Yay! Glad to have you on board. 
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Welcome to day 9 (of 30) of NaNoWriMo!
Daily ending word goal: 15,000
Weekly goal: 23,333
Yesterday’s target: 13,333
My current word count: 16,608
When a friend sent me this tweet, I was completely blown away – it’s perfect. Simply one of the most profound things I’ve ever read. The truth is that even though your first steps might feel tiny to you, they’re actually incredibly brave – instrumental – and yes, often more expansive than you realize.
So if you’re doing this challenge with us, don’t discount your efforts. Every word you write during this month that you wouldn’t have written otherwise is a huge deal. Sure, they might feel like baby steps – but through a different lens, they’re giant strides into the unknown.
Yes, even if you feel imbalanced and uncertain even as you make them.
Regarding my own progress yesterday, it turned out to be a highly technical day. The crux of it was that the A story of my novel follows an investigation of murders on a reality TV set – where one person is dating 25 others.
Well, once upon a time this meant that I had to quickly come up with 25 new characters. I’d done this bit during the beginning stages of writing the manuscript – and I’d plotted the elimination ceremonies (who doesn’t get selected by the romantic lead to be on the program for another episode, who gets murdered by the mysterious killer attacking the set, etc.). That was all set.
But as far as some of the “flavor” in between – the group and one-on-one date order/cast composition, the order that the detectives interview the contestants about the murders on set, and the miscellaneous drama that invariably happens in the final cut of one of these dating shows… well, it was a mess.
I’d talked to one of my sounding boards about the situation - and he’d said, “Oh, it doesn’t matter. Just make something up. Just pick arbitrary orders.”
And this seemed like good advice. After all, it didn’t really matter, did it? But I was having a hard time.
As I struggled to work on this section of the book yesterday, I realized it was because I was having trouble keeping the 25 contestants straight. I decided that it’d be helpful to create a small database of them – very much like the websites that dating TV shows put up with a contestant headshot, name, occupation, age, and short interview for each person.
There are lots of fancy software options for accomplishing something like that. I spent a good 20 minutes clutching my head and trying to figure out which program to use to do this. I even asked a friend who has some expertise in this area, and their response was an honest but unhelpful “it depends on what you want.”
Finally, I said “whatever” and opened a new Word document and made it in a simple file. Did it take a bit longer than another program designed for this purpose? Sure. But I found that the tedium of the task actually allowed my mind the wander… (A bit like the incubation effect I described in my last post and in my recent writer’s block class at DMS.)
Before I knew it, ideas for the scenes were leaping into my head unbidden – based on the characters’ personalities… for example, a very dramatic elimination reaction from a very jealous, insecure contestant materialized – and it’s fantastic and heartwrenching. I quickly found myself backtracking to explain why her reaction was so huge and adding another really satisfying scene to the outline.
And so on.
Yesterday’s words flowed quite well after this point – and I have quite a bit scaffolded that should be easy to fill in over the next few days.
Anyway, I share this anecdote about the “database” for one reason: Sometimes we’re sitting there telling ourselves why we can’t accomplish the task. Why conditions aren’t optimal.
“I don’t have the right tools,” we might say – when we actually have tools that’ll work just fine to do the basics (even if they’re not the shiny ones) and will get us to our goals.
I’ve watched this attitude stop many of my friends who would like to make or write more. They look for reasons they can’t do a project instead of jumping in and making do with what they have. There have been SO many times when I jump into a project without all the appropriate tools – and find that I either don’t need them at all – or I only need them at the very end, at which point it’s a simple matter to put the cherry on top of a project that’s basically done.
Just something to think about.
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It’s day 10 (of 30) of NaNoWriMo!
Daily ending word goal: 16,667
Weekly goal: 23,333
Yesterday’s target: 15,000
My current word count: 18,319
This is a pretty accurate diagram regarding the creative process. 
Personally, my favorite writing days are Full of Yarn or On Rails. I haven’t had any like that in this challenge yet, however. It’s been all jumping back and forth between Squizzly and Crumbly (during the same work sessions). I see the outlines/edges of things, and I approach them to wrestle and hopefully capture them. Some of it is very fragile and falls in a moat, but other parts of it are simply bendy and can be salvaged.
