ready-to-go book, I do think the premise requires you to stick with one project. You can’t follow your shiny object syndrome and finish a novel in a month. And then, once you are 50,000 words in, you might as well just finish.
Why do I do NaNoWriMo?
We all have very different reasons for coming to the page, and NaNoWriMo is no exception. For me personally, it is about building my consistency as a writer. I have been writing stories since I could write, and yet it has never been consistent. My writing always seemed best when it was bursting out of me, and I just had to wait for that to come. I could sit down and vomit up something in 15 minutes that would be beautiful or sit down and work for hours on something that was crap. I felt like my writing, my muse, my creativity was not something I could control myself.
But I am working on developing a different relationship with my writing. I am learning to create the space for the writing to come, to allow it even in the quiet times, to listen for it even when I am not inspired. And NaNoWriMo helps me build that muscle. The camaraderie and the challenge and the feeling of accomplishment are awesome. But for me, the biggest gain is the exercise, the practice, the slow and steady development of my ability to sit down each day and create.
What’s your why?
Here’s my update
Progress:
Day 3 Word Count: 1089
Total Word Count: 5169
This puts me just a little bit behind where I had hoped to be today. But also, just this much is more than I wrote in all of October, and on track according to the 1667 words everyday math. So I am happy with that, but I am going to have to put in extra work today if I want to take give myself a break on Friday!
How to Set Daily Word Count Goals: NaNoWriMo Day 3
How many words do you really need to write per day to win NaNoWriMo? Setting daily word count goals might not be as straightforward as it seems at first.
The measurable goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words in the month of November. That’s 1667 words per day for all thirty days. But how many words do you need to write to win NaNoWriMo if you are not a supercomputer who is going to write the exact same amount each day?
Maybe you are one of those super-people who are actually going to write 1667 words every day of November. And if you are — way to go! That’s amazing! But if you are like me, you probably need to figure out how many words you need to write each writing day to win Nanowrimo.
Let’s face it, life does not necessarily stop because you are working on a novel. There are still chores and birthdays and turkeys to think about. You might be able to write 1667 words 6 days a week, and then if one day that week doesn’t go like all the rest, you are behind.
However, if you can take all of the chores and birthdays and turkeys into consideration as you track your words, you are going to be in a great position to win NaNoWriMo.
How to set daily word count goals.
- Look at your average weeks. Be honest with yourself. How do your days usually go? Do you need a day off a week for chores and errands? Do you know that once a week you are generally out of commission, because of health, or someone who needs you? Are your Tuesdays already all booked? Subtract all the days each week that you know you will probably not have time or space to write.
- Look at the month of November. What commitments do you already have? Are there birthdays or work deadlines or holidays that might take away time from your writing? Make sure you subtract those days too.
- Add up the days you have left.
- Are all your days equal? If you want to be even more precise, you can look at how different your days might be. Maybe on Saturdays you can spend twice as much time writing. Or maybe you know you can devote a lot of time to your novel over Thanksgiving weekend. Whatever it is, think about whether there are days that you know you will be able to give more. If you know you will be able can write double or triple a normal day’s work, you can double or triple those particular days.
- Divide 50,000 by the number of days you have left.
For me, it looks like this:
- Fridays are family days for me, and I want to honor that even as I focus on my writing. So all four Fridays are not writing days. (30 days in November – 4 Fridays = 26 writing days)
- I am not writing on Thanksgiving. I love me some cooking, and I intend to spend the whole day enjoying making a feast. (26 writing days – 1 holiday = 25 writing days)
- 25 writing days left!
- I don’t have any days where I know for sure that I will be able to do more. Hopefully there are days when more than average gets done, but for me, I can’t count on it, so my count remains the same. 25 writing days.
- 50,000 words ÷ 25 writing days = 2000 words per day.
You can see that this is actually quite a bit more than the “official” 1667 per day that is needed, so if I had been doing only 1667 per day, I would fall behind the first Friday that I spend time with my family. This means I would feel guilty, either about not writing, or about not guarding that time with my family. I used to feel like I was always needing to choose between family and writing. But, if I plan ahead of time, I can do a few more words each day and have guilt-free family pizza and movie nights.
