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If you don't have a dream, how are you going to make a dream come true? |
2013 Goals
Write 52 Reviews / current = 27 Read 40 books / current = 9 Enter 12 Contests/Activities / current = 4 Host/Judge 2 Contest/Activity / current = 2 Other goals: ![]() ![]() ![]() Some other places you can find me: http://www.twitter.com/spidergirl502 http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1792019-tonia http://365project.org/spidergirl/365
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When in doubt... add more characters! I've lost count of mine, though I think I'm around 15. The problem with adding more characters, though, is that they all tend to want to take the main stage. I kind of like books where it's hard to tell who the "main character" is, but at the same time, it's tough when you have a TON of characters to keep up with. Then again, it's NaNo! As long as you're getting words, who cares about how much sense it's making? ![]() (I think it was around this time last year that I started losing my mind just a tad...) ![]() |
Where, oh where, has my inspiration gone? I'm struggling with words today. I've written about 500 so far, I think. I keep taking breaks to play games and other distractions, but I'm really trying to make myself write. There are a couple scenes I know I need to work on, but I just don't feel like it, you know? Grr! I'm hoping to get the obligatory 1,667 words done. If I just push myself a little more, I know I can do it. ![]() |
Good news: I've written about 1k today! Bad news: It wasn't for NaNo... ![]() I had a much needed day off yesterday (no nightmares last night! yay!), and today's looking like it could be another day off. I'm trying to get my mind off NaNo, just for a little bit. I don't want to start feeling overwhelmed, and I've been ahead of schedule, so I think it's okay... In other news, I love my hair today! ![]() |
I don't plan on writing much today, so it's good that I've been slightly ahead. Does anyone else have nightmares when they're doing NaNo? I've had four nights with bad dreams in a row! ![]() I hope everyone else has a productive and happy day! (We had our first snowflakes of the season today! Yikes! I'm not ready for snow!) |
Distractions... If you don't want distractions, DO NOT visit this site: https://www.freerice.com If you have spare minutes (or hours), go there. It should keep you busy for a very long time. ![]() (hoping to break 15k today! yay!) |
Videos from our Halloween weekend are up! Yay! Visit: https://www.youtube.com/wordofmouthpa for the latest videos! (Sorry if the quality is poor. I don't claim to be an expert in taking videos.) ![]() The last few videos are The Drama Club, Nimbus and City Sleeps. The sound isn't the best because I tend to stand really close to the speakers. (Don't worry, I wear earplugs!) Go watch 'em if you have a few minutes! |
My strategy today includes what I call "200 word dashes." I have a bunch of other things to do today, like updating shows on our site, cleaning my house, playing video games, etc. I make myself write at least 200 words (which is pretty easy), and then I get to do one thing for a few minutes. It's working well for me so far. I've written 1,177 words today so far! I'm trying to get ahead on my word count so that I don't have to worry about weekends. It would be really cool to finish by Thanksgiving again like last year. WC halfway through Day Seven: 12,227 |
I'm slowly catching up! I'm almost at the normal daily word count goals! I've been reading the NaNo forums (as a distraction, I guess) and I see a lot of people asking about chapter lengths. People want to know how long a chapter is supposed to be, and what other people have for their chapter word counts. Last year, I did the track titles from a CD as chapter titles. The CD I used had ten songs, so I had ten chapters. Each one averaged about 5,000 words or so. To me, those were really long chapters! This year I'm going for shorter ones, and I enjoy the pacing much better. I don't feel as pressured to write a ton and I feel like I move from one thing to the next fairly quickly. (Thankfully my plot allows for lots of movement and fast-paced scenes) I'm reading Tyrannosaur Canyon by Douglas Preston right now, and his chapters seemed super-short, like many of them are only 2-4 pages. I went through the book to find it has 96 chapters!! I like that, though. For some reason, I really enjoy short chapters. I think it makes the book easier to read. I know here on WDC, when I find a book with really long chapters, I find myself fleeing. Strange. Back to writing! I'm trying to reach 10k today! ![]() (Please subscribe to the Comedy Newsletter! I'm guest-editing this week's newsletter! My topic - inspiration and ketchup!) ![]() |
NaNo is all about good things and bad things. Take yesterday, for instance: good thing: I got bored and decided to write more, instead of finding a distraction to keep me busy. good thing: My word count reached 6,030 words! bad thing: I realized I somehow duplicated a few paragraphs and lost 300 words. good thing: I decided to write those words anew to get my word count back up to 6,030 words. I'm on my way to catching up! ![]() |
Definitely a better day today! Mr. J is sleeping to get ready to go back to work tonight, so I had more writing time today. I've written 1,803 words so far, and hopefully I'll get a little more done before the day is through. I'm still a little ways from the 6668 goal for today, but that's okay. For some reason, I was regretting starting a particular chapter, but once I started writing it, it went really fast (at least the beginning of it is done now). My chapters are SO short!! I've written about 5,000 words and I have 7 chapters! Maybe they're a little too short... Oh well, it's working for me so far! I just get worried I'm going to run out of story and still need words. It's scary going into NaNo without a plan! But it's also kind of fun. I like seeing where my characters go, and what kind of personalities they end up having. I used to have this feeling like once something's written, it's done, so if you screw it up, it has to stay that way. That's so not true, though! I don't have a lot of expectations for this story, so I really don't have a fear of screwing it up. I love crime/mystery novels, so I thought I'd try to write one. I don't know yet what the clues are going to be, where the twists, turns and surprises are going to fall. I hope I'll figure it out along the way... ![]() Today's been a good day for me. ![]() |