Anyway, we’re about a third of the way through the challenge. Getting warmer now.
I spent yesterday writing some investigative dialogue (fostered by my structural work on the contestant database the day before and accompanying new scene list). I’ll likely spend today’s session writing another flashback/planar transportation sequence.
Word by word, it comes together.
I have a slight lead on the quota. Nothing impressive but enough to (hopefully) insure me against a day in which the brain is Soup or Squirrel.
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Yes, THAT Frank Herbert. Topical always because Dune totally rocks but extra topical with the new film out.
Just a gentle reminder that if you’re having to force the words, it’s fine. It’s no indication of the quality of the writing.
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It’s day 11 (of 30) of NaNoWriMo!
Daily ending word goal: 18,334
Weekly goal: 23,333
Yesterday’s target: 16,667
My current word count: 20,023
*
Another day, another 1667 words, another chance to boldly go where we haven’t gone before. Remember, kids, Frank Herbert can’t tell the difference between words he forced onto the page and the ones that felt good at the time to write – and neither will your readers. (See my previous post if you have no idea what I’m talking about.)
Habit and discipline are more important than inspiration. Inspiration is vain and tells lies about itself. Don’t stand around waiting on inspiration; you don’t need its permission to get things done. Get in there and work, work, work.
On a personal note, I’m chugging along – definitely making some big breakthroughs on the draft. Yesterday was a rather satisfying work session. I’m starting to believe I will actually finish this book. Lots of words still separate me and the finish line, but I’m seeing a clear path there – and that tickles me considerably.
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i havent posted my progress in awhile but last night i wrote about 2000 words making my grand total 2568 so far i know its no where close to where i should be but im slowly moving
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Slowly moving is still moving. Good job!
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yeah im trying to do what i can and not get bogged down by the weight of the goal i just want it to be a good story
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It’s day 12 (of 30) of NaNoWriMo!
Daily ending word goal: 20,000
Weekly goal: 23,333
Yesterday’s target: 18,334
My current word count: 21,934
Today I would like to share the strangest, most specific thing I tell myself when I’m writing – because it has helped me out of some serious jams.
The long and the short of it is that Danielle Steel is my secret weapon. Yes, that Danielle Steel. The bestselling fiction author of all time. As of the day I’m writing this, she’s written 190+ books, over 140 of them novels. She puts out a new title every few months.
She is an an incredibly prolific, incredibly successful author. And up until about 3 years ago, despite being a voracious reader myself, I’d never read one of her books.
In my defense, I’m not much of a fan of the romance genre – I like love stories as subplots, but I don’t feel like they carry an entire narrative well.
Anyway, I was doing a very intentional dive of some extremely popular fiction for a marketing research project, and I cracked into one of Danielle Steel’s books. I selected Palomino for the project, for a simple reason: I’d remembered one of my aunts reading it next to the pool when I was a kid and being quite absorbed in it.
Here’s my honest take on Danielle Steel: The characters are all bonkers. Absolutely completely nuts. The writing is easy to read and solid but not virtuosic or impressive in any detectable way. But here’s the thing – it was a wildly entertaining read. Yes, mostly because the characters were unhinged, and you never knew quite what would happen. But I had no problem finishing the thing.
And neither did Danielle Steel, I noted. To be honest, some of the sentences were real clunkers. But she’d finished the book. She’s finished all her books. And while I haven’t gone on to read scads of them or anything, they make an impression. They’re an experience.
Yes, even if they won’t wow literary critics or gatekeepers.
Anyway, shortly after finishing Palomino, I was writing a novel myself when I found myself in a familiar predicament – I was frozen midsentence. I’d written my way through a clause, and now i was stuck. I had stopped typing and was agonizing about how to finish this sentence, one that was off to a rather promising start. I had that familiar terror – that not only could I not deliver this one sentence but that my writing career was over. This was the end of the road.
But then I took a deep breath, and I said to myself, “Danielle Steel could finish this sentence.”
Now, she wouldn’t necessarily finish it well, mind you, or at least not in a way that would make your high school English teacher tell all the incoming freshman about you after you graduated (ah, that halcyon hall of fame). But Danielle Steel could finish any sentence.
