Category: NaNoWriMo

Categories
My San Francisco Chronicles NaNoWriMo Work in Progress

NaNoWriMo: Day 3 & Giants Parade

Let me just start off by saying: I am not a baseball fan. In general, I am not interested in spectator sports. Therefore, I never jumped onto the bandwagon when the San Francisco Giants got into the World Series and then won it all. I don’t even know who the players are. And really, I don’t want to act like I’m a “true fan” when it’s not what I’m really passionate about.

With that being said, today was the day of the Giants Victory Parade. Market Street was packed, and too many people were downtown. I briefly visited my previous employer to just say hello to a few students and staff members, and then I was on my way to my old neighborhood: North Beach.

There was supposed to be a write-in today with other NaNo-ers, but nobody showed up. Still, once I entered into the cafe, I was hit with a ton of nostalgia. I sat there click-clacking on my AlphaSmart; attempted to do some creativity exercises from a new book I bought, but I forgot to bring notebook paper. Next time!

Word count today has been less than the previous two days, but nonetheless I am still ahead of schedule. Currently at 6,022 total words. Tomorrow is another day!

Categories
NaNoWriMo Work in Progress

NaNoWriMo: Day 2

Second day into November–I had dreams last night about my NaNoWriMo novel. I was happy to wake up and write again!

One thing I have noticed from today is that I can eke out an average of 700 words in 10 minutes. That’s not bad really! So I’ve done 3 10-minute stints today, bringing my wordcount up to 4,243 words.

I’m happy to have My Writing Nook via Google and also my iPhone. So if I feel an itch to add more to my story while I’m away from the computer, I can just type on my phone. Hooray!

It feels nice to write so much again, even if a lot of it is a little strange right now. It’s all just part of the process, and it’s better to write a bunch of crap than to not write (or not try) at all.

Categories
NaNoWriMo Work in Progress

NaNoWriMo: Day 1

I was awake at the stroke of midnight to start typing away. I had a character and a fluid plot, so I just started typing. I was already up to 1,218 words by the time I went to bed around 1:30am.

I woke up, did a little more writing, and pretty much throughout the day I’ve been tuning into my novel and adding a little more each time. This year I’ll go for the “rewards system” where I will only need to write one word on November 30 to get to 50,000 words. But then again, I am also aiming for more than 50,000 words this year since I feel I need to challenge myself a bit more.

In terms of the Poem-A-Day Challenge: perhaps I will sit out from participating in that. I already feel like I will fare much better with winning NaNoWriMo this year if I just mainly focus on it.

It is quite lovely seeing #NaNoWriMo trending on Twitter. I love the atmosphere of support knowing that people from around the world are doing this same marathon with me.

Categories
NaNoWriMo poetry

Writing Month of November: NaNo, PAD, etc.

A little under 24 hours until NaNoWriMo begins; in general, it seems like this year has exploded with a lot of writing challenges across the web. I’ve seen a nonfiction challenge, a picture-book idea challenge, a reading challenge….gee whiz! While I’d love to participate in all of these writing challenges, I also must keep my sanity.

So I’ve decided that the only other writing project I will take on is the Poem-A-Day Chapbook Challenge. Although I don’t consider my poetry too great, I figure writing out poems alongside working on my new novel will be a good balance.

I love the motivational spirit I feel from this year: just a larger support group locally and online. I realize that I probably quit my novel early last year because I didn’t have much of a support group (and my story was driving me a little crazy).

Still no plot, but some characters are forming in my mind. Although no promises can be made, I would like to blog daily about my NaNo progress via this blog. At least then I’ll have another source of motivation, since you all will hold me accountable for my goal.

I always forget about Halloween these days, because my mind ends up skipping onward to November right away.

Categories
NaNoWriMo project Work Diaries

A New Cycle & NaNoWriMo Thoughts

It’s always about cycles; once I get used to a routine, something else changes it up. I think this weekend I’ve finally gotten the hang of my recent schedule:

Since I’ve received unexpectedly good attention for client stories, I’ve been keeping busy with writing short stories up to 2,000 words. These stories are essentially me being a ghostwriter, so in the end I don’t get credit for writing them (other than the bit of cash I receive from the gig). It’s okay; it’s been fun learning about new topics I wouldn’t have ever thought to write about in my own work.

Since the past few Sundays have been errands days, the rest of the week I decided to be more proactive and finish all my projects/assignments by today. Success! Amazing what a little deadline does to me. It’s probably a common feeling, but I find that just having a deadline/plan later in the day forces me to focus on my work earlier in the day. It’s better than floundering around all day and not seeing an “end” to the project.

Blogs have fired up for NaNoWriMo preparation; I remember how last year I wasn’t able to complete my novel. Then again, there was a lot on my plate last November–my mind wasn’t completely on writing. I wonder if this year will be different. I’m still against too much preparation for the project, though; in terms of writing, I just like to go with the flow rather than plan too much.

Earlier this week, I was chatting with a friend about how I’d like to get back to my own writing after I complete my client projects. Although it’s nice to earn money writing for others, I find the most joy in writing from writing for myself. That’s how everything should be in terms of career, right?