NaNoWriMo: Day 3, back in the saddle
Alright, 537 words, which is barely a third of my goal for the day, but at least I got back to writing. After a day of sitting at the keyboard, my shoulder really didn't need more aggravation, but that wasn't the real obstacle. The show-stopper was my usual problem: I had finished a scene and really didn't know how to start the next one and I was, as usual, reluctant to sit down and start writing because I didn't know what to write.
And that's much of the point of NaNo for me… to encourage me to write when I don't know what to write. So I started somewhere mid-scene, and once I know a little better how the scene works, I can go back and fill in the opening part of the scene.
Unfortunately, it's already bedtime and I've developed a headache, so I'm calling it a day quite a bit short of my goal. But I'm actually rather pleased… I sat down and wrote, when I didn't want to write, and I feel good about what I produced. Right now, quantity isn't even so important as the process. If I can feel good about the writing and get over that early hurdle of not wanting to even get started, I can push for 3000-word days later in the month and it won't be a problem.
NaNoWriMo: A rough start
So I did get started, and my first half-hour actually went pretty well. Wrote 637 words, and at that rate, I'm looking at less than 40 hours to write my entire novel. An hour and twenty minutes a day? Barring getting stuck, that's pretty doable.
But I didn't get more than a half-hour… I was so wiped out yesterday that I never got back to writing. Don't know what it was, but I seem to be pretty much over that. Except this morning, I woke up with a pulled muscle under my right shoulder-blade. Hurt like [amazingly bad words I don't allow myself to write here]. (Apparently I used improper lifting posture while carrying 50-pounds bags of duck feed.) I couldn't find a position that didn't hurt, and typing was really out of the question.
I called in sick… I'm a computer programmer, and that requires typing all day long. That sucks, and then it sucks for NaNoWriMo… already "in the hole" for not hitting 1667 words on the first, and I didn't do any more writing after that. Missed my first write-in, too.
So, day three, and I begin by owing 4364 words for the day. This is exactly the kind of start I need to encourage me to call a misdeal and throw in the towel. But I can push through this… my daily word goal only jumps to 1763, an extra 100 words a day. I can do that.
NaNoWriMo: Well, I suppose I should get started.
Full night's sleep (strangely very tired, though), church is over, lunch is coming up, and my son really, really wants to play Toon. And I'm contemplating getting started on my novel.
It's the first day, the day I should really be rarin' to go. And, of course, I'm intimidated by the idea of just getting started. That intimidation is why I'm doing NaNoWriMo, though.
Knowing my usual inclination, if I follow my gut, I'll put off starting any writing until after Nathan goes to bed at 9:30, then I'll struggle to get started, write about 500 words, and wonder what insanity made me commit to this and tell other people about it.
So, I have to develop a strategy around that. Lunch, then just thirty minutes of writing. No word-count goal, just thirty minutes and then I'm free to do something else, like play Toon for a couple of hours. Then another thirty minutes of writing before dinner. I know a lot of people jump in with guns blazing, but I'm going to have to ease in a bit.
Despite not forcing myself to reach a specific word-count for the first couple tentative toe-dips in the noveling water, I do want to hit the 1667 words for the day. I really want to stay ahead of the word-count, because if I start to let that slip, saying I can make it up later, it's just going to make things harder down the line.