And so could I, I resolved with a little laugh.
And so can you.
(I also find it wildly inspirational that she’s had so much darn commercial success with what the intelligentsia would consider to be deeply flawed work by their staid metrics – there’s a lesson in there, too.)
Alright, a quick summary of personal progress is in order. I had a rather satisfying day at the keys yesterday. I spent most of my work session connecting other scenes and now have some nice, thick, contiguous chapters to show for it. A coup.
No idea what I’ll write today. I think I might start by rewriting the scene list I whipped up a week ago. Between completing a bunch of items as well as spontaneously adding new tasks as I went (thwarting my own organizational systems as always, i am what I am), it’s a little ragged and obsolete already.
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lol thanks @rampage for keeping us motivated and up to date with your progress. i kept hitting mental road block after another i was also very distracted last night i only wrote 222 words buti have a half day at work today so ill try to hit my book hard
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It’s day 13 (of 30) of NaNoWriMo!
Daily ending word goal: 21,667
Weekly goal: 23,333
Yesterday’s target: 20,000
My current word count: 23,993
I’m writing today’s progress update with a purring cat on my lap. He has muscled his way into prime real estate, effectively pushing my laptop as far away as possible, which means my arms are stretched to their absolute limit while writing this. Why don’t I move him? He’s old and in charge, that’s why. And he’s awfully snuggly.
Yesterday was a fantastic writing day. I managed to write a couple of short scenes in the labor and delivery plot arc that were exactly what I was going for (huzzah). I was on fire and had fun the entire 2000 words. One of those easy writing days where you feel possessed because it’s so automatic.
Today should be interesting. I’ll be busy in the morning volunteering for DMS but should have some downtime in the afternoon/early evening. I can write then.
Alright, no more typety-type. My kitty needs more love and attention. Talk to y’all later.
It’s day 14 (of 30) of NaNoWriMo!
Daily ending word goal: 23,333
Weekly goal: 23,333
Yesterday’s target: 21,667
My current word count: 25,779
Welcome to the last day of week 2!
I’m a little amazed that I actually wrote yesterday’s words. As I mentioned in my previous post, I volunteered at DMS for open tours/orientation open house yesterday. It went very well by the way. Very busy. Lots of interest. The tour team worked very hard.
My partner was taking a class afterwards, so my plan had been to write while he was in class. However, I got on a roll and wrapped up in socializing at DMS, and before I knew it, he was out of his class. Oops.
When we got home, I resolved to write my words immediately, but as it was dinnertime, there were constant interruptions. My partner was graciously cooking dinner for us but (reasonably) had lots of questions, so I kept losing my train of thought. And then the food came and I had to eat it, which also interrupted the writing process.
I managed. I wrote in fragments. In bits and bobs. Here and there. I carved out a jagged little scene where the shapeshifter is informed about dead bodies being found on the TV set (and a sequence where he pretends to take some time to get up since it’s early in the morning, even though he doesn’t sleep). No idea if it’s good. The TV was blaring, my partner was (reasonably) talking, and I’d had a couple of sips of a (delicious) Moscow mule.
I’m not going to worry about it too much. I’ll leave whatever unevenness that’s probably there for future self when I inevitably do the self-edits of my manuscript and whatever remains after my smoothing for my editor.
I read a few fragments aloud to my partner, and he seemed to like them anyway. (He was there, so why not). I never do this, but I usually don’t write on the couch in the middle of our hangout/socializing time. I usually close myself up in my office with headphones when I write.
But yeah! I managed. And my current word count is over 25K, which puts me over halfway through the challenge. I’m quite happy about that since the end of tomorrow puts me at the halfway point.
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It’s day 15 (of 30) of NaNoWriMo!
Daily ending word goal: 25,000
Weekly goal: 35,000
Yesterday’s target: 23,333
My current word count: 27,727
The end of today is the halfway point. Look at that round word count for the day. Also the weekly one is round for once (just the way it works out math wise). Oddly satisfying.
