NaNoWriMo: First Week Down!

Hello wonderful people! This is a message from an exhausted but exhilarated writer. It’s day 8 of NaNoWriMo, and I’m glad to be able to say I’m on-target with my numbers.

But it’s cost me. With a full plate at work, The Junior League of Greensboro (awesome organization! Check them out here.), and wedding planning, my usual writing time has been midnight-2am. That’s technically…the next day. Yes. I’m aware.

We are going to change that this week! I’m planning to start working on my writing earlier tonight, and when I go visit my cousin Rebecca this weekend, I’ll try to find some time to write a little earlier then, too.

 

What have I learned?

(A) Caffeine is key. My productivity improves roughly 1000% when I’ve got a pumpkin spice latte or honeyed green tea kickin’ around in my system.

(B) Try not to focus on the word count. Even though it’s the goal, focusing on it seems to detract from the quality of the writing. Sort of like when you open up a YouTube video and there’s an ad in the beginning. You aren’t watching the ad; you’re focused on the “Skip Ad in 5 seconds…4 seconds…3 seconds…” etc.

(C) Instrumental music directly affects the writing. Epic song, I’m writing an epic scene. Sad song, somebody’s about to suffer. Triumphant song, I’m probably going to give the character what they want. Instrumental music is definitely better for me than music with lyrics. Not true for everyone, but at least for me, it helps me focus. As a musician, I can’t tune out the lyrics, so I’ll actually start writing what I hear!

(D) Even when you’re focused on word generation rather than editing, you still have to do a little editing. I mean, c’mon. This has to be readable later! 🙂

More learnings to come. For now, FIRST FULL WEEK OF NANOWRIMO IS DONE!!!

Advertisement