NaNoWriMo
That's National Novel Writing Month.
I read a blog belonging to a person living in Oregon. He tells great stories, really has a way with words. More often than not, Scott from Oregon just amuses me. There have been several days that I just needed a smile, a little giggle, or even a big tummy-aching guffaw. Scott does that.
So closer to the beginning of November, he mentions in his blog that he's doing this NaNoWriMo. I have no clue, but he's writing a story, so I'm reading it. It's not his usual tales of woohooohoo, stuff that happens to him. It's a work of fiction. Pretty damn good, too.
So I ask him, "What is this NaNoWriMo thingy?"
He sends me to their website. Turns out that it's a thingy alright! Not a contest, because there is no grand prize. Not really a competition either. Just a place to encourage people who have always thought of writing a novel to get off their collective duffs and do it. The goal is to write 50,000 words in the month of November.
I have pondered and wondered and considered away damn near half the month. Maybe deep down, I just know I work better under pressure. Maybe procrastination is just the way I do things.
So I signed myself up Sunday evening, and got started. Anyone remember (anyone who knows me) that "thing" I was writing 16 years ago, when I was a senior in high school? I've always wondered why I've always kept a hard copy of it in my trunk. Now I know why.
I pulled it out, and pulled up a Word doc, and started typing. I found myself editing and adding and revising as I typed. This old thing is 67 pages long... a mix of typed and handwritten. I am only 12 pages into the retype/revision/rewrite, and I have 21 pages on the new doc done.
The way NaNoWriMo works is that you upload your doc to their site, they do a word count then discard (so no worries about copyright infringement) and they post your progress. I worked on it a total of 4 hours, that's 3 last night and again for an hour this morning.
This afternoon I did my first upload. I am at 5,326 words. I'm not very optimistic that I'll actually make the 50,000 by midnight on November 30th, but at the very least, I will have awakened that in me which has been dormant for too long. Who knows what will happen, but at least I will have a nicer copy of it when it's all said and done.
"It's never too late to be what you might have been." -- George Eliot
16 comments:
Update: 11pm, Nov. 13th. 7100 words.
Update: noon, Nov. 14th, 10,100 words.
Way to go Nikky! If your husband isn't proud, I'll have a word with him. (He's not big and mean, is he?)
I am glad you are dusting off the cobwebs.
When do I get to see it?
Thanks Scott.
He's pretty big, but he's a teddy bear (to me anyway!)
As far as you seeing it... wow, I don't know about that, I haven't even let my mother read it.
If you go to NaNoWriMo, you can look me up tho, I signed up under the name "Nicole91872"... and I'm about to head over there to upload for the night...
the number according to my counter is 12,025 as of 8 pm here in Minnesota.
I'm calling it an early night, hit my goal of 16K, actually I surpassed it by just a little.
16,450 as of 10 pm Wed night.
Ive been up too late for too many nights.
But I must say, it feels really good to be doing this!!
Thursday night at 1am, ok, so actually it was Friday morning, but anyway, I hit 20K!!!
Very exciting... My goal is to be over 25,000 by the time I go to bed Sunday night.
Slowed down a bit, but I am hoping that it will be a productive weekend.
22,810 words
Saturday morning
I hit 28, 500 or so just a minute ago. Today's total to be on pace is 30,200. Are ya gonna get caught up?
Well, it's 4:30 Sunday, and my weekend has not been productive so far... I went out with friends last night and I feel icky today.
I'm gonna give it a shot tho, I will update with a number either later tonight, or tomorrow morning. I have officially been at this for ONE WEEK...
25,642 is where I ended up last night. I went to bed early, so I'm ready to go this morning!! No class til11, so maybe I can do some catching up now!!
28,154 by my counter... theirs is about 4 words behind me....like it matters, right?
Only 10 days to go tho... better be a good productive 4 day weekend!!
32,186 as of midnight, tuesday november 21st...
8 days, 17,814 words to go...
If I can average 2227 words per day from now on, I will be fine...
ugh...Im gonna be so pissed if I get that close and don't make it...
35,650, Thursday night... shit, I'm slowing down, I may actually end up going in reverse if I don't figure this out!
Oh well, at least I've got my main character into a state mental hospital now... that should help
(yeah, I don't know, maybe I belong in a state mental hospital!)
midafternoon friday, I just hit 37K
I don't think Im going to feel better about hitting the mark til I get into the 40's...
But the day is young, and I slept in today, so I could easily pull an almost-all-nighter...
Ya just never know.
I FEEL BETTER!!Kicked it down and did almost 5 thousand today!!
I crossed 40K here shortly before midnight, and that's it, I'm off to bed... tomorrow is another day.
and I have only 9920 words to go baby!!
woohooo!!!!
42,150... and I'm calling it a night.
All write and no play makes Nik PSYCHO!!
So I am going out with school friends tonight. My "plan" is to be crossing the finish line by Tuesday... we shall see.
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