Wednesday, November 3, 2010

word count wednesday 1

happy first week of NaNoWriMo!

at least, i hope your week is happy. mine is fairly miserable, as i've started NaNo with a nasty cold. all of my words are alternately fueled by fever and cold meds. although, being home sick has its upside - like plenty of time to write. that's why my word count is already....

5,568 words!

i know some folks out there have already blown that word count out of the water, but that's pretty great for me - especially considering all of those words are from Monday. (yesterday's elections required me to work 13 hours). but i'm back on the couch with my tissues and my laptop today, so hopefully i can bang out another few thousand words and stay ahead of the game.

observations from week one:

- for me, writing fast = writing sloppy.
(lots of little typos and missing or misspelled words)

- i must break the "don't look back" rule.
i just can't confidently move forward on a book unless i look back at yesterday's chapters and at least do a cursory edit.

- my outline is a jail cell.
it's a lot easier to write fast and furious if i'm not bound by my outline. when i hit a scene i don't feel inspired to write or don't know how to transition into, i slow down. i may be in danger of veering off the outline just to keep pushing forward.

it remains to be seen whether NaNo will work for BILLY D. the way it worked for BUTTER, and i may end up having to rewrite the whole thing from scratch. (yikes! i hope not!) but i just don't know if NaNo is right for every book... just as it's not right for every writer.
Phoebe North wrote this great post on her blog: "NaNo No More." (link! click it!) she makes some good points about NaNo and why it might not help you accomplish what you really want to accomplish. (and she writes from experience, having done NaNo several times, both "winning" and "losing.")

if you're still committed to making NaNo work for you, check out the NaNo word sprints on twitter. (link! click it and follow!)

don't forget to share your word count in the comments, and tell me your own week one observations!

7 comments:

Jess said...

Congrats on the word count, and nice observation list! I hope Billy D. flourishes under the influence of NaNo :)

Phoebe North said...

Ooh, nice observation list--it sounds like we're similar in writing habits (I edit my last day's work when I start the writing day, too). Also, thanks for the link!

Gemma Cooper said...

Whoa on your w/c - congrats!

Mine is an EPIC FAIL - 423 words (one half hr session). But after the big event tomorrow, I plan to catch up. Promise :)

erinjade said...

- thanks, Jess!
- no problem, Phoebe. it was a great post. :) and yes, i have to look back - partly just to remind myself where i'm going and to sink back into the voice.
- Gem, yay big event! we should word-race to get you caught up. :)

Unknown said...

Hey man, fever and cold-med fueled writing might yield some Poe or King-esque stuff! If nothing else, revising in December will be interesting ...

Great point about the outline. I could see how that might be really restrictive in the NaNo sense. Good luck!

Linda said...

I totally get what you're saying about NaNo being right for some books but not others. My last WIP never would have worked for NaNo. I needed to take my time on that one to get it right. The one I'm writing right now seems to be doing okay though and I'm having a fairly easy time writing 2-3k a day on it when I only wrote 1k a day with my last WIP.

erinjade said...

Go Linda! that's a great rate!