Hey all!
It's currently 4 am, and I need to seriously get some writing done. I pretty much procrastinated all day on Friday and didn't get anything done except a good night's sleep. And today, with my younger sister starting to play Neopets (I had long quit but introduced the game to her since she's obsessed with the internet), she kept asking me a million questions which prompted me to revisit the game. So I wasted a few hours playing a Neopets game called Key Quest (addicting). Lol.... I have to say, I'm getting a little tired of my story. I had about 20K written and still hadn't even gotten close to introducing the conflict. Blehh. So today, I pretty much made a huge and horrible transition. No more background story/boring stuff; conflict and plot here I come! My goal is to get at least 30K done by tomorrow (or technically today), so I can procrastinate and have a nice cushion to fall back on during the week days. I have around 22.5K written so that means 8K for tomorrow. Which will probably fail because I have a huge project due Monday, a creative writing assignment, as well as a lot of sleep to catch up on for staying up so late today. XD Wish me luck!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Reasons to keep doing nanowrimo
Hey guys! So I was lurking on the nanowrimo forums yesterday and saw a few people were thinking of giving up. So i decided to procrastinate on writing (again) and list some reasons why people should keep writing even if they think their writing sucks or they don't have a good plot or whatever. DON'T QUIT NANOWRIMO! REMEMBER, I THINK I CAN I THINK I CAN I THINK I CAN(:
1. You get bragging privileges when you reach 50K
2. You can (hopefully) get out of chores for a whole month
3. You have an excuse to consume an insane amount of sugar and caffeine
4. You wpm will surely increase due to your insane typing skillz you develop during nano
5. You can use this in all your arguments. 1: "You suck." 2:"Oh yeah? Well I wrote a novel. Ha! Hahaha. Oh yeahhhh. That's right. I bet you can't say you did that, huh huh huh? :P" 1:"Loser."
6. November is the month of putting your insecurities and inner editor aside and just writing, no matter how crappy you think it is. So by the end of the month, you'll have 50K or more worth of words to work with and edit to your inner editor's pleasure. Think of it like a detailed outline. Sure you're going to change things, but at least you have the basics down.
7. Even if you don't win, you do get a hefty amount of writing done. And to get better at writing, you have to write.
8. Better time management! Don't throw those precious hours away, you coach potato! Get writing. (I need to learn this skill).
9. Feeling of success(:
10. People will start to give you funny looks when you start talking to yourself in the hallway. What they don't realize is that you are having imaginative conversations with your characters. (Okay, maybe this isn't a good reason...)
11. You'll get it all done in a month. Let's be honest, no matter what you tell yourself, who here really is going to be writing during Christmas break when they could be eating yummy food and begging for expensive presents (or emptying their wallet to pay for said expensive presents). You'll always be able to find an excuse not to write, to hold it off for another day.
12. YOU FINISH A NOVEL(:
So. We all have thoughts of quitting. But that doesn't mean you should let it get the best of you. Keep perserving and writing, even if you don't think it's good enough. Remember to lock your inner editor in a doorless and windowless cage, tight, so it can't escape. Don't look back and edit. Just keep going forward, and in December when you look back, there will be a million good things in your story or at least things that have potential to be good. And that's what counts. If you don't make your daily word count, don't stress out. If you're really busy or tired one day, just type out a hundred words or jot a few down when you have time. Don't kill yourself trying to get to the word count. But don't give up either. There's always the weekend and Thanksgiving break to catch up (only if you're willing to write for 128426917820482196429316 hours).
Right now, my word count is around 17K and going strong (actually, I'm just writing crap but whatever). Good luck everyone and see you at the finish line!
1. You get bragging privileges when you reach 50K
2. You can (hopefully) get out of chores for a whole month
3. You have an excuse to consume an insane amount of sugar and caffeine
4. You wpm will surely increase due to your insane typing skillz you develop during nano
5. You can use this in all your arguments. 1: "You suck." 2:"Oh yeah? Well I wrote a novel. Ha! Hahaha. Oh yeahhhh. That's right. I bet you can't say you did that, huh huh huh? :P" 1:"Loser."