Yesterday’s session was fine for me. Not interesting or fun but fine. I wasn’t fully awake and kind of distracted. Bounced around between a bunch of different sections of the book. Got my words done, but none of it felt inspired. The good thing is that it doesn’t matter (just like Frank Herbert said above). Writing is writing. Inspiration is overrated – or at least it’s a phenomenon that’s experienced on the writer end, not the reader end.
I’m starting to actually fully believe I’m going to finish this book… I keep finding myself working on the outline/story development document for the next book I’m going to write because that’s the next panic for me, you see… once I finish the book I’m writing, I have to start writing the next one. It never ends, which is the best and the worst part of it.
I suspect today will be a brutal writing day. Mondays have been consistently stressful during this challenge since I have another weekly fiction deadline/commitment that day. But I’ll manage. I am a little amused/not amused that because of the way the month falls, I have to do hellish Mondays 5 times (instead of 4, as in some other months). But I’ll manage.
You’ll note that I have kept my slight word count lead I built a while back but haven’t added to it very much. I suspect it’ll be this way for a while… I’ll either keep the slight lead or use it some day because I get buried in other writing work (because writing is my job, but I write A LOT of other work in addition to what I’m doing on this NaNo challenge). I will be shocked to pieces if I have another strong day in which I rally on this project during this challenge. I just don’t see it. I’ve found myself lately just chipping away at whatever I can.
But I could be wrong and have some great writing days. I’ve certainly been wrong before.
Hope everyone else is doing well.
P.S. I was literally wrapped in a blanket as I typed this update.
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It’s day 16 (of 30) of NaNoWriMo!
Daily ending word goal: 26,667
Weekly goal: 35,000
Yesterday’s target: 25,000
My current word count: 29,594
Welcome to the second half of the challenge! Yesterday was an absolutely ridiculous writing day. Very uneven. I wrote my weekly 2000ish-word episode for my serial (another project) by 10 am, which should have been a good omen, but when I went to work on my NaNoWriMo project… oh no.
The trouble was that I’d woken up with an idea yesterday morning for the book – something I should add that would be easy to write and also help improve the novel’s structure. It was simple, elegant, and a great fix. Normally, I write this kind of thing down immediately – but I was exhausted yesterday morning and spent longer than normal in the half-awake stage, and…ugh… I trusted myself to remember it.
Yeah, I forgot it.
I feel like the frustration from forgetting the idea overshadowed my entire work session yesterday. The 2000ish words I wrote on this book took basically all day, and I was crabby about it.
I drank tea, did chores, took a shower – all activities that often help shake ideas loose… and while I was in the shower, I came up with 3 additional scenes I needed to add to the draft because I realized I had introduced a character but not effectively used her in the plot as much as I could/should. I ended up adding those and then writing some of that and outlining the rest.
So instead of remembering what I’d forgotten, I had a new idea. Which is nice… but uhh… give me back my old idea, brain.
I also wrote a bit more on the labor and delivery chapter that I resolved to write on day 1 – still haven’t finished it, but I keep chipping away at it a few paragraphs at a time.
Anyway, as far as whatever it is that I forgot, I’ll either remember it, I suppose – or I’ll come up with a different fix. (There are usually multiple effective solutions to the same problems; life and art are rarely linear.)
But yes… forgetting an idea is always a major brain burn for me… as is losing work and having to rewrite a section, although that’s blissfully rare now in the days of auto-save and backed up cloud file management systems.
Time to buy a sword and become malevolent fog, I suppose.
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i will do it i will buy another sword lol ive finally finished the chapter ive been working on now to do the rest of the story. i think im at about 5000 words and more and more is surviving the dreaded delete button
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It’s day 17 (of 30) of NaNoWriMo!
Daily ending word goal: 28,333
Weekly goal: 35,000
Yesterday’s target: 26,667
My current word count: 31,349
Yesterday’s session was a lot less miserable than the day before. I spent pretty much all of it working on the birth chapter. I’m getting really close now to actually finishing that part – when I set out to write this book, I’d always imagined these passages as being very emotionally intense, surreal, and beautiful.
I think this is why it’s been so difficult for me to write. I really wanted to do it justice, and the self-doubts were killing me.
