Maeve Binchy is my favorite author ever, so when I discovered she had a book out all about writing, I had to get it. A while ago, The National College of Ireland held a writing class and called it “The Maeve Binchy Writers’ Club” because every week of the course, Maeve would send them an informative letter about some aspect of writing, from inspiration to publishing to writing in the various genres for the various markets. She also called on other writers like Marian Keyes, and publishers and editors in the industry to contribute a letter for the students about their fields of expertise. How lucky was that group of writers in that course? I would have LOVED to been there. Fortunately, the National College of Ireland decided to gather all the letters together and publish them in a book, along with a short story written by Maeve especially for the book called, fittingly enough, ‘The Writing Class’. So, in lieu of taking on the NaNoWriMo challenge this year (my 4 month old forbid it. He said, “Mommy, don’t be crazy. Hold me instead. ALL THE TIME.”), I would go to bed at night and read a letter in the book before going to sleep. It helped me feel like a writer.

The tips and advice in the book are good, though the contributers focus on Ireland quite a bit (ie. Irish writing competitions, the Irish publishing industry, the Irish radio market, etc.), but the main ideas still apply to anyone who wants to be a writer. As for the short story at the end, I’m sad to say it because I do love Maeve so, but it falls a little flat, being a bit too contrived and obvious. But overall, this is a good book to keep on your writers’ resource shelf to pull down and flip through when you need some inspiration to get your creative juices flowing.

Well, I’ve come to the conclusion that I won’t be finishing NaNoWriMo this year. I’ve got too many things going on, too many social things to attend, and some health irritations (tonsillitis and ear problems suck) that are just making me unwilling to spend my spare time at the computer working on the novel. I’m okay with it, and I’ve been preparing myself to admit it for the last week. I could also tell in the weeks leading up to November that my heart wasn’t really into it this year, and that I wasn’t as excited about it as I was last year. I didn’t approach it with the same enthusiasm.

But I have decided one thing: my novel is too good to give up. I really like the idea and I have great plans for it. I’m just not willing to speed-write it just to be done with it. I’m going to make it my goal over the next year to work on this novel in a more sensible way. I’ll start by reworking the outline and getting more specific with it. I’ll work on character sketches. And I’m going to write it slowly, and focus on telling it in a way that makes me happy with my story-telling voice. I’m also going to work on description more. One thing NaNoWriMo has taught me about my writing skills is that I tend to do a lot more telling than showing.

So while I’m a bit disappointed I’ve decided to cut out of the NaNoWriMo race early, I’m not feeling too badly about it. Good luck to the rest of you WriMos out there!

Hmmm… this image doesn’t seem to be updating my wordcount very well, I may have to find a new one. So, I think I’ll just track my progress below at the same time:

• November 2: to 1,969 in 1 hour (4% done, 48,031 to go)
• November 3: to 5,217 in 1.5 hours (+3,248, 10% done, 44,783 to go)
• November 6: to 8,244 in 2 hours (+3,027 16.5% done, 41,756 words to go)
• November 7: to 10,791 in 1.5 hours (+2,547, 22% done, 39,209 to go)
• November 10: to 12,384 in 1 hour (+1,593, 25% done, 37,616 to go)
• November 13: to 13,458 in 45 mins (+1,074, 27% done, 36,542 to go)
• November 15: to 15,750 in 1.5 hours (+2,292, 31.5% done, 34,250 to go)
• November 16: to 22,519 in 4 hours (+6,769, 45% done, 27,481 to go)

So I gave myself a good 4 hours of writing time to get the word count up on the NaNoNovel today. I’m 45% done, still a little behind where I should be. But I feel better about it now. I wrote in 1 hour blocks of time because I couldn’t just sit and write for hours on end. And I can’t say that I love what I’ve been writing. I may not even be able to say I like it all that much. Basically, I look at it and think, “It’s got potential. I can work with it.”

I’m not quite at the part of my novel where I can let loose and have more fun with it. I’m still working on some background information and setting things up (which is so sad — what kind of novelist is still setting things up in the novel at the 22K point?). But I’ve renewed my determination to finish this novel by the end of November, and come to the conclusion that I may just have to skip over some of the non-essential, fun bits and get the plot moving along so I can wrap it up by the 30th. I suppose if I were to include everything I wanted to, this novel would be closer to 100,000 words when it’s done and that’s not going to happen by the end of NaNoWriMo.

