Oh dear. "Oh, yes, I'm going to post every few days..."
Right.
Anyway, we're more than halfway through Camp NaNoWriMo. I'm almost 70% of the way to my goal, which is fortunate because I only have till the morning of the 26th to hit it. However, I've been slowing down in the past week. A couple of days where I got nothing written really hit my motivation and now...
Well, when I actually get sat down and writing, it's fine - I can bang out a few thousand words in a couple of hours. 3k evenings are not unusual. But it's the "getting my brain to focus" bit which is causing the real problems. For example - I am writing this in my lunch break. My brain tells me that really I should be working on my novel, but I don't feel like it. Argh. How do I get my mind in the right place?
In other news, I keep finding gaping characterisation issues. Oh, the hatred of two-dimensional characters. Just sitting there, failing to actually engage the reader. They're fully formed in my head, but as soon as I start writing them they sort of deflate. It's most annoying.
I also made the mistake of googling frostbite yesterday. I needed some more information on causes and symptoms. I did not need images of severely frostbitten digits during my lunch break. Ugh. Note to self: do not search potentially stomach-turning things while eating.
Right, let's see if I can salvage what remains of my lunch break for proper writing...
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Friday, July 4, 2014
July Camp NaNoWriMo 2014: Day 4
After struggling to hit my word count goal yesterday because I was busy doing New Zealand planning (which you can read about here), I needed to get back on track today.
Fortunately, Camp NaNoWriMo is organised in such a way that you can be assigned to a "cabin" of fellow writers. The cabins are there for support and general chatting - anything to ease the month along. My cabinmates have turned out to be a lovely bunch.
I've found word sprints to be useful in the past - just sitting down for 10, 15, 20 minutes and rattling off as much as I can without thinking about corrections or editing. Doing a series of them seems to increase my writing speed without having too much impact on the quality of my writing, so they've been great when I lacked the motivation to write. The @NaNoWordSprints account on Twitter pretty much pulled me through those days of NaNoWriMo when I just couldn't get myself to focus.
Earlier this evening I suggested the idea of doing word sprints in the cabin. A few of my cabinmates got into this idea and it's really helped my word count today. We've also been able to just chat about random things, like football (actual football, not American football) and the unfortunate time differences between me and most of the other folks in my cabin. I didn't realise just how much being able to chat to other writers might help with my own writing. Not so much with the actual content, but with motivating me to get it written down in the first place.
I suppose it also helps that one of the folks read my synopsis, which I personally thought was a bit rubbish and told me it sounded amazing. How's that for a confidence booster? On top of that, we haven't even finished the first week and I've already hit 20% of my target for the month. So here's to the remainder of the month and all those words just waiting to be written.
Fortunately, Camp NaNoWriMo is organised in such a way that you can be assigned to a "cabin" of fellow writers. The cabins are there for support and general chatting - anything to ease the month along. My cabinmates have turned out to be a lovely bunch.
I've found word sprints to be useful in the past - just sitting down for 10, 15, 20 minutes and rattling off as much as I can without thinking about corrections or editing. Doing a series of them seems to increase my writing speed without having too much impact on the quality of my writing, so they've been great when I lacked the motivation to write. The @NaNoWordSprints account on Twitter pretty much pulled me through those days of NaNoWriMo when I just couldn't get myself to focus.
Earlier this evening I suggested the idea of doing word sprints in the cabin. A few of my cabinmates got into this idea and it's really helped my word count today. We've also been able to just chat about random things, like football (actual football, not American football) and the unfortunate time differences between me and most of the other folks in my cabin. I didn't realise just how much being able to chat to other writers might help with my own writing. Not so much with the actual content, but with motivating me to get it written down in the first place.
I suppose it also helps that one of the folks read my synopsis, which I personally thought was a bit rubbish and told me it sounded amazing. How's that for a confidence booster? On top of that, we haven't even finished the first week and I've already hit 20% of my target for the month. So here's to the remainder of the month and all those words just waiting to be written.
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
July Camp NaNoWriMo 2014: Day One
So, I thought that in addition to generic writing rambles, I'd also attempt to do a short post every few days for Camp NaNoWriMo this month. Here goes.
Day 1 has gone fairly well. It got off to a bit of a dodgy start though. I had intended to start writing at midnight, but having a full time job has skewed my body clock from what it used to be (go to sleep at 1am, still wake up in time for 9am lectures) and my brain just wouldn't function.
And then I thought I'd get up a bit earlier than normal before work and rattle off a few hundred words. Yeah, right - I love my bed too much. So that didn't happen.
Normally I write in my lunch breaks, but today's was taken up with more important things (read: feeding my mum's dogs). So that didn't happen either.
Finally, I got a chance to write this evening after work (and the staff quiz, which my team won). Settled down with the laptop, my map and a scratty list of place name elements. Rattled off a paragraph or two and promptly got interrupted by a puppy wanting a cuddle. I have an inability to say no to my mum's dogs, so I got sidetracked for a few minutes having hugs.
Fortunately, he soon lost interest and I've actually managed to write over 2000 words today. I'm only targeting 1600 words a day anyway for Camp NaNoWriMo, so it's a good start. Hurray!
I am totally not now watching a documentary about the battle of Bannockburn and claiming it as research into convincing battle sequences. Not at all.
Day 1 has gone fairly well. It got off to a bit of a dodgy start though. I had intended to start writing at midnight, but having a full time job has skewed my body clock from what it used to be (go to sleep at 1am, still wake up in time for 9am lectures) and my brain just wouldn't function.
And then I thought I'd get up a bit earlier than normal before work and rattle off a few hundred words. Yeah, right - I love my bed too much. So that didn't happen.
Normally I write in my lunch breaks, but today's was taken up with more important things (read: feeding my mum's dogs). So that didn't happen either.
Finally, I got a chance to write this evening after work (and the staff quiz, which my team won). Settled down with the laptop, my map and a scratty list of place name elements. Rattled off a paragraph or two and promptly got interrupted by a puppy wanting a cuddle. I have an inability to say no to my mum's dogs, so I got sidetracked for a few minutes having hugs.
Fortunately, he soon lost interest and I've actually managed to write over 2000 words today. I'm only targeting 1600 words a day anyway for Camp NaNoWriMo, so it's a good start. Hurray!
I am totally not now watching a documentary about the battle of Bannockburn and claiming it as research into convincing battle sequences. Not at all.
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