NaNoWriMo Bound

Everybody’s talking about NaNoWriMo.  That’s National Novel Writing Month to any of you uninitiated.  The month of November is when thousands of lunatics hopeful writers set out to write 50,000 words in a month.  Thirty short days.  I myself have participated in the insanity four times, and “won” twice.  I can’t say that I’ve managed to do it since I got out of graduate school because, let’s face it, my multitude of jobs doesn’t leave a lot of extra time for anything like writing 1667 words a day (the minimum you have to churn out in order to make it) or getting, you know, reasonable sleep.  So I have no illusions that I will get 50,000 words this month.  For one, I only have about 20,000 words remaining in my novella.  I’m not yet ready to start on Draft 2 of HiS.  And I’m in the middle of prepping a class on Theories of Personality for next semester.

So why in the heck did I sign up?  I am, big shock, kaitnolan over at NaNo if you want to buddy me.  And that would be reason number one.  I am always game to make new writer pals.  And since there are regional boards on there, I’m hoping to find a few closer to me than the next state over.  I also plan to use it in a very unconventional manner–to track my progress on BOTH my novella and my lectures.  I have eight or nine lectures still to write, and I would love to knock out the last 20k of the novella by the end.  Which, actually, between all of it, probably IS about 50,000 words as I’m writing scripts for each of these lectures (I’ve not been lecturing long enough to be able to just go on the fly).  I’m not really concerned about getting the “winner” icon at the end, but if I can use the motivation and momentum of NaNo insanity to propel me through the not fun part of writing these lectures and get me through the first draft of this novella by the end of November, then I’ll be in a better position to enjoy my December (which I would really like to spend finalizing the outline for Draft 2 so that I can start it after Christmas).  Of course, I’m cheating and not waiting until November 1st to start all of this.  I’ll be working steadily this week as my boss is out of town on getting lectures written (hoping to knock out two) and moving forward on the novella.  I promise not to count words already written when I make my daily update.

How about the rest of you?  Are you doing NaNo?  If so, what are you working on?

8 thoughts on “NaNoWriMo Bound

  1. I’m torn. I wanted to, but with the plotting and extra character work . . . but then I thought I could use it to count words on that stuff and see . . . but with an enormous paper just getting ready to launch for my graduate research colloquia . . . I don’t know yet!

  2. Hope you’re feeling better! I’m on a sick/chicken soup day too, and managing to get some work done! Typed up about 3000 words so far, of which maybe 500 was all new text! And it’s only 4 pm – 6 hours and a hockey game (where DH is occupied and I can keep typing without distractions) to go!

  3. Oh, as for NaNoWriMo – I signed up again! It would be sooo exciting to have my SFD finished before December! I’ll look for you, but, feeling very dufous-like, I don’t know how to add a buddy on the site!

  4. Funny you should bring this up today, Kait. I’m blogging over at rubyslipperedsisterhood . com about NaNo (some tips on managing those daily counts). One reason I joined NPI is because I knew NaNo was coming, and I’d been suffering from some writers block and thought it a great way to get in gear. It has been! So thanks for hosting it.

    I also cheat a bit — I’ve already started my project. But I don’t count those words toward my NaNo 50k. I start that counter at 0. I figure I can use all the help I can get to produce words, so NaNo it is.

    Do you experience a crash the first week of December? I usually do. 🙂

    10/28 NPI # 326

    1. I am feeling better, thanks! I usually have a crash around the beginning of December anyway because it’s the end of the semester, and I’m prepping final grades.

  5. Danniele has somehow managed to convince me to Nano this year. I’ll use her words from when she signed up for NPI — God help me! This will be my first year, and I’m assuming I won’t hit 50,000, since I only have about 15,000 left in this ms (thanks to NPI!), but I figured I’d work on plotting after and use those words toward my count. I figure every little bit is one step closer to a finished ms, even if it’s plotting.

    I actually lost a day yesterday on NPI (and part of today) to research on a technical issue that came up in a scene, but I did get in around 530 words today (not sure of exact count, since part of that was handwritten in the car line while I waited to pick up my kids from school:)).

    And I’m so excited — this will be the first year in five years that I won’t be grading midterms or finals. Hate to say it, but I’m so glad…

    Keep getting better, Kait!

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