I have to say this has been a pretty humbling experience so far. I’m learning what a bad writer I am. I’m wordy. I’m long-winded. I’m not descriptive enough. I compose horrible sentences off the top of my head. I’m seeing all the flaws in my writing, and I’m sure I’ll embarrass myself when (if) I come back to it in a few months and reread what I’ve done. Someone left me a comment asking if I’d be sharing my novel with my blog readers. Heck no! If this NaNoNovel wasn’t based on a solid idea with the potential to be great after many, many revisions, I’d have given up a long time ago. And I definitely wouldn’t show it to anyone until it did go through those revisions.

That being said, I do know what I need to do to fix these flaws. And the number one thing I need to do is: write more often. Not just for this insane challenge, but everyday. Like so many people out there, I say I want to write a novel one day, and yet… I don’t write! It’s so much easier to do things that don’t take much effort. Like watch TV. Or read. Or sleep. Why? Because none of those things are likely to end in failure! The fact is, if it weren’t for NaNoWriMo and blog posts, I probably wouldn’t write at all. And that’s… well, it’s no way to treat such an important dream in my life. So I’m going to have to work on that.

I’m so not into NaNoWriMo this year, and I’m wondering why.

Last year I was loving every minute of it, and looking forward to sitting down with the laptop and writing a few thousand words a night.

Now? I can’t even get myself to sit down for an hour and do it.

It’s not my story — I actually like my story. I think it has great potential, and, unlike last year’s story, I actually knew how this story would end before I even started writing.

I’m thinking it has to do with being on the computer so much. I spend my days in front of the computer. All day, just about every day. And at the end of my work day, I don’t feel like being on it when I’m not working.

So I think it’s going to be seriously hard winning NaNoWriMo this year. Last year at this time, I was at around 33,000 words. At the moment, I’m at 13,500. And I was worried about not having enough words last year!

I guess I just need to get motivated. I gave myself the day off from the computer today, so hopefully that will help. I plan on writing for most of the day Friday, and maybe I’ll get enough words in to start the fire again.

Okay, there’s a lot of you know what that seems to be hitting the fan and blowing in my direction lately.

1. My server went kaput yesterday. There’s nothing like wanting to post something and then not being able to. And when you post as sporadically as I do, it’s even more annoying. I blame you, AN Hosting. I blame you, Midphase. I’m glad I’m back up, and it only took them a whole day to fix it, but there are still some issues behind the scenes that are vexing me. It seems that my site is down more and more lately, and it irks me.
2. I’m sooooo behind in my reading and my book reviews. I have books piled up. Book club book, books from publicity reps, books I’ve just been meaning to read, books for work. So many books and yet… after being at my computer and reading all day long, I don’t feel like training my eyes on a book.
3. I’m being a perfectionist and spending a lot of my time on some work stuff. Working on creating documents, and assignment pages, etc. I don’t feel right if things aren’t organized just the way I like them. Thus, I spend time making and moving files and folders on the computer, matching fonts in documents that are related, fixing rubric tables to look just right and fit onto the page. It all takes time and effort, and I’m trying to decide what priority everything has for my time and effort, especially now that….
4. NaNoWriMo has started. Somehow, I’m still determined to participate and win. I’ve got a lot on my plate lately, but somehow the fact that I participated last year and actually won is making it hard to consider not doing it this year. Plus, I haven’t written a single word, and one of my friends? He’s already got over 10K done in ONE day. The competitive nut in me is starting to get antsy which would explain why I’m up at 1:30AM and determined to get started writing as soon as I get this post up. So yeah… wish me luck. And someone please unplug that fan.

UPDATE (3:38 AM): Okay, it’s a little over 1 hour later and I’m up to 1969 words. Only 48,031 to go! But I think I’ll go to bed first.

Chris Baty is the founder of National Novel Writing Month. He’s also an extremely funny person. This book is full of humorous tidbits and information designed to motivate you during the craziness that is NaNoWriMo.

