NaNoWriMo

[Litchick]

Anyone doing this?
For those who don't know it's a challenge to write 50k words in a month. This year it starts on 1st November.

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Finding it tough going today but I have the most awful sinusitis in my left cheek which is making my teeth and eye ache horribly and my toddler has been ill and only just went to sleep now at 10.30 after two and half hours of grizzling.

I think the thing for me is that I am always putting off writing until I have time, time lots of time...which realistically isn't going to happen in the near future, so the deadline thing and wordcount is really useful at showing me how much can be achieved in a few hours a day.

well i have just got back from weekend in london where i have been repeatedly nagged about starting this while also not being able to start because the nagger was distracting me verily

so i have a tenuous notion of what i am writing and i wrote about 200 words on the train

my car that i paid 3k to repair a coupl eo f months ago is now knackered again and i am scared rigid about having the breaksdwon people take it to the garage it be irreparable

so concentration a bit knackered

anyway good luck everyone at least ypou know that i am further behind than you lot

also because i have this bet on with bf he is expecting to read it and i am tryting to feel uninhibited about that as it is going to have some personal stuff in tho i am trying to make a story out of it...it is goping to be quite badly written as i ma determined to do as they say and just write it

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I am finding that my first pages have become irrelevant. I started off with a vague plot outline, but some of it hasn't really set my creative juices going, I've just tried to keep writing anyway, following the bits that do seem to come naturally.

And why do my bloody family ishoos keep rearing their fugly head? Argh.

Wow, Otter, good going, ishoos clearly not holding you back!

Not written a word yet today, have stinking cough/cold, dd2 also (means waking 3 times in night at least) and our house sale just gone through

I'm determined to write at least a sentence before bedtime though....

Actually, still not convinced I merit posting on this thread, since I'm definitely using the NaNoWriMo thing as an aide to further something I wanted to do anyway, and plan to follow it up with another writing course to edit whatever I write/carry it on...so the word count isn't as important to me as all that. But then again, I'm still doing it...

Fuck it, I'm in Every year I think "that looks great, and just the kick up the arse I need" and every year I chicken out. Well, not this year! Am hoping baby DS learns how to take long naps this month

I'm suziboots on the site should anyone care to add me. Not sure what genre my novel fits into, I'm pretty much planning to make it up as I go along So far I've got an 11 year old boy breaking into an abandoned house and finding a Miss Havisham type, also some gnarly estate kids and their parents...haven't actually written a word yet though.

Elibean - I have been planning to write a novel for years but am a major procrastinator and perfectionist - recipe for disaster. Saw this thread, went to see what NaNoWriMo was all about, signed up, was sceptical...

BUT

I am doing it. The wordcount isn't really important to me either, only that I don't want to spend another 10 years not writing, and I'm a great believer in the power of the deadline. I'm going to try to "win", as an exercise in self discipline. At least at the end of the month I'll have a bit mor experience under my belt and a working first draft...

Otterchocdog, are you me?

yes i have been pretending i could qwrite a novel if i tried so thpought this would be an exercise in self discipline

next major stress/shame/hang up

i have come home and discovered i have mice

yukyukyuk

found droppings so now manically moving everything and hoovering

no idea how to get rid of them

so plane tp write for a few hours delayed

on the bright side the fact that boiler is still broken and its cold hasnt mattered as i ran round keeping warm cleaning

not sure much else can go wrong

i am writnig on the hoof making it up as i go along so i doubt it is going to actually be a "novel"

zippi, we have mice, as do many of our neighbours, every other year or so. Either its ok and shame-free, or you are not alone in your shame

Otter, I totally relate, wanted to write after Eng/drama degree a hundred years ago, finally started when dd1 was 2, then got pg again and haven't written a word for 2 years...wanted a course to get me going again, and with targets. I don't actually want a high-stress type target, more a moderate but far more ongoing sort...but no courses in my area on days I could, so compromised on this one.

Its still going to be useful on self-discipline, daily writing (no matter how little) and help me get the bare bones of my story down....so if no one minds me being on a slightly different personal quest, I'm in.

Though not on the website, just via the course I'm booked on to. And here

Cyteen, welcome and here's wishing you long naps - well not you, ds obviously. dd2 is looking perilously close to dropping hers, not good timing, maybe I should drug her??!

Therein lies a novel....would-be novelist driven crazy by NaNoWriMo drugs small daughter in quest for success....

The uploading you don't do till you're done. Just update your word count manually until then.

I am a complete creative writing virgin and haven't written anything up till now since I was about 18.

I am really enjoying it so far, and feeling almost buoyed by the challenge. I've done 5,600 words. I am very competitive though, especially with myself so the word counting and the 'winning' is really up my street. The great thing is that I have only been doing this 3 days and I have already met a dozen people in RL, a bunch from the regional forum yesterday and today I joined the 'writers club' at work. I'm stupidly excited by this and a couple of the girls are having a writing and pizza and chocolate fest at the weekend that they have invited me too. More of a social life than I have had in months!

I did pretty well over the weekend, but yesterday wasn't so good. I'm up to 4474 and DD is showing no signs of napping despite the murderous headcold we both have. I even tried waking up early this morning, but half an hour later, before I'd gotten started, she woke up and I had to rescue her.

I might try to get started for the day now, even though she's awake and I'm very foggy.

Well I'm in trouble now. I kind of launched into it but now I'm changing the plot and things that were going happen that I was building up to and describing now aren't going to happen. I don't think I've got room in the "novel" for all things to happen, maybe its the seeds of a different story, I don't know but at this rate I'm going to end up with a mish mash of scenes, dialogue and descriptions that don't sit together as a story which appear at some level to be trying reconcile my own past and family history. Why couldn't I have chosen to do a comedy or a kids story? Jeez.

Just bashed out 780-odd words of crap while DS asleep in sling. It's funny how things come to life in your mind once you get started, isn't it? I'm always so terrified they won't, so I never start, and yet something does always always happen if I make that initial effort to begin. It isn't always good, but then what is?

Anyone going to tackle The Ultimate Word War - 10,000 words in 5 hours?
If I ever get 5 hours to myself, I may.
Will try for next week.

it's a nice idea, but think sleep may be slightly higher up my agenda

maybe i could dream 10,000 words...

Otter, think I might be headed for similar chaos, though still ok atm...I've already cut several characters, as they each had a complex story (too complicated for this task) and have picked out my favourite, and am just writing hers. Far easier, but knowing me I'll complicate it/turn it autobiographical again.

As for today, I struggled through snot and coughs (mind, dd2's) and difficulties breathing (dd2's) and school demands (dd1's) and major housing decisions (ours) and wonder if I should put this off till dd2 is over 2 or over her breathing issues. Five hours to myself is a long way off yet

Still, I am loving the focus, and the company. Writing in isolation is the pits.

Panicking a bit, as I have to get ahead - the weekend will be busy, with little time to write.
I don't want to get too far behind the daily target, as this is what happened for the last two years, and that's when I give up.

mine is non existent bf asked me hoqw much i wrote today so i just havent answereed his email at all

I hit a bleak point yesterday, barely wrote anything and won't have much time today either. Struggling with the plot, not sure where it is going which is why I struggled yesterday.

I won't let this beat me though!

Right, I have to go make a cake for tonight...

Should have been writing in wee hours, watched US elections

Good, though