Speaking of which, I have hit almost exactly 2000 words each day so far for NaNoWriMo, so I know I am on-target and can take my Fridays off to spend time with my family. (So far!)
Here are yesterday’s stats:
Progress:
Day 1 Word Count: 2037
Total Word Count: 4079
I am still on track! I swear, this feels like my best start to NaNoWriMo yet!
How are things going for you?
There Must Be Fifty Ways to Track Your Word Count: NaNoWriMo Day 2
Yesterday I jumped right into writing as soon as the kiddo was asleep. That meant that I didn’t have the opportunity to think about tracking my word count or anything like that beforehand.
Let me be frank. Every year, I plan on doing NaNoWriMo Prep. I print out workbooks from the NaNoWriMo website and other authors about how to plan and prep, everything from plotting to meal planning to the whole shebang. Literally, anything I can think of to make it easier to actually get all the words down on the page and focus just on the writing, I plan to do.
I mean, I even wrote a post about how to prep, and it’s still one of my most popular posts.
But every year, something gets in the way. Usually, October is the month we are packing up shop at the cabin and moving to our winter abode. This year was no exception.
So yeah, this is definitely something you could/should plan beforehand, but I did not.
If you are like me and looking for ways to track your word count still, maybe this will help. Here are five ways I am thinking about tracking my writing. Something I definitely should decide today.
- The Official NaNoWriMo website. This one is a no-brainer. If you want to unlock the prizes, you need to input it into their site. They also have interesting stats with a cute interface. But did you also know you can use this tracker for just all of your projects? Year-round.
- Sarra Cannon’s Preptober Workbook. Paper-lovers and spreadsheet haters rejoice! If you want a printable, paper tracker that helps make it feel like a game, this one is a good one. I have already spent too much time stanning Sarra here, but suffice it to say that she knows a lot about creating positive momentum in your writing routine and her NaNo trackers help with that.
- Artful Spreadsheet trackers by Svenja Gosen. These were my go-to trackers for years. I love the auto-fill spreadsheets and the imagery is awesome for setting the mood. She also has spreadsheets for year-round tracking and tracking individual projects. Highly recommend.
- Word Count Tracker from the 20Booksto50k Facebook Group. If you are an indie author, this group has tons of information and resources, including a well-thought out and very easy to use word count tracker. This is the one I use to track my word counts on a daily basis. It is a lot like the group — no frills, but works.
- 4thewords. This is one I have been thinking about for a while. I am a nerd who loves the gamification of everything and this app and online writing community gamifies your word count. I mean, squee! But this is the only one of the trackers mentioned here that charges a fee. That is why, up to now, I haven’t tried it. But there is a free 30 day trial that I could use for NaNo to see if the motivation of killing those cute monsters and having quests really motivates me enough to be worth the money. Have you tried it? Would you recommend it?
How do you track your word count? Are there others I should be looking into?
And of course, I’ll be tracking my word count here, too. So you can see how it’s going.
Progress:
Day 1 Word Count: 2042
Total Word Count: 2042
Met my first daily goal! Yay! Now on to Day 2!
IT’S NOVEMBER!: NaNoWriMo Day 1
That means it’s time for NaNoWriMo again! You maybe have heard of the yearly challenge of trying to write a novel in thirty days. These are those days.
NaNoWriMo and I have a speckled history, to say the least. I began trying to NaNo in 2013, and for YEARS I could not win. I tried nearly every year from 2013-2019 and lost every time.
Then in 2020, I tried again and won!
What was the difference? Honestly, I have no idea. Maybe there were so many fewer social commitments because of the pandemic. Maybe it was that I finally had an office. Maybe it was that I finally got more involved with my local NaNo group (shout out to Alaska WriMos!).
In any case, it lit a fire under me. I am a slow writer, and to think I could do 50000 words of writing in 30 days (and actually, I wrote the vast majority of those in the last two weeks) just blew my mind.
Was it my best work? No. Was it a finished novel? Also obviously no. But it was a really good start on the first draft of the next book in the series I was working on and I was thrilled.
So, here I am again.
I will be trying to journal here every day of November, letting you know how I am going, the word counts, and documenting how it happens.
Check back for updates, and to keep me honest!
PS: Are you doing NaNo too? I would love to hear how it is going for you. The camaraderie is the best part!