What I like about this book is that it’s not actually meant to be a how-to. All this book is meant to be is a challenge. It urges you to approach your novel in a way that the typical author would never think of doing: start and finish it in 30 days. Mind you, it doesn’t say you need to start and finish a novel that’s ready to be published in 30 days. Just start and finish the first draft of your novel in 30 days. And that’s what makes it so smart. If a person sets a goal to just write a novel sometime in his or her lifetime, chances are that person won’t accomplish the goal. But if that person is given a deadline? That makes it a challenge, and a challenge makes you more accountable. (more…)

Drumroll, please! You’re reading the words of a NaNoWriMo 2006 winner! Woooooo!

… and a great big whew!

Well, the novel’s hit over 50K words, but it’s not finished yet. I think I’ll need another 20K to finish the story (and there’s definitely gonna be a sequel) but that’s okay. I thought about signing up for NaNoFiMo (National Novel Finishing Month), but at this exact moment… I’m ready to kick back and just read a few novels instead of writing them ;)

Wooo! 6,600 words written in a day and a half. I just wrote a little over 3,300 in two hours, and I could keep going because I’m at a fun part of my story, but I have to work early tomorrow and it’s late now. I’m currently at 47,511 words and I’m pretty sure that I can write the remaining 2,500 words tomorrow evening after work because I am sooooo psyched to finish the challenge as soon as possible now that I’m thiiiiiiiis close.

Well, I suppose I could just do without enough sleep and stay up to finish it tonight, but I’ve decided against it for a few reasons. A) I’ll be a zombie at work tomorrow if I don’t get enough sleep, B) if I finish it tonight, I’ll be on such a high that I won’t be able to sleep anyway, and C) I am SO gonna throw myself a little celebratory party when I hit 50K, and I’d rather do it at a time other than the middle of the night.

So the big question is: what shall I reward myself with for winning NaNoWriMo, especially since this is my first time participating in it? Or maybe more importantly, what will my husband reward me with? He said he’d get me something good if I actually did it. Time’s a tickin’, hubby! ;)

Didn’t get a lot of writing done over the last week for a combination of reasons, so I was starting to feel a little panicked about the word count. Plus, having taken a few days off, my interest in writing (almost) started to disappear. I was doubting the storyline and finding all kinds of stuff to do instead. Not a lot of writing done, but on the plus side, got a lot of Christmas baking done.

So a few days ago, I decided to just sit down to write a few words. An excruciating hour later, I had 877 words down before deciding to give up for the day. Not my best writing session, and I came away pretty sure that things weren’t going to look up anytime soon. Took a few days off and decided to give it a go today. Let me tell you, the idea of going shopping instead was really, REALLY strong. I procrastinated all morning and the majority of the afternoon, but I finally sat myself down and forced myself to just start and give it 15 minutes. And almost 3 hours and 4,044 words later… I was feeling a little better about the story and my writing ;)

So the lesson I learned: if I don’t feel like it, just sit down and give it 15 minutes. If I still don’t feel like writing, then at least I tried. But the experience has been that 15 minutes is usually enough to get me past that inital blah feeling. Mind, it also helps that I was in the middle of a story and had a place to take it — I don’t know how well it would work when starting from scratch without an idea to get me started.

Anyway, now that I’ve hit 40K, I feel like writing a lot more. 50K seems soooo close and having that word count bar nearly to the end is pretty good motivation. I may write some more after Desperate Housewives tonight.

Got another two sessions of writing down today for a total of 3 hours and around 4000 words. Yep… there’s no way this novel is going to be finished with only 14K left. Which sort of makes me anxious. When I signed up for NaNoWriMo, my only goal was to start a new novel, stick with it, and finish it within the 50K words and do it by November 29th at the latest. It was sort of like: Hello, start… meet the end. NaNoWriMo starts, November flies by in a panicked rush to finish novel by the time NaNoWriMo ends, NaNoWriMo ends, I get on with Christmas.

However, it now seems that I will reach 50K pretty soon, which is great because it’s only mid-November and yay me, first time NaNoWriMoEr, but not so great because… my novel’s ending is nowhere in sight and I didn’t expect that 50K words wouldn’t be enough. And worse yet, I’m not all that sure how I’m going to end it. Which makes me a teensy bit worried that when I hit 50K, I’ll be able to say, “I won NaNoWriMo!” and then I won’t be in so much of a rush to continue writing the rest of the story. I’m actually starting to think I may end up giving this novel an ending that isn’t really all that much of an ending so much as a “stay tuned” cliffhanger. I can just see it now — I’ll be writing the sequel for NaNoWriMo 2007. Gah!

