NaNoWriMo 2011 - Progress Report

This year NaNoWriMo has been quite frenzy free, except for the first day where the frenzy of starting is almost a ritual. Usually, I try to finish my whole draft or at least as much as possible during NaNo, but this year I don't mind if I do only 50K. So while there have been some unproductive days, on the whole, I have made a steady progress. It's a good thing in a way, because while I'm doing NaNo, I am also continuing with other things going on in my life. On the flip side, it doesn't really feel like a challenge. But on a more positive note, I am making progress, and that's the important thing. It is in fact a positive thing because if I can write 50K easily enough in November, I can do it whenever I am writing a first draft. 

So current word count is 37167. I plan to have 50K done by 27th of November, and unless things go drastically wrong from here, I don't see an issue. But I look forward to finishing this draft in December. 

What about you? How is your NaNoWriMo going? How are you finding it? Challenging, fun, despairing? 

WIP 2 - 10K Mark

Small steps certainly do add up. Since starting WIP 2 on March 1st, I have kept up with daily goals, and so now the book has reached 10K mark, which I am very happy about. If I stick to my word count, then by end of March, I should reach 20K. Well, my goal is 19500, but I will try for 20K anyway. 

While I have been writing this WIP, I have incredible urge to do a hand-written first draft. The main reason is because this is a half-and-half. I am writing whatever I can during my commute in the morning on a notepad, then I type it up. It seems bit of a waste of time, because I am not editing at this point, simply auto-typing the words. But I feel that since I have already got this WIP going on computer, I don't want to stop typing up. 

However, I might try writing a next WIP first draft only by hand, and see how that works out. I have never done that. It's always been bit of a mix and match. 

Anyway, so at this rate, I am hoping to get first draft finished by end of July. 

How are your WIPs coming along?

The Perfect Outline Trap & A New WIP

I have been going on about how much I like a proper outline, and what wonders it has done for my no holes WIP that I am currently editing. I still hold to that. But I have also discovered a pit-fall, from rather painful, time wasting experience.

For several months now, I have been working on an outline. Granted, I worked on more than one WIP, deciding which one to work on. But it was taking longer than I had anticipated, because what I wanted was a completely detailed outline. I know the beginnings, I vaguely know the endings, but I don't know everything that would happen in the middle, and how it would all be tied together. I was hoping to sort that out in the outline.

I was aware that while I was doing this, of course I wasn't writing. I told myself, that's okay. I need to spend some time on the outline, so story will be better for it from the beginning. So I carried on. But after two months, and not much to show for it, I see how much time I have wasted. Two months of not writing new words - that's not exactly an ideal writer, is it? At least, it is not for me.

So the wake-up call came, as it often does with me, abruptly. The thoughts usually marinate, niggle in my head for a while, and then one day - BOOM! I realise what the hell I have been doing. And need to do something about it.

I made the decision to start writing. Now. Start with whatever fragmented plans I have, and work on it as I go. Even if it means writing a Draft Zero, doing an Outline, and then rewriting it. It doesn't matter. What is important is writing, because only by writing, I can discover and improve on my processes. Theories are all very well, but without application, I cannot know what I have learned.

So I started my new Fantasy WIP on the 1st of March. (See the word-counter to the right) It's going to be a part of my March Writing Challenge. And I look forward to discovering what this process teaches me. But now that I have started writing, the thrill of discovering what happens is back, and I am kicking myself for waiting so long to start a story!

What about you? Do you spend months and months without new words, or are you always writing something? Does editing, planning, etc. take over creating new stories?

March Writing Challenge

In honour of my new WIP, to get things moving, I am doing a March Writing Challenge. As I am editing a book, as well as doing other stuff (life happens), I have decided on what I believe are realistic goals for me.

500 words every day from Monday to Friday
1000 words on Saturday and Sunday

I started this on 1st of March, so if I stick to it (and of course I shall), by 31st of March I will be at least 19500 words into my new WIP.

This challenge is also a part of working for a more balanced approach in life, as I generally tend to go in frezny over one goal and end up neglecting all the other goals. This is a normal pace that *could* be sustained along with all the other things I need to do.

I will more than likely carry this challenge over in other months as well, but for now starting with March.

Feel free to join me, and if you are not participating in this exact challenge, do you have regular writing goals? Are you a word-counter or page counter, or scene counter? Wordcount goals work for me, so I am sticking to them.

Happy Writing!

Learning Discipline - (Almost) Daily Writer

As you may have noted in my Weekly Goal post, my writing goals are quite modest. Much modest if you compare it to my usual word count goals. 300 words on working days, and 1000 words on weekends - that is certainly achievable.

Why the modest goals? I could probably do more on many days. But the point is, not every day.

Finally I seem to have learned the lesson from 2010. Okay, I probably knew this before, but the message seems to have sunk in at last.

The message: Focus on discipline of daily habit, rather than just the goal

I will admit, I am not at all satisfied with 2010 in terms of my writing. It was a disappointing year, and I didn't meet majority of my goals. I want this year to be different. And I realise what my error was. I was focusing on big goals. I had ambitious goals. And that's good - we need ambition, and big goals. But I didn't keep up with the discipline.

I kept changing my goals, and when not satisfied with one draft, I got stuck in a rut. That has to change. While I am not at all in favour of submitting work that you know is not good enough, there is no point in getting stuck over it. I am a writer, and so I should be writing at least for the majority of 365 days.

It won't be everyday. I know that. Some weeks I will spend brainstorming, some weeks, just editing. But I need to spend more days doing the actual writing. That's why modest goals. Little goals. Daily goals.

These are the goals I KNOW I can achieve EVERY DAY. Even if I miss one day - like this week when I was so exhausted, I feel asleep - I know I can make up for it the next day. That is not to say that I will not write more if I feel like it. More is fine. That's overachieving. But the key thing is to meet the goals, because in the long run, over the course of the entire year, it's the little, daily goals that will produce more productive results than writing frenzies of 10K per day on random weekends.

So I will save my frenzies for NaNo, but day to day, the lesson I am trying to teach myself is to be disciplined. Without discipline, talent or hard-work are not going to amount to much.

It's been a good start so far, but the year has barely started, so really hoping that I won't drop off the Discipline Wagon. And if I do, you guys feel free to yell at me.

How do you deal with issue of discipline? Are you one of those people that are naturally disciplined? Or did you have to teach yourself? How did you manage it? Or are you a constant struggler at it, like I am? Share your troubles and triumphs.