28,091 Words So Far
That’s quite a lot. It has snuck up on me. It should be obvious, but by writing a bit more every day I end up with quite a lot more overall. I never said I could adding up. So yeah, 30K is in sight and I should hit that easily enough today.
It was certainly harder to write more on days when I work, but that’s no particular surprise. I’ve gotten ahead enough that now I can think about taking it easily and dealing with the sudden punch of panic that idea generates! Sticking to at least double the minimum word count of 1,667 is certainly the way forwards.
I take a particular delight in stopping just before hitting a big target. I’ve paused just before 10K, 15K, 25K and now 30K. I’m not sure why. I think it’s that I like puncturing pre-success, from a fear of actually achieving something and then dealing with the consequences. I’d much rather sail through those targets (if they were targets) than find myself straining to meet them by adding a couple of hundreed more words.
I’ve adopted the sprint writing style advocated by lots of people and mentioned in the handful of NaNoWriMo forums I’ve peeked into (I hate participating in forums). Set a timer for half an hour, smash out a thousand or so words. I like it. It’s twice my normal writing speed. Obviously I’m not checking whether it’s any good – that would just slow me right down to my normal speed, or slower if I was doing it properly. I also listen to all of the jungle, house drum and bass and techno I have while writing. May the beat go on.
There’s A Story, Right?
Well, no. Hopefully the story will continue to lead me as it has done so far. I’ve been pleased to note that the random stuff and details I tossed in at the beginning are still proving useful and helping me to tie the narrative together. I haven’t tried to read it through yet, and I reckon I’m going to avoid that until it’s over. Before beginning to write I read over the last few paragraphs so I’ve got some idea what’s going on. In truth I’ve got no more clue about it than the main character does. I don’t know whether that’s showing in the story or not, or whether it’s a a good thing or not. I’ll be annoyed if it turns out to be predictable without any planning…
I’m very grateful for some encouraging feedback from family and friends. I’ve been clear, I only want to know that it isn’t terrible!
Rewards for Writing
Alcohol, obviously. But also Lego and unbanishing myself from the kitchen table. I’ll be pre-rewarding myself by going swimming today and making birthday cards for my sister and niece. Then there’s Pub Poetry this evening, which I ‘m hosting. Somewhere in the middle of all that is writing time.
My other main reward was a change to the Watchers cover. I get bored easily and a change of colour is enough to bring me back. That was for passing twenty thousand words. I might do another one when I pass thirty-five thousand.
Meta-Nanowrimo Day 1
0 thoughts on “Meta-NaNoWriMo 2015 Day 9”
Can’t tell you haven’t got a plan at all, I was utterly surprised to see that! I mean I knew you didn’t have an intricate chapter to chapter plan as you’d already said you didn’t, but I figured you had the overall arc in mind. I’m absolutely loving it and hope I can catch up to your writing in the final few days!
Improv! I don’t do geometry.