Tag: complete

5 Chapters in 3 days…

What is the most you have ever written in a day? How about two? Three?

I have written about 13,000 over the past 3 days. My mind is blown! I don’t say that to brag, I say that because personally… I didn’t know I was capable of something like that. This is what has impressed me the most about my participation in NaNoWriMo. I have been setting the bar too low for myself, and it is going to stop.

Before NaNo, I was proud of myself just for writing over 1,000 words in 2 to about 2.5 hours. I thought I was doing well, it made it easy for me to determine a rough estimate of my completion dates, and I was happy. Since I began NaNo, I consistently write about 2,500 words in under 2 hours. Over the past 2 days, I gave myself 2 separate writing spurts to account for 5,000 words a day.

What has attributed to my sudden ability to write more in the same amount of time? I believe that I am capable of producing more now because of NaNoWriMo’s tight deadline. I have known from the very beginning that my book was due at midnight on November 30th, so I planned accordingly. I wanted to give myself some buffer time and also a chance to edit before the deadline, so my goal became one 2,500 word chapter per day. I thought that I would have to set aside time to write twice per day to achieve this goal, but I was so amped for the challenge that it wasn’t necessary.

My recommendation to you is that if you find yourself not producing as much work as you would like, raise your bar! It’s so easy to keep pushing back the due date, but take a chance, challenge yourself and push up your due date. Sometimes we need a little fire to kick everything back into gear. Make it fun, too. I think for my next book, I’ll set my deadline and I’ll bet a nice dinner (paid for or cooked by me) to my husband if I don’t achieve my goal. 

Today I am just on a high from what I’ve accomplished. I have literally been dancing around my house in celebration. Tomorrow I write the final chapter of my book, and you will hear me shout that I’ve won NaNoWriMo 2013.

Take care everyone, I’m off to go blow everyone’s mind in class with my presentation now.

The end and the beginning

I was so excited about everything going on yesterday that I didn’t realize I had forgotten to post until about 10 PM, so I thought I would save it for today.

October 31st: Halloween to everyone else, but for me, it was my deadline day. I had one chapter and and an epilogue to write and I still had pages from my notebook to type. I sat down at my desk and looked at wall of inspiration and as I prepared to type, I was nervous. Why? Was I channeling my main character’s fear or was it my own as I was preparing to conclude this story I have been working on for years? When I typed “The End” it didn’t feel like I had imagined. All week long I was excited as I prepared to tell the world that my story was complete, but as I looked at the final words on my screen I was actually a little sad. Bittersweet, I suppose. 

Still I would like to pat myself on the back. While I have known the story in its entirety for quite some time, I have never written it from start to finish. This is certainly a personal victory. I have not gone back and read through my book all the way yet because I know that once I do, I’ll immediately start making corrections.

So that was the end, now for the beginning.

November 1st: I saw many of my Facebook friends posting that it was time to begin the 30 days of giving thanks. For me, at mid-night, I was at a coffee shop with many other NaNoWriMo participants. We met around 11 PM as we talked to discuss any issues we were having with our stories before the midnight hour arrived. When midnight arrived, I went right to work on my new novel. 

For those of you who do not know what NaNoWriMo is, let my introduce you briefly. NaNoWriMo = National Novel Writing Month (www.nanowrimo.org). You sign up and pledge to write 50,000 in 30 days. You have from midnight on November 1st through 11:59PM on November 30th to submit your final word count. Everyone can win, there are no real prizes, but there are lots of opportunities. Nano is great for people that need help find publishers and literary agents, or authors that simply want to know other aspiring authors. I really recommend it if you enjoy writing. If you can commit a sporadic 2 hours or so per day, you can easily make your word count goal for Nano, it is only about 1700 words per day.

So, we have not reached the end of day 1 for Nano yet… but I have already finished my prologue and first chapter and submitted a word count of around 2300. I’m off to a great start. My goal is to write 1 chapter per day so that I have time to edit near the end. There are too many great publishing opportunities, and I would hate for my story to be a discombobulated mess if I can help it =)

Is anyone else out there participating in NaNoWriMo 2013? If you are, please add me. My username is ChristinaW87 and my story is “The 50 Deaths of Annabelle Joy”

I wish you all a fantastic weekend. Happy November!