How goes NaNoWriMo? Hope it is going well.
At the risk of being bombarded with rotten tomatoes or having my house egged, mine is going well, remarkably well. I’m above 15,000 words and we’re only a week into it. My story has legs and the middle doesn’t appear too murky.
The key, I believe, was the planning I banged out in October. I had a few ideas floating around, but wasn’t sure how to bring them together. I looked back over writerly advice that abounds on the internet. Somebody, I think it was John Grisham, says the first thing he writes is the ending. Super simple and super smart. When I determined how the story was to end, those other ideas just fell into place.
The next savvy bit of advice appeared right before the write-a-thon began and I snatched it up. The NaNoWriMo site is helpful and sends out tips and encouraging pep talks. Our ML, Safaia, stressed, a week ago Friday, importance of keeping up on the word count. Says Safaia, “Your life will be so much easier if you make that 1,667 words every day. I usually advise that if you can get a buffer, write 2,000 instead of just 1,667, then you'll have something to fall back on for when real life inevitably comes in and kicks your butt.” I adopted that philosophy and pushed for the 2,000. Only one day I didn’t make it, the evening I was bleary-eyed and dog-tired and only could manage 1,500 before sleep took over. I made up the next day with 2,500.
So, congrats. We’ve made it to the quarter mark. The nice thing about NaNo this year is it started on a weekend and ends there, too, a long weekend for some of us.
Best of luck with it.
(This article also posted at http://writetimeluck.blogspot.com)
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