Nanowrimo: Day 15

So, I think I'll knock off for the evening now. My word count is up to 28,433, which isn't too shabby. About a 3,000 word increase over yesterday.

Today was one of the hardest for me. Food coma, distractions, and apathy certainly contributed, but the hardest part about today was this one section I was typing. It just would not come as easily as the other sections had -- things just weren't coming together, I wasn't sure where the story was going, etc.

But fortunately things turned around. The last section I worked on flowed more smoothly. I think I may have found my character's "voice" . . . too early to tell, but I feel good. Hey, I'll take what I can get. Oops, well the laptop's battery is getting low, so I'll shutdown now and charge it up.

Hope things are going well for all you Nano'ers out there. Hang in there, it's half over already. Hmmm. I just realized that some of you might not find that so comforting. If that's you, sorry. :)

Just keep plugging away, folks!

What I've learned from Nanowrimo about the writing process

So, with all the writing I've been doing during Nanowrimo, I've given some thought into the nature of the creative process, or more specifically, the writing process.

If, as some people insist, there is no single “right” way to do things, that would mean that conversely there is no “wrong” way to do things either. Perhaps that's true, but I think it's safe to say that there are definitely less “efficient” ways of doing things.

For example, I've found it counter-productive to think you have to get it right the first time. And trying to create something that way, well it can be a horribly frustrating way to waste time. Which is why I think Nanowrimo is simply brilliant.

Writing a novel of 50,000 words in a single month's time is definitely doable, but not if you waste time. You have to step lively and not get bogged down in the details; just keep on rolling, don't over edit (better yet, don't edit at all) and don't over think. Bang out a novel as if it were a rough draft. Or even better, think of it as a stream-of-consciousness ramble-fest. Just get it down, and edit it later . . . much later.

After all, it's not as if writing is fundamentally different than other creative processes. We shouldn't expect the work to spring forth as a fully-formed, final draft from the writer's head, like Athena from Zeus' forehead. Right?

I mean, no one really thinks a painter simply sits down at a blank canvas and paints a masterpiece without doing some sketches or studies first, right? And we can't honestly think sculptors just plop themselves in front of a block of marble and chisel out a statue without a bit of planning and modeling in clay first, right? (Well, Bob “Happy Trees” Ross and Michelangelo aside.)

No, the best results often come from planning, experimenting, making mistakes, and making improvements incrementally over time. And that is a process -- meaning it takes time, patience, and many, many tiny steps before perfection, or something close enough, is achieved.

So, my approach to Nanowrimo and writing my novel is simply this: (i) write often and write a lot; (ii) then go back and write some more; (iii) until there is enough to start editing -- snipping a bit here, adding a bit more there, and moving stuff around until it seems right.

Somewhere along the way, I know I'll hit the 50,000 word count goal; of that I have no doubt. All I need to do for Nanowrimo sake, is to do it before the month is up. And that's all there is to that. :)

Nanowrimo: Day 11

Had a good dinner at Buffet Dynasty. Yummy! And of course, good food is always best with good company. I enjoyed chatting with fellow writing group member, Allen. Unfortunately, the other members couldn't make it for dinner, although one did drop by for a bit on the way to another obligation.

I must say that Nanowrimo is not so bad when you have company. When you have writing buddies with whom to encourage, and compete, the words just seem to fly by. The competing thing especially helps. I find that I check the "writing buddies" tab on my Nano profile a wee bit too much. Whatever works, right?

Anyway, while I might write a bit more before the evening is through, I'm gonna call tonight's word count at 18,638. Not too shabby, I must say. Almost an additional 2,000 words since last.

Nanowrimo: Day 09

So, I finally hit the 15k word mark today, which those of you mathematically-inclined (or with access to calculators) know means that I am 30% of the way to the Nanowrimo goal of 50k words. Not too shabby, eh? For those of you keeping count, my current word count is 15,619.

For all you fellow Nanowrimo-ers out there, good luck and keep it up!

Nanowrimo: Day 08

Not a very productive day in terms of additional word count -- zero for today -- so I'll just have to coast by on my gains from yesterday. That mean I'm currently at 12,310 words.

But I did have some thoughts and insights into enriching the story and possibly setting the ground work for future sequel and/or prequels. Can you say trilogy?

Nanowrimo: Day 05

Did some catching up today . . . or is that just less falling behind? My word count is at 5,698. Eh, no worries. I should have no problem catching up tomorrow.

A couple of things I've learned. First, don't put off writing into the evening, because there are way too many distraction. Dinner time, prime time, family time . . . you get the idea.

Second, don't get too focused on quantity versus quality. Sure, the point is to hit a 50k word count by the end of the month, but it does no good if you end up with nothing but gibberish. Then again, you don't want to take forever on what is inevitably going to be one of many drafts with plenty of future revisions. I guess the best course is to take some time to plan what to write and then try to stick to it, while executing it in a timely fashion.