6. November is the month of putting your insecurities and inner editor aside and just writing, no matter how crappy you think it is. So by the end of the month, you'll have 50K or more worth of words to work with and edit to your inner editor's pleasure. Think of it like a detailed outline. Sure you're going to change things, but at least you have the basics down.
7. Even if you don't win, you do get a hefty amount of writing done. And to get better at writing, you have to write.
8. Better time management! Don't throw those precious hours away, you coach potato! Get writing. (I need to learn this skill).
9. Feeling of success(:
10. People will start to give you funny looks when you start talking to yourself in the hallway. What they don't realize is that you are having imaginative conversations with your characters. (Okay, maybe this isn't a good reason...)
11. You'll get it all done in a month. Let's be honest, no matter what you tell yourself, who here really is going to be writing during Christmas break when they could be eating yummy food and begging for expensive presents (or emptying their wallet to pay for said expensive presents). You'll always be able to find an excuse not to write, to hold it off for another day.
12. YOU FINISH A NOVEL(:
So. We all have thoughts of quitting. But that doesn't mean you should let it get the best of you. Keep perserving and writing, even if you don't think it's good enough. Remember to lock your inner editor in a doorless and windowless cage, tight, so it can't escape. Don't look back and edit. Just keep going forward, and in December when you look back, there will be a million good things in your story or at least things that have potential to be good. And that's what counts. If you don't make your daily word count, don't stress out. If you're really busy or tired one day, just type out a hundred words or jot a few down when you have time. Don't kill yourself trying to get to the word count. But don't give up either. There's always the weekend and Thanksgiving break to catch up (only if you're willing to write for 128426917820482196429316 hours).
Right now, my word count is around 17K and going strong (actually, I'm just writing crap but whatever). Good luck everyone and see you at the finish line!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Cheers to another can of coke
It's only day two, and I've already drunk an ungodly amount of soda. I won't be surprised if, by the end of the month, I develop a severe and deadly liver disease from all the caffeine and other garbage in this thing. But at least it keeps me wide awake and writing. (: ha. today is a really bad day for me, writing-wise. I got a huge head start yesterday, and I think that's preventing me from doing my best to write as much as possible today. I'm thinking that since I already have a huge cushion, I don't need to keep writing, but if this keeps up, it's going to be my downfall.
It's so annoying to have swim practice right after school because then I come home tired and ready to fall asleep...but I still have homework and my daily 1,667 words to write. It's almost ten at night, and I've only written about 6oo words today. Talk about sad. I had to go to Costco to get my picture taken for my passport, since I'll be flying out of the country for vacation this winter. Then I convinced my dad to take my sister and I to Borders, where I actually brought my laptop and could sit there typing away like a professional writer. It was really fun! Too bad the chairs were too stiff and made my back hurt, and I kept getting distracted by the books. I wanted to buy a few, but I didn't have a lot of money with me, and my dad refused to pay for anything. So I just got Forest Born, the fourth book in the Books of Bayern Saga/Series, by Shannon Hale. Gotta love her books! I'm trying to restrict myself from reading it until I hit at least 25K, and only if I am ahead of the game, so I can afford to waste some precious time (when I could be writing) to read. I'm probably going to be too tempted though and start reading it. Sigh.
Anyway, I really should get back to writing. I'm really behind on my daily word count... but I'm also really excited! I'm losing the drive to write, mainly because I've hit a boring part, but I got a huge head start yesterday, so I think I can actually win nano this year. So far I have about 11.7K which is technically enough that I don't even have to write this week and still be on track on Saturday. I'm planning to do some major writing (sprints?) on Saturday and Sunday. Maybe Friday as well if I don't get bored of being glued to my computer screen. We'll just have to wait and see.
So bye for now! (: Just keep swimming, just keep swimming. (I love FindingNemo).
It's so annoying to have swim practice right after school because then I come home tired and ready to fall asleep...but I still have homework and my daily 1,667 words to write. It's almost ten at night, and I've only written about 6oo words today. Talk about sad. I had to go to Costco to get my picture taken for my passport, since I'll be flying out of the country for vacation this winter. Then I convinced my dad to take my sister and I to Borders, where I actually brought my laptop and could sit there typing away like a professional writer. It was really fun! Too bad the chairs were too stiff and made my back hurt, and I kept getting distracted by the books. I wanted to buy a few, but I didn't have a lot of money with me, and my dad refused to pay for anything. So I just got Forest Born, the fourth book in the Books of Bayern Saga/Series, by Shannon Hale. Gotta love her books! I'm trying to restrict myself from reading it until I hit at least 25K, and only if I am ahead of the game, so I can afford to waste some precious time (when I could be writing) to read. I'm probably going to be too tempted though and start reading it. Sigh.
