Falling Behind...

I'm falling further and further behind in my novel. At this point, I'm about 6,000 words behind schedule. Between school, being tired, and lack of motivation, I'm having a hard time continuing... Hopefully I can break the trend and power through some content in the next couple of days.

I should know better than to read manuals by now...

Mark has a copy of Chris Beaty's book "No Plot? No Problem! A Low-stress, High-velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days". First of all, Chris gets points for having such a length title, although he hyphenated words, sacrificing word count for the sake of grammar. This must not be his first draft. :-)

When I skim through his book, I see topics that distract me. Getting to know my characters by asking them questions? Subplots? I barely even have a plot! Skimming his book makes me realize just how much I may be leaving out - or at least how much work I am leaving for future drafts.

So why am I really doing this? Two words. Strong Bad. "Yeah, I wrote a children's boook. Who hasn't? I mean, kids can barely read as it is so how hard can it be to write for them?"

Is this getting easier, or harder?

I'm now at 12080 words - 24%. I'm not sure if this is getting harder or easier now - maybe a little of both. I am having an easier time understanding my character and knowing how he reacts to things. But I am having a hard time figuring out what and where the major plot elements are going to be. I'm almost a quarter in, and I don't have a major conflict in the story yet. But I do know what it is. I think. Maybe.

I need to move things along a bit. Still, this is kind of fun.

NaNoWriMo In Full Swing

Well, it's hard to believe it's been only four days of NaNoWriMo so far. In those four days I've written 9146 words of mediocrity at its finest. Do the labels for chapter divisions count? If not, then deduct 6 words for my three chapter headings. It hasn't been too difficult but it has taken a bit more time than I expected. I'd say I'm averaging about 1000 words an hour.

To help keep me honest, here are the minimum word count quotas for every day in the month.

Day	Word Quota	Word Count
1	1667	1752
2	3334	3345
3	5001	6104
4	6668	9146
5	8335	9146
6	10002	12080

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I moved the word count table to the side bar so it stays visible.

NaNoWriMo Begins...

Well, I started tonight, or technically this morning. I've got 1,747 words under my belt. First thoughts: This might be harder than I thought. But we'll see. It's also kinda fun.

It's not too late to sign up!

NaNoWriMo - the insanity begins soon!

I've been convinced against my better judgment to participate in NaNoWriMo - a frenzied attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. Why? Why not? What else is there to do in November?

The goal here is quantity, not quality. The math breaks down like this: 50,000 words / 30 days = 1,667 words a day. If you type 60 words per minute, that's about 28 minutes of typing per day. Of course that assumes that you spend the whole time typing and not trying to figure out what to type.

There are also several tricks to help increase your word counts. Some of my personal favorites are:

• A character with temporary hearing loss - characters have to keep repeating themselves.
• A character that sings out loud all the time
• Quoting literature
• A character that talks in his sleep, even if it is gibberish

So join in the fun! This will be your best first novel ever!