Yesterday someone asked me how much time I’m spending on writing every day. Stupidly, I said “at least three hours”. Why is that stupid? Because when I actually thought about it later on, I realized that though I may be typing for at least three hours (if you count all the steady runs and take out the breaks), I’m spending a heck of a lot longer working on it. This is my focus for the month – three hours really isn’t enough to justify NaNo as my focus.

How do I spend my other time when I’m sitting at the computer, but not necessarily typing away at the storyline?

1) Research. Although I did as much research as I could before the month started, there are times when I need to know something in order to continue writing, and I can’t just make a note to myself in the manuscript that says *fix later*. Sometimes I can. Sometimes I can’t. In those cases, I research until I have the answer. In fact, just the other day, I spent 10 minutes falling. Yes, that’s right, falling. I was trying to seriously injure my MC, but I wanted to find out the correct order of limbs hitting the ground, and how much force it would take to do the damage I needed. Thankfully, I also had the husband around to ask for input, seeing ask how he’s a karate expert (so says me) and works on falls in his training. This meant I didn’t have to resort to actually injuring myself in the process. Probably a good thing.

2) Trying to make sense of my outline. I outlined the general gist of things during October, but there are still moments/minutes/hours where I’m not entirely sure where things are going. Yes, I could just push through and write nonsense until I figure out where everyone should be – believe me, I’ve done this many times – but other times I’m just so unmotivated because I’m stuck, that I need to sit here and seriously think about how to get character so-and-so from Point A to Point C, with a side detour at Point B.

3) Making coffee. Hey, it takes time. Not a lot of time, but when you add all the coffees up…

4) Doing other work. Unfortunately, I still have some regular work to do. We’ve got a brand new website going up this week (last I heard, anyway), and I’m going to need to keep writing content for it so it can stay fresh, and there are a number of ongoing projects that need to be worked on in the meantime.

5) …reading? Actually, this hasn’t happened yet. I’ve hardly read a thing this month, but I have a plan: in order to edit this NaNo manuscript properly, I’m going to hold myself to a task of reading X number of YA books each week – this is so that I can re-familiarize myself with the genre, and ensure that I’m keeping the correct tone and pacing for the novel. Yes, I’ve read piles of YA books before, and at least 25 this year alone. However, now that I’m writing one… I need to stay in touch with the genre. So while I’m not spending time doing this right now, I’m actually going to have to schedule it in like work. This could be good or bad, depending on whether I can stick to the reading schedule or not (or just get caught up in reading and never get around to doing any work again…!).

And that’s that.

So, if someone were to ask me again how much time I actually spend writing each day, I’d answer: I’m at my desk all day, 9am until 4 or 5pm. I wake up at 7:30 so I can have time to drink my coffee, eat breakfast, and get all my emails & NaNoWriMo forum browsing out of the way before it’s time to buckle down and start writing.

See? That makes more sense. In other news: my caffeine intake has doubled/close to tripled in the last several days. If you’ve been following the Fuel Count, you’ll see what I mean. o_O It has been/continues to be “one of those weeks”.

NaNo Fuel Count

Cups of Black Coffee: 18
Lattes (cafe or home-made): 4
Mugs of Hot Chocolate: 2
Cups of Tea: 5
Cans of Bawls (energy drink): 2
Baked Goods: 7
Bowls of Ice Cream: 1
Mini Chocolate Bars: 17

Last night, I didn’t want to write. Really, really didn’t want to write. For some reason, all I wanted to do was sit on the couch and watch re-runs of Seinfeld while eating Doritos and drinking Bawls… which, mind you, I did for about an hour before finally giving in and sitting down at the computer to type.

It was around 10pm when I started, and I knew it was probably a bad scene to start working that late without any extra caffeine in my system. I vowed to make a coffee after my first 30-minute word war, during which I typed something like 1206 words…! I was elated. I had no idea what I’d written, but it didn’t matter… I was going to make word count! In fact, I was so inspired that I decided not to make myself a coffee…

Bad idea. About halfway through my second 30-minute sprint, I fell asleep. I wasn’t a full faceplant, but one of those sleep-nods that are so dangerous when you’re driving someplace when you’re too tired to safely operate a motor vehicle – or, in my case, a keyboard. Stupidly, I continued to type… despite the fact that I sleep-nodded at least twice more before the 30 minutes was up. Miraculously, I still managed to type just over 1000 words – however, if asked right now, I honestly couldn’t tell you what the heck I typed into the story during that time. Ireland could have been invaded by a race of killer space monkeys, I really don’t know, and as I have a policy of not re-reading anything during November… I guess I won’t find out until December.