Anyway, I really should get back to writing. I'm really behind on my daily word count... but I'm also really excited! I'm losing the drive to write, mainly because I've hit a boring part, but I got a huge head start yesterday, so I think I can actually win nano this year. So far I have about 11.7K which is technically enough that I don't even have to write this week and still be on track on Saturday. I'm planning to do some major writing (sprints?) on Saturday and Sunday. Maybe Friday as well if I don't get bored of being glued to my computer screen. We'll just have to wait and see.
So bye for now! (: Just keep swimming, just keep swimming. (I love FindingNemo).
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Day One
It's currently 6:32 pm, and I'm starting to lose some steam. So far, I have about a good 7K, which is exciting because I have a nice cushion to fall back on during the week, when I might be too busy to right. I waited until midnight to start writing and kept writing to around 5 am... which is pretty crazy, I know. But I had a lot of Nanowrimo forum breaks and two sodas to keep me awake, until I finally decided to go to bed and continue writing later. I woke up at 3 pm, haha, went downstairs to have some belated lunch, and then went back upstairs with a giant jug/can/jar (?) of Meyer chocolate milk that I got from Target (: I had about 6K done when I went to bed, but in three hours, I've only gotten about another 1K... hopefully I get some ideas soon!
Ehh. I'm going to be writing another chapter or two before I start on my homework/studying. Blehh, wish me luck. To everyone who's participating in Nanowrimo, good luck to you all and happy writing! (: I promise I'll put up pictures of my writing space soon.
Ehh. I'm going to be writing another chapter or two before I start on my homework/studying. Blehh, wish me luck. To everyone who's participating in Nanowrimo, good luck to you all and happy writing! (: I promise I'll put up pictures of my writing space soon.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Four More Hours To Wait!
It's 8:22 pm, and I'm getting realllllly excited! I'm sitting in front of the desktop computer in the office room, but I'm on my laptop, having just succcessfully installed Microsoft Office 2007. I spent an hour trying to find it and then like three hours of wheedling and begging to get my dad to help me install it onto the computer(: Now I'm fully ready for Nano! I really have no idea how I'm going to begin my story, but I'm just really excited for it all to begin. I'm probably going to give up in like three days...but for now, I can't wait. Yesterday I bought some candy and Coke, to keep me awake for 12:00 am and however long I stay up to write. I'm hoping to get in a good few thousand words before I go to bed and then a lot more in the morning to give me a little cushion in case I fall back later.
Yesterday when I was buying snacks, I also went to Michaels and bought a lot of string so I could make friendship bracelets. Last week, I was doing a project with a few people, one of whom was someone who was obsessed with friendship bracelets. When I was younger, I used to make them, so I decided to get more string so I could revisit the hobby again. It's actually really fun and relaxing to do while waiting for midnight, and I even l earned a few more designs or whatever. Yay!
And yes, my post is going all over the place, but right now I'm really annoyed at Nanowrimo (or the website at least). Obviously a lot of people are on the website right now because it's so close to midnight. I was on too. I was reading this really interesting topic and wanted to click page four to continue my lurking/stalkerish habits, but it said the site was down for maintenance. Gah!
....nevermind. I just clicked it again, and it worked. Now I feel stupid.
Anyhow. I was looking for more Nanowrimo stuff, and I found this one chart that had the dates Nov. 1-Nov. 30 where you could write down your progress and see how behind/ahead you were with your writing count, so I printed that out. I also printed out two of the Nano posters to tape in my room and planner in case I ever get thoughts of quitting. That way I can guilt myself into writing (: Andddd, I also printed out this cute calendar that someone customized for nano, with little notes and stuff. It's hard to explain, but it's really nice. And I'm too lazy to put the links up... :/ But it's cool.
I think that's it. My dad is yelling at me for hogging both computers, so I have to give him the laptop. Te he. Only four more hours, guys!
