Showing posts with label NaNoWriMo record keeping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NaNoWriMo record keeping. Show all posts

Monday, November 20, 2017

No Rest for the NaNos


This week is the All-American Gorge Fest known by some as Thanksgiving. Most of you will be slaving away over preparations for The Feast. NaNos, however, get no rest. Must. Crank. Out. Words.

Oh, sure, we’ll join the family to gulp down the turkey and gravy. You gotta be polite to family and friends. I suggested making a Turkey Dinner Shake so I could keep writing, but my family nixed it. They want me, for some odd reason, to join them at the table this Thursday. It could take hours to eat the menu my future daughter-in-law has planned. What was she thinking? Well, she’s new to the family, so I cut her some slack.

But what is a NaNo to do? Get up earlier. Put in seat time before called to cooking duty. And record your pathetic word count for the day. (Gotta get the badge for updating the word count 30 days in a row!)

You tell yourself that you’ll make up the deficit. That low word counts for thirteen days (in my case) won’t be a big deal. All you have to do is write like crazy once these family obligations cease.

That’s what you tell yourself because you blew through your banked words long since. And you have to tell yourself something, or you’d quit.

Given that you might be lying to yourself, and that you’ll never recover from the mounting word count deficit, you really ought to give in.

Relax. Play games. Laugh a lot. Enjoy Thanksgiving. NaNo isn’t really LIFE. Really. Right?


Funny? Please share on your social media outlets.

Facebook: Ready for a little humor with that turkey, NaNoWriMos? Relax. The world won’t end if we take a day break. http://bit.ly/2zNbNZV

Twitter: Ready for a little humor with that turkey, #NaNoWriMos? Relax. The world won’t end if we take a day break. http://bit.ly/2zNbNZV

Monday, November 6, 2017

Keeping the Pace


On another of my blogs, I wrote about PlotOber and planning the fifth in my culinary mystery series so the writing of it in November for National Novel Writing Month will go more smoothly.

Well, I’m into November, one-fifth of the way through today, and by the end of the day I need to have logged a minimum of 10,002 words to be on track to finish November 30th with 50,000 words.

I’ll make it. Last night I recorded a word total of 8356, slightly over the 8335 that I needed. Pretty darn good, with weeklong company, if you ask me.

I started strong, as I always do. That story has been percolating for months and I focused the thoughts by using two magic elements: my Plotober massive planning elements and by brainstorming with my two critique groups. My crit partners have AMAZING minds! Have I said how lucky I am to have them part of my writer’s life?

Here’s a peek at my time tracker to-date. The far right column is the minimum total number of words I need to have written to keep on track for NaNoWriMo. I got a strong start, “banking” words, so to speak for when I couldn’t write much.

Note, for example in the second column, that I had three days when I couldn’t make my minimum 1667 words for those days. Company. You gotta love ‘em, but there is a toll. My cushion of banked words let me enjoy my time with her.

Falling behind is inevitable, if my past years are predictive. But it is not fatal. I will just need to write more words on other days to catch up. She leaves today, so this afternoon maybe I can bank some more for the other days I’ll not write much if anything.

Have I mentioned that we are traveling for Thanksgiving this year? Again.

Each year I have about ten days of limited productivity due to company and travel. So I just have to write harder on those days that aren’t committed to fun, food, and family. I’ve got this!


2017 NaNoWriMo Time Tracker
TEQUILA MOCKINGBIRD
Book 5 “Dinner is Served”

Date
Daily Words/Pages Total
Running Total
Minimum Running Total
Nov. 1
2228/7
2228
1667
Nov. 2
2886/19
5114
3334
Nov. 3
1563/25
6677
5001
Nov. 4
725/28
7402
6668
Nov. 5
954/32
8356
8335
Nov. 6


10,002