Third, don't censor ideas and edit too much. Now this might seem counter to the last point about not just spewing for the sake of driving up the numbers, but there is actually another good reason. If you can't take a lot of time to sift through the chaff to find the wheat, then mill it into flour, then knead it into dough, then let it rise, and then bake it into a nice loaf of bread . . . then at least make sure you get as much wheat as you can. The idea is not to throw the baby out with the bath water -- just type and keep what you get. Everything. That way, you don't lose any diamonds in the rough which you can better find and polish up later. (Okay, enough with the hackneyed phrases.)

Oh, and fourth, don't forget the writing music. Music that is good for reading, is usually good for writing as well. While I have lots of good musics from various albums I've collected over the years, I decided to treat myself to a new CD for this year's Nanowrimo -- "for Book Lovers" by Decca. Cheesy title, yup. Cheesy cover, affirmative. Good music, most definitely.

Anyhoo, this entry was supposed to be short, but got a bit long-winded. Gee, if only I spent as much time typing my novel as I did my blog posts. Hmmm . . . .

Nanowrimo: Day 04

Well, as of today, the word count is at 4,355.

Unfortunately, I've fallen behind a bit thanks to a bout of food poisoning yesterday, which resulted in no typing whatsoever on Saturday, Day 03.

That's okay. Not much I can do about it now. I'm not really worried too much, since I had figured I would take at least one day off per week. It was just ahead of schedule, that's all. Anyway, I'm feeling fine now and I'm ready to go.

It's good to see that for the most part my writing buddies are doing well. In fact, I find myself playing catch up quite a bit. It's good motivation, such friendly competition.

Nanowrimo: Day 02

Okay, I've decided to knock off for this, the second day of Nanowrimo. My word count is now 3,489.

I got a lot done today; I made up some ground and I got caught up. Granted, my actual goal is to be typing around 2,000 words per day, for 25 days of typing. (I figure it's better to build in a buffer with a few days off, just in case.) Actually, truth be told, I should be to typing at least 3,000 words a day, if I want to write 75,000 words in 25 days.

Why 75,000 rather than 50,000? Well, I would like for the finished novel to be 300 pages in length. At an average of 250 words per page, that means a total of 75,000 words. But even if I just aim for 50k or 60k, the reality is that I'm more likely to add to, rather than take away from, the novel's total word count with the subsequent revisions . . . at least initially. So I suppose there's no point in going overboard now.

Anyway, in the end it's all rather arbitrary, since the novel will be whatever length it will be, and should be. No more, no less.

Let slip the hounds of typing!

So, today is the first day of Nanowrimo and I've done only 1,577 words (or 1,578 depending on which word processor I use.) A little off the pace I suppose, but at least I started. 

I'm pretty happy with the progress so far. I'm not really worried about hitting my word count goals. Nor am I worried about hitting the 50k total word mark. My big question is what how efficient will I be?

Should I just type like the wind and spew stuff down as quickly as possible? Or should I take a wee bit longer (and thus be a wee bit slower) and try to write it better, the first time around? 

I know there is a point at which I'll get diminishing returns and just waste too much time for Nanowrimo purposes, but I don't just want a novel out of this. I want a good novel, and I don't want to waste a lot of time. Or more precisely, I want to write this novel the right way. 

Perhaps Nanowrimo is not the best vehicle for producing my novel -- one I hope to have published someday soon. But I think I might be tempted to waste too much time otherwise, without the Nanowrimo induced timeframe. 

I guess we'll see. The truth is that I didn't really spend all that much actual time writing today -- and the beginning can be the hardest part -- so all in all, I'm pretty happy. Now all I have to do, is keep the momentum going. 

Writing alone, together

As some of you may know, my transition to becoming a writer has been a long time in coming. A long time, because I had been thinking about it and planning it for years before actually doing something about it. Planner, I am no more! A man of action, am I! This year I finally took steps toward creating a more "writerly" life.

I decided I needed to surround myself with all things literature and writing related. So, I joined my local library's mystery book club . . . which led to a desire to read science fiction, the genre of choice during my youth, as well as chat with others about it, too . . . which lead to finding a few like-minded library staffers and starting a science fiction / speculative fiction book club . . . which led to finding other stymied, writers-in-waiting . . . which led to form a writing group.

So, how's the writing coming, you might ask? Actually, pretty good! (Thanks for asking.)

The writing group has been the best thing for my writing. I can set goals from here to eternity, but there's nothing like a group of fellow writers, to whom I am accountable, to help keep me on track. And the fact that I am not only helping myself, but helping others along on their own writing journeys, is a great motivator. It helps that we keep things low-key and light. As an example, just check out the name of our writing group and its blog, Fifty Lashes with a Wet Noodle: The Writing Group, or Fifty Lashes, for short.

We're actually moving along quite nicely in our preparation for this year's NaNoWriMo. Our goal is to finish the first drafts of our novels via NaNo during the month of November. This will be the first NaNo for the majority of the group. (I've tried to do NaNo twice before, but never actually started writing anything. See, it's that whole not following through problem I was talking about.)

Anyway, I suggest you think about joining, or starting, a writing group if you're serious about becoming a writer. Sure, you could always do things yourself, alone. But it's so much more fun with company.