Sunday 1 November 2009

NaNoWriMo - Midnight Exerpeince

Edit: BigWords at AW very kindly and privately pointed out the spelling mistake in my post title. I thought about correcting it, but then I thought in the spirit of NaNo I shall leave it. It will be a proof of my excitement to get the post done and get back to writing (or it could've been slacking on the forums). Original Post It's 11:26 am, November 1. I have just woken up. Quite fresh and perky, and the reason for that is that I went to bed at 4:30, having done 3295 words for my NaNo Novel. :-) Just a few quick thoughts:
  1. I LOVE OUTLINES. I don't think I would have written that much if I didn't have an outline, because then my tired brain would have had to think more about what I was supposed to write. But because I have an outline, I was even able to do short edits - not proper edits, but go back and insert what I realised later I should have added.
  2. I am too fussy to be happy with any writing software. After all the goody goody stuff I told you about Liquid Story Binder (which still applies), I ended up using MS Word anyway, because LSB wasn't indenting my paragraphs the way I wanted them and that annoyed me. I use Word's "Read" function when I type. I like the look of that. Obviously its' tiny on a netbook, but I got used to it pretty quickly.
  3. Word count shout outs rocks. I had my laptop on the side, with only AW and NaNo, specific forums open. So when I finished 1000 words, or rather 1 point in my outline which was about 1000 words, I took a break, made a coffee, posted on forums. That was fun.

And now, I am seriously trying to push myself to go to that kick-off party. The weather is pretty crap. It's extremely wind, and early it was raining. I hate going out in bad weather (which is why I don't do it much since I live in England). And also, I think I might get more done if I stay home. Maybe I will go next week.

How is your first day going?

12 comments:

  1. Good luck with NaNo. Sounds like you're making great progress. I think many of us are going to be having Midnight experiences. Normally I don't outline that much, but with this pace I don't have much choice. :)

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  2. Cinders,

    Welcome to the blog. :-) lovely to have you. My experience with outlines is fairly recent. I have written several books without any outline, and second drafts have been a nightmare, so now I am finding that outlines work much better for me.

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  3. I just woke up as well, was up until a little after 4am and finished last night with 2019. I agree about the outline, mine helped as well. I'll be staying in all day to write some more.

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  4. You're doing great! Woohoo! Me, I wrote a first line just after midnight, then went to bed, and have spent the past couple of hours at it: 1,705 words thus far, and I intend to write again this afternoon. (I needed a benchmark for myself, as I just hadn't a clue what making a daily quota would feel like. Verdict: this is doable.)

    I agree: an outline helps move me forward.

    I don't like the indentations in yWriter5, but I'm sticking with it because I know I can get easily distracted by formatting issues, and there's just no point when it looks awful anyway. I figure this will keep me focused on the writing and the words. But I hear you!

    As for the quality, it's both better and worse than I thought it might be. It is what it is. I'm really, really trying to stay focused on moving forward, and dealing with the results after November.

    Good luck!

    HD
    www.wordflix.org

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  5. Sounds like you're off to a great start!

    I also started writing at midnight and made it to 2,070 words. I made a vague outline, but am mostly writing to see what happens next. I am making notes and adding points to the outline as I think of them. Overall, I'm really pleased with my first night of writing.

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  6. Yay you!

    I haven't started yet. I suck. ;-)


    Adam

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  7. 3k plus already! woohoo you go girl! I have yet to start. I don't know where to start. I'm drawing a blank here...

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  8. Ofira, I hope day's writing is going well for you.

    HD, it's great that you are focusing on moving forward. That's what I am trying to do. I must admit, as the day wears on I am slacking a bit, but really hoping to keep pushing on for at least a little while.

    Ali,
    You rock! Fantastic when you are pleased with your work. It's a great feeling.

    Adam,
    I hope you have a good excuse like editing your novella. *Looks Stern*

    Morgain,
    Hope you found something to start with. I would suggest just start brain storming or free writing for an hour and see if you find anything interesting to write about.

    Good luck all, and I will continue to post my NaNo progress regularly

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  9. My excuse is reading till 5.30 am, then getting up way too late. ;-)

    I'm now working on the planning. Ideally I'll start the writing soon. Depends on when the edits appear for this novella I suppose. :)

    Adam

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  10. Wow - great start. Congrats! :-)I love that you left the spelling error in the title in the spirit of NaNo - excellent!

    I'm having much the same experience as you with the outline this time. If I hadn't been up Friday night until 3am, I'm sure I would have gotten a full day's word count at midnight. It was exhaustion that made me quit at 744 words, not lack of things to write. There's a local write-in tonight from 7-9pm, and I've decided to go to that. Hopefully I'll be able to finish today's word count there.

    Happy writing!

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  11. Adam, what did you read? Must be good since you stayed up.

    Jamie, haha...I was supposed to go to write-in. I skipped and decided to go next sunday, because I wanted to make sure my first day was productive. Let me know how yours went.

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  12. Book 5 of Stephen King's Dark Tower series. :-)

    Loving the books, but they're ruining my sleep patterns lol

    Adam

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