Little by little, I’ve worked on a few paragraphs here and there, with an uncharacteristic conscientiousness. I’m always a little neurotic about prosody and meter (comes from all the years of writing form poetry, I’m sure), but through this section I felt a bit vulnerable about it even… been rolling over the words and how they sound so much you would think I was using my mind to smooth them like stones in a rock tumbler.
Anyway, it’s taken quite a while, but I’m getting somewhere. The chapter isn’t finished yet, but the writing is very strong. It has the exact tone I want. All in all, I’m quite pleased with where it’s going.
It’s so hard to live up to your expectations of something you care deeply about.
Now, that doesn’t mean the readers will like that part. They might think it’s trash. What the writer puts out and what the reader actually derives from the work are separate phenomena, after all. But as I worked yesterday, chipping away at transitions and rereading the old work, I was at peace. I felt like I had kept my promise to myself.
By the way, that meme I posted in this morning’s update is one I feel applies well to all of making! Makers and artists can do ourselves and others learning in our community a great disservice when we are too elitist and demand too much.
It’s so easy to get into a pattern of ruthless self-evaluation and criticism of others – one so overwhelming that you forget to stop and marvel at how wonderful it is that we can create and play in the world like this.
I myself had forgotten that. And I’d started to burn out as a writer earlier this year. But I’m working hard to recapture that magic and getting somewhere – playing around with my strange plant pots in ceramics has been a really instrumental part of that process… and also teaching Writerspace classes and talking with other writers at DMS.
Thank you to anyone doing NaNoWriMo with us – as well as anyone who has attended a writing class or social media/business class I’ve taught. I’ve gotten a ton out of teaching. And yes, I will eventually teach some more writing/social media/business motivation classes at DMS – this challenge thread is effectively functioning as Writerspace’s November event.
Alright, enough sappiness! Back to the word mines with me. Let’s see what worlds we can conjure out of squiggly symbols today!
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It’s day 18 (of 30) of NaNoWriMo!
Daily ending word goal: 30,000
Weekly goal: 35,000
*
Yesterday’s target: 28,333
My current word count: 33,248
Whatever, it’s not Monday, I know. We were fine until the hashtag. It’s a nice thought anyway. (And in a certain light, NaNoWriMo feels like 30 Mondays in a row, so there’s that.)
Something extraordinary happened yesterday. Remember how I got an idea on Monday morning for the book and then promptly forgot it, which overshadowed that day’s writing session with a miasma of frustration? Well, yesterday the idea came back to me – and it brought friends. I love it when that happens.
Yesterday’s session went really well overall. I spent most of it writing a dressing room fight between contestants and a conflict mediation session between the two contestants, the host, and the romantic lead. Your standard reality TV tropes. It was fun. I regret nothing.
Now that my Monday morning half-awake idea is back, I’ll probably focus on that today.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!
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It’s day 19 (of 30) of NaNoWriMo!
Daily ending word goal: 31,667
Weekly goal: 35,000
*
Yesterday’s target: 30,000
My current word count: 35,031
Well, it’s finally happened… I have run out of memes. I’m sorry, everyone. I did my best, but I finally drove to the edge of the Internet, and there was nothing th–
“Psych!” as people said in the 90s. Ah, the 90s. Anyway, this meme isn’t just about living and embracing your inner weirdo (although it totally is and that’s the main thrust of it); it’s also something that’s been really helpful to me as a writer. Not shying away from ideas or scenes because they seem weird or too out there. It’s really easy to wonder what other people will think of us, but often our own brand of weirdness is where the most interesting thing about our work is.
Or, as one editor I worked with, put it: “When you get weird is when you get good.”
Is there a limit to this principle? Oh probably. But editing ourselves into oblivion over shame for our idiosyncrasies is a twofold disservice – it makes it much harder to hit our word counts AND it usually makes the final result less compelling.
Alright, just a quick note about my session yesterday. It was hilarious. I was actually howling with laughter at points while writing. No idea if the reader will find it anywhere near as funny as I did, but I had a good time.
Sometimes a kind of magic happens when you put two characters together into a scene, and they start talking. It might just be my favorite part of the fiction gig.
Alright – onward and upward. More worlds to build.
P.S. No, before anyone asks, I