Moral of the story: Have a coffee anyway. Seriously. Just do it.

Write-In #1: Blue Dog Cafe

The first write-in went well, if you’re not counting things like actually working on our stories. Only 3 of us showed up, but that was alright – we introduced ourselves, talked about our stories, discussed the November writing life, and the other 2 went on at length about Anime North as I nodded politely… lol. I’m not into the anime scene, but I’m well-versed enough to get the general gist of things… at least I recognize names & various series!

Anyhow, I think we each only got a few hundred words written, but as it was our first time meeting each other and we were only there from about 2:30-4pm, I’d say it was a success. Plus, the coffee was great – definitely going back for that again. I figure the next time we get together, we’ll be more productive in the literary way… and maybe a few more NaNo’ers will join us.

NaNo Fuel Count

Cups of Black Coffee: 13
Lattes (cafe or home-made): 3
Mugs of Hot Chocolate: 2
Cups of Tea: 5
Cans of Bawls (energy drink): 2
Baked Goods: 7
Bowls of Ice Cream: 1
Mini Chocolate Bars: 12

I passed the 15,000 mark yesterday, and I give all the credit to one of the NaNo forums: Word Wars. Yes, that’s right – it’s a challenge within a challenge!

These word war challenges range from how many words you can write in 5 minutes to the Ultimate Word War Challenge, which has defined boundaries (10k in 5 hours). Last night, when I had no idea whether I was going to make it to my daily goal, let alone 15k, I decided to try one of the word wars and see if it really worked… or at least if it would jumpstart my heavily napping muse.

I tried the 30-minute word war, and came up with 938 words when the timer went off. I was shocked. Astounded. Thrilled. I decided to go again. Another 30 minutes gone, and I was sitting at 987… and I’d passed the 15,000 mark. I couldn’t believe it… I’d written almost 2000 words in an hour?!?! How was that even possible???

It was then that I realized the 10k in 5 hour challenge really isn’t all that unrealistic after all, and that I must – must – try it before the month is out. Heck, maybe even before the week is out. Until then, I’ve decided to set the timer for 30 minutes and start writing, because at that pace? I’ll have this thing whipped.

I hope. Then again, the November schedule gets ridiculously busy (you know, with “real life” things) starting this Monday. So… it should get interesting. o_O

***

Tomorrow: Write-in at the Blue Dog in Brantford. I have no idea if anyone is going to show up, since organizing people is like pulling teeth (no one fraking responds!) … but they have a 9.9 on the local restaurant review website, and they serve fair trade coffee, so if nothing else? I’ll have a nice shiny new pile of words and some delicious pastries and coffee to go with it. Mmm…

NaNo Fuel Count

Cups of Black Coffee: 11
Lattes (cafe or home-made): 2
Mugs of Hot Chocolate: 2
Cups of Tea: 5
Cans of Bawls (energy drink): 1
Baked Goods: 7
Bowls of Ice Cream: 1
Mini Chocolate Bars: 12

The widget’s in place, but it’s not working yet… other people have had some difficulties with them as well, so it’s not just me. All in due time…

Going into today, I’m sitting at 9,285/50,000. Not bad. I’m ahead of where you’re officially supposed to end Day 5, and will certainly surpass the day 6 total easily… which has led me to consider upping my total for the month.

I’m not sure if it’s possible, seeing as how I have a number of major events coming up, starting next week – however, if I can manage to snag a few 5k days, I could possibly finish the month with 75k. Like I said, I’m not sure if that’s feasible or even if I should try to think along those lines, because all I really want to do with this year’s NaNo is finish my story, regardless of how long it is (beyond 50k, that is). I’m fairly certain that, with the way things are going, I’ll need to write plenty more than 50k to get things wrapped up, even though I initially thought it would be more than enough. Then again, writing a lot means I have more to cut and/or condense later, ultimately making it a better story. I hope. o_O

In other news, I’ve received 2 more free books in the past week. I think I’ll finish them and then post reviews, as opposed to just throwing the covers up on here in my exuberance.

And now, enough procrastinating. Time to get writing… 5k day, here I come!

NaNo Fuel Count

Cups of Black Coffee: 8
Lattes (cafe or home-made): 1
Mugs of Hot Chocolate: 1
Cups of Tea: 3
Cans of Bawls (energy drink): 1
Baked Goods: 6
Bowls of Ice Cream: 1
Mini Chocolate Bars: 9

I meant to start this from the very beginning, but it’s only day 4… and I think I can remember my totals for the previous 3 days of the month. I’ve also slacked on getting the word count widget up, but hopefully that will get up today. Seriously. I mean it. Mind you, I’m relying on Mr. Husbando to do it for me, as I have absolutely no concept of who, what, when, where, how (but I do know *why*) to get a widget up on a webpage. He’s the internet master, not me.

