Monday 1 November 2010

It’s time for NaNo!

nanowri

The time is here! All over the world people will be frantically putting words on the page, trying to reach that elusive 50K.

In order to hit 50K you need to write an average of about 1,600 words per day. I normally write between 1-2K anyway, but what I don’t do is write them all on one project. I have a tendency to flit from one thing to another, write some of a novel here, some of a short story there, do some editing on something else….Well, you get the picture.

I don’t think I’ll have too much trouble hitting the daily word count, but what I will have a problem with is keeping myself focused and not getting distracted by other things. I’m one of those people who wanders into a room with the intention of doing one thing, and leave having done everything but. I made porridge for myself and my daughter this morning and it took three goes cause I kept getting distracted by things and burning it!

I figure many people are going to treat this a bit like a marathon; they will start strong and burn out by the end. I am intending to do it the other way around. I have a deadline for two short stories that still aren’t quite finished (one for the 4th, the other the 5th) so I need to get them done before I can do anything else. Because of this I am not expecting my early word count to be too high, but then I am hoping to make up for lost time a bit later on.

At some point today I will post a word count meter somewhere on my side bar, so, if you’re interested, you can keep track of how I am doing.

If any of you out there are also doing Nano, I would love to hear from you, and there is a Nano blog chain just up on the right hand side, which you can also follow.

Good luck to everyone, and I hope to see you all, frazzled and with caffeine jitters, on the other side!

9 comments:

  1. Lol that porridge story was totally like me. I go downstairs for a cup of tea, then see the letters so I check those then get irritated at the bills so go to the fridge to calm myself with some happy food and then come back upstairs without the tea. And I can do that a couple of times :)

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  2. Oh yes, I am always losing cups of tea! I have to make them at least a couple of times before I am able to drink one hot. LOL.

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  3. I will continue to cheer you on since I am not participating this year. Best wishes.

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  4. Best of luck Marissa! I have that problem of walking into rooms and not knowing what I'm doing in there too, or doing the opposite.

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  5. Distractions? I call them breaks so I don't feel so bad about 'em...hee, hee, hee.

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  6. I find it's a good thing to chop and change to different pieces of writing. If I spend too long on one thing, I generally end up writing a load of drivel and have to edit it all!

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  7. Hi Sandy, and welcome! I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who chops and changes between pieces. Maybe it does help to keep things fresh - I had never thought of it that way before!

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  8. I'm one that might start strong and die out. I know the holidays will brind distraction so I'm pushing extra count out now. :)
    BTW - Marissa, I received your post on my blog a few weeks ago and did try to email you but it bounced. You can contact me at ciara@ciaraknight.com if you still would like to. No big deal. I just didn't want you to think I didn't follow up with you. :)

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  9. Hi! I am visiting from the NaNoBloggers list. I hope you got your deadlines met and are ready for a great weekend of writing :) Write On!

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