Week 1 of NaNoWrimo (or the first 4 days)

Can you believe that the first 4 (or 5 depending what time you're reading this) days have completed for NaNoWrimo 2010? I can't! The time is flying by, and I'm keeping up...barely.

This is the first year I've sat down in hopes of writing something good. Okay, maybe that's not true, but this year I'm not putting words down just for the word count and thinking I'll edit when I get to it. I'm choosing my words wisely and trying to get something down worthwhile. It will be still be a rough 1st draft, but I hope to have more substance than my last NaNoWrimo years. That's not to say that my last ones were all crap. I did turn my last two NaNoWrimo books into a completed manuscript that I'm proud of and queried with some success (though no agent). The one from last year is still in the works, going through edit after edit and have high hopes for it. I just wish it had been a little cleaner after November 30th.

That is my plan for this year. To have something that is readable without cringing (too much), but to still hit the goal of 50,000. I will say, this is also the year that I'd like to hit the goal, but won't kick myself if I don't. I participated in NaNo this year, not to have 50,000 words of a new book (well, that's partly it), but to get myself out of the editing funk.

The book I spoke of above, the one in edits, has got me down. I stopped working on it consistently and felt like I didn't know where to turn. Instead of fighting through it like I should have, I let other things distract me in my life. I shouldn't have, but I needed something like NaNo to get the juices flowing again. I think I needed to step back and start on something fresh, to get a new perspective on my writing and my creativity. I'm hoping NaNo does that for me, and so far it has. I forgot how fun it is to create a new world and spend time with new friends (err, characters).

Each day, it has taken most of the day (at least 5 hours) to hit my daily word count, and I'm okay with that. I don't need to bang out 1,666 words (or more) in an hour just to say that I can. I want to choose each word, each letter wisely. That being said, I hope I can speed up a little more once I know my word and characters better. I guess we'll find out once I wrap up week one and start on week two.

How are you doing with your word count?

Tami's word count at the end of day 4: 7,287

It's all about NANO, baby!

Well. NANO Eve is behind us. This is the day - the beginning. Let's get'er done. ;) November is going to be a quite month for me, a few author visits, the day job, and NANO. That's it. I'm not going to Twitter/blog/Facebook - I'm NOT! (Well, maybe a bit to promo said author visits. Oh, and my weekly blog post here...but that's all.)

I'm "going dark" - hitting the writer's cave and won't come up for air until December. I think it will be liberating. I've been tied to the Net for most of October due to blog tours, etc - while they've been a blast - they are a major time suck. It will be wonderful to just WRITE.

Lord knows what my house will look like after a month, but who cares, right? This is NANO, baby! If you're participating this year, find me - I'm there as JudithG.

Good luck!