So for now, I’ll admit that I’m behind (sitting at 4155 at the moment, should have ended the day yesterday at 5001 o_O), but I will catch up today. That’s a guarantee. Screw other work – I have NaNo’ing to do!

Current NaNo Fuel Count

Cups of Black Coffee: 5
Lattes (cafe or home-made): 0
Cups of Tea: 2
Cans of Bawls (energy drink): 1
Baked Goods (cupcakes, cake, pie, pastries, etc.): 3
Bowls of Ice Cream: 0
Mini Chocolate Bars: 4

In other news, I sent off my NaNoWriMo 2008 Care Package to my exchange buddy yesterday… I sent it in an Express Post bubble mailer that claimed it would get to her in one day, so I’m hoping that’s the truth (especially for the amount they charge you). I figured it would be best to get it to her sooner than later, so here’s hoping I get what I paid for. I also hope she likes it… I probably spent too much time going around looking for things, but hey, it was fun! The only thing I was disappointed with was the lack of ghosty-type paraphernelia in the stores, and I went shopping the week before Halloween! Her story is a “bitchier, edgier Ghost Hunter” type thing (I can’t remember the quote exactly) with supernatural themes, and I wanted to find something like a cuddly ghost plushie or a creepy-looking notebook, but these items were nowhere to be found! Weird. I also wanted to send a map of the Toronto subway, since it comes into play in her tale as well, but apparently they don’t sell those in KW. Hahaha. Can’t imagine why.

Anyway, I think the care package exchange was a great idea, and thanks very much to the NaNo’er who put it all together! When the package for me arrives, I’ll post what was inside (and maybe what was in the one I sent, but I don’t want to put it up now in case my exchange buddy happens to find her way to this site before it arrives!).

Now, off to try and catch up with the word count…

It’s here! It’s here! It’s here!!!

NaNoWriMo starts today! And I have yet to put up a widget so you can watch my word count progress… however, it might be helpful if I actually made some words to count in the first place.

All in due time… in other words, as soon as I finish this blog post. Time to get writing!!!

Today I was walking through the aisles upon aisles (upon aisles…) of Halloween costumes and supplies at our local Value Village, and found myself faced with a significant amount of “fairy” outfits. Among these were costumes for an ‘evil fairy’, a ‘demon fairy’, a ‘copper fairy’ (what the…?), a ‘goth fairy’…

Now, don’t get me wrong – at a basic level, I’m impressed that the majority of adult fairy costumes actually attempt to correctly represent original faerie nature, before the dumbing down that began in Victorian England and cemented itself in Disney lore.

How is this relevant to writing in ANY way? Well, I’m so glad you asked.

You see, this year’s NaNoWriMo topic falls into the realm of the fay in Ireland. Yes, I’m writing a fairy story… but with real faeries. I’ve noticed a number of authors taking this direction lately, and it’s heartening. However, I want to write my own.  And so, we come to the point of convergence with Value Village costumes.

One of the threads on the NaNo forums is called ‘Let’s all dress up like our MCs on Nov.1st!!!’, to which I posted something along the lines of “fat chance, my MC is a 9-year-old boy”. However, the faerie queen will play a significant part within the story, something which just so happened to occur to me as I walked the aforementioned aisles…

No, I didn’t end up purchasing a costume. Yes, I did carry one around the store with me for about 40 minutes as I looked at other things, only putting it down at the last minute when I began to feel slightly doubtful that I would actually use it more than once.

But who I am kidding. A dress with wings? That’s got year-round written all over it.

I may go back tomorrow.

Huzzah! It’s NaNoWriMo season!

That’s right… we’re only 25 days away from a month of little sleep, excessive caffeine consumption, and frantic attempts to make daily word counts.

I blogged about my progress last year, but as I mentioned before, I’ve lost nearly all the posts from this blog’s previous incarnation. I plan on attempting to track down some of the posts that may be sitting on my defunct laptop – I’m fairly certain I wrote at least a few in Word instead of right in wordpress – and posting them here during October as a “lead-in” to November’s insanity.

My husband has decided to try his own sort of writing challenge with me, revolving around his business blog. I’ll try to post my own progress here during November on a regular basis, but at the very least, I’ll have a widget or something in place that updates my word count every day. Maybe I should also install one that tracks how many cups of coffee it takes to actually make it through 50,000 words in a month…