Though I suppose it would help if I had a title for this one before I go thinking about the sequel. I have one in mind, but… I’m a little iffy on it. Anyway, current word count as of 1:30 AM, November 15th: 35,990. You think I should just fit 10 words in there somewhere and get it to a nice round 36,000? I’m so tempted. But I won’t. It is now bedtime.

My cold has loosened its super grip on me so that it’s decided to let me breathe through my nose again and sit upright for the majority of my day. Now it just likes to tickle my throat so I cough constantly, along with the added sniffle here and there.

So that means I was able to sit myself down for two writing sessions today. One for an hour and a half in the early afternoon when I wrote a little over 2500 words, and then my more productive 3 hour, late night writing session, when I wrote just over 3600. It was a good writing day, and I managed to pass the 30K mark today. Yay!

I’ve come to a real transition point in the novel. It seems that the first 30K will act as the first third of my story. Talk about taking the quantity over quality mantra to heart! At this rate, I don’t think I’ll be able to wrap up my novel in 50K words. Yikes.

The good news is that I’m really enjoying my story right now. I’m now truly into the thick of what I wanted the novel to be about in the first place, and the really exciting (to me) stuff is still ahead. And that makes me very happy, because I can see the next 10-20K flying by. Which is definitely a good thing. I took a look at my stats, and at average pace I’ve been writing, I’m expected to reach 50K in 10 days. But I think that if I’m able to keep up the writing pace I’ve been at for the last two days, I’ll be done well before then, provided I don’t take a day off.

I’m totally into this now. I’m actually sort of sorry that I only decided to do NaNoWriMo for the first time this year and not three years ago when I first heard about it. I never thought I had it in me to give up my need to edit continously as go, and to just write and stick with my story this far. I’m feeling pretty proud of myself. Every time I’ve tried to write a novel before, I’d write a chapter or two then stop to edit and revise over and over again until I’d lost interest in it and just given up. This novel is the farthest I’ve ever come in a novel, and I don’t mind saying that it’s clearly a “quantity over quality” kind of novel, but that it has the potential to clean up really nicely. Maybe it’ll clean up to be around 50K in the end, who knows?

But mentally, I’m feeling pretty good about it right now. I can only imagine how I’ll feel when I actually reach 50K, or, better yet, when I finish the story. I suppose if I needed to be brought back down to Earth, I’d just have to think about how I’ll feel when I come back to it months later with the intent to edit and revise…. Yup, there we go… that killed it.

Almost ;)

It’s 3:35 AM. I sat down with my cup of Chamomile tea and night-time cold medication at 11:30 PM with the idea to take just twenty minutes and try to write a few hundred words before bed. While the cold is nowhere near gone, the cold medication I took must have had some other super qualities in it apart from the standard decongestants and antihistamines, because I found myself in one of those rare zen-like writing states you only wish you could get into. And 5396 words and 4 hours later, I’ve passed the 25K/50% mark. Yay me!

Coincidentally, 4 hours is also the exact amount of time it took for the medication to wear off. Now I’m off to find something that will hopefully knock me out while drying up my nose so I can sleep without waking a half dozen or so times to grope for the Kleenex box.

Today was a lousy day. Didn’t get a bit of writing done on my NaNovel because I’ve been on the couch all day tending to the runny nose. I believe I’m also getting an ear infection in my right ear because it’s feeling plugged up and is starting to hurt. I literally spent the entire day minus the time I took for a shower and to make dinner (well, heat dinner) on the couch dozing and watching TV. Hopefully I’ll feel better tomorrow and can get some writing done. The new plan… hit 25K words by Sunday night.

I was hoping to get to the 25K midpoint tomorrow, but I’ve come down with one major ass-kicking cold. And when I’m sick, I don’t do much of anything but lay in bed or on the couch and sleep. I’ll still give it a try though… but not tonight. For now, I’m off to drink tea and pop the cold drugs.