Yesterday when I was buying snacks, I also went to Michaels and bought a lot of string so I could make friendship bracelets. Last week, I was doing a project with a few people, one of whom was someone who was obsessed with friendship bracelets. When I was younger, I used to make them, so I decided to get more string so I could revisit the hobby again. It's actually really fun and relaxing to do while waiting for midnight, and I even l earned a few more designs or whatever. Yay!
And yes, my post is going all over the place, but right now I'm really annoyed at Nanowrimo (or the website at least). Obviously a lot of people are on the website right now because it's so close to midnight. I was on too. I was reading this really interesting topic and wanted to click page four to continue my lurking/stalkerish habits, but it said the site was down for maintenance. Gah!
....nevermind. I just clicked it again, and it worked. Now I feel stupid.
Anyhow. I was looking for more Nanowrimo stuff, and I found this one chart that had the dates Nov. 1-Nov. 30 where you could write down your progress and see how behind/ahead you were with your writing count, so I printed that out. I also printed out two of the Nano posters to tape in my room and planner in case I ever get thoughts of quitting. That way I can guilt myself into writing (: Andddd, I also printed out this cute calendar that someone customized for nano, with little notes and stuff. It's hard to explain, but it's really nice. And I'm too lazy to put the links up... :/ But it's cool.
I think that's it. My dad is yelling at me for hogging both computers, so I have to give him the laptop. Te he. Only four more hours, guys!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Nano Preparation
I'm making a list of things to do before November 1st. I really can't wait. I should be sleeping right now, but all I can think about is my story and actually getting to write it. haha, what a dork I am(:
1. LEARN TO HAVE BETTER TIME MANAGEMENT
2. Buy a lot of coke/coffee and sugary snacks
3. Buy a bunch of microwavable food
4. Make some music playlists
5. Get to the know my characters better
6. Make a timeline of the story to help make the outline clearer
7. Write reminders about Nanowrimo everywhere to guilt myself into writing in case I want to quit
8. Reread some reference books like No Plot? No Problem!
9. Buy a writing totem or make one.
10. Make a book cover.
11. Find people that look like my characters and tape them on my wall in front of the computer
12. Install Microsoft 2007 onto my laptop so I don't have to be glued to the office computer
1. LEARN TO HAVE BETTER TIME MANAGEMENT
2. Buy a lot of coke/coffee and sugary snacks
3. Buy a bunch of microwavable food
4. Make some music playlists
5. Get to the know my characters better
6. Make a timeline of the story to help make the outline clearer
7. Write reminders about Nanowrimo everywhere to guilt myself into writing in case I want to quit
8. Reread some reference books like No Plot? No Problem!
9. Buy a writing totem or make one.
10. Make a book cover.
11. Find people that look like my characters and tape them on my wall in front of the computer
12. Install Microsoft 2007 onto my laptop so I don't have to be glued to the office computer
Three More Days!
For those of you who don't know what Nanowrimo is, it's called National Novel Writing Month in November where thousands of people across the world get together to achieve a goal of writing 50,000 words. It's amazing because there are so many people who are doing the same as you, so you're never alone because you can discuss your troubles, excitement, and frustration with people in who can empathize on the Nanowrimo forums, unlike your friends who probably think you're crazy. Just go to www.nanowrimo.org and sign up today! There's only three more days before November starts, and my fingers are already itching to start writing. In fact, I've done some loose planning on my story, but I don't have every little bit analyzed, so hopefully I'll surprise myself with thinking of some amazingly awesome plot twist or something of the sort instead of quitting due to writer's block. xD
This is my third year, but I tend to try and ignore the previous two because of the epic proportion of my failure to write 50K words. I think last year I got about... 8K? before I quit. Greatttt. But this year I'm determined to win, so I'm logging my progress on this blog which will hopefully motivate me to keep writing. Obviously I'm not setting any high hopes for my novel to be the next New York bestseller, but I just want to have a complete draft, however crappy it is, to work with. I'm not exactly looking forward to December because there will be a heck load of editing and banging my head on the table, but hey, it's a start. And I think it will be a great experience for me to actually win (or at least make a greater attempt than my previous years and get somewhat close to 50K) because hopefully I'll learn a thing or two about time management and writing. (:
I don't have my whole story planned out yet, but due to my extreme lack of creativity and good ideas, I'm, once again, writing a YA realistic fiction. All of my teen realistic fics pretty much have the same idea but with different main characters and setting (see what I mean about lack of creativity?). But this month, my goal is simply to get to 50K while juggling my mass amount of homework and swim practices and... other stuff without falling back on cheating methods, tehe (like writing the lyrics to an entire song multiple times in my novel or going into extreme detail about every little thing, etc.) This year, my main character is a seventeen (?) year old girl named Morgan Leigh Parker who basically goes through a lot of changes throughout the novel. Sort of like a Sarah Dessen-y book but with a lot less writing talent. She learns a lot about friendship and finds it in people who she would never have dreamed of while losing the close bond with others. I'm pretty sure I'm going to give her some family problems as well, specifically with her dad. She's mainly a disappointment, but he's also just really rough on her in general. They don't function like a "normal" family, whatever that would be; they don't communicate, they're hardly around each other, and the only person in her entire family that Morgan can relate to is her twin brother, Jake. And there's a boy, who she may or may not be attracted to, who keeps sticking his nose in her mysterious past (or not so past), causing unpleasant memories that Morgan's tried to suppress come to the surface again. Morgan is forced to face with the truth of it all too soon, and no one knows what will happen when the dust settles.
So. Pretty cliche but I'm hoping that it will turn into something... not cliche. Haha. I'm so excited to get started writing; I know I'll be staying up late on Halloween to wait for it to turn 12:00 am so I can start typing. I'm aiming to get a few thousand words in as a head start, and then when I wake up on Sunday I'll write a lot since I really have nothing to do anyway. That way I'll have a little cushion for the second and third week when my novel starts falling apart at the seams. (:
This is my third year, but I tend to try and ignore the previous two because of the epic proportion of my failure to write 50K words. I think last year I got about... 8K? before I quit. Greatttt. But this year I'm determined to win, so I'm logging my progress on this blog which will hopefully motivate me to keep writing. Obviously I'm not setting any high hopes for my novel to be the next New York bestseller, but I just want to have a complete draft, however crappy it is, to work with. I'm not exactly looking forward to December because there will be a heck load of editing and banging my head on the table, but hey, it's a start. And I think it will be a great experience for me to actually win (or at least make a greater attempt than my previous years and get somewhat close to 50K) because hopefully I'll learn a thing or two about time management and writing. (:
I don't have my whole story planned out yet, but due to my extreme lack of creativity and good ideas, I'm, once again, writing a YA realistic fiction. All of my teen realistic fics pretty much have the same idea but with different main characters and setting (see what I mean about lack of creativity?). But this month, my goal is simply to get to 50K while juggling my mass amount of homework and swim practices and... other stuff without falling back on cheating methods, tehe (like writing the lyrics to an entire song multiple times in my novel or going into extreme detail about every little thing, etc.) This year, my main character is a seventeen (?) year old girl named Morgan Leigh Parker who basically goes through a lot of changes throughout the novel. Sort of like a Sarah Dessen-y book but with a lot less writing talent. She learns a lot about friendship and finds it in people who she would never have dreamed of while losing the close bond with others. I'm pretty sure I'm going to give her some family problems as well, specifically with her dad. She's mainly a disappointment, but he's also just really rough on her in general. They don't function like a "normal" family, whatever that would be; they don't communicate, they're hardly around each other, and the only person in her entire family that Morgan can relate to is her twin brother, Jake. And there's a boy, who she may or may not be attracted to, who keeps sticking his nose in her mysterious past (or not so past), causing unpleasant memories that Morgan's tried to suppress come to the surface again. Morgan is forced to face with the truth of it all too soon, and no one knows what will happen when the dust settles.
So. Pretty cliche but I'm hoping that it will turn into something... not cliche. Haha. I'm so excited to get started writing; I know I'll be staying up late on Halloween to wait for it to turn 12:00 am so I can start typing. I'm aiming to get a few thousand words in as a head start, and then when I wake up on Sunday I'll write a lot since I really have nothing to do anyway. That way I'll have a little cushion for the second and third week when my novel starts falling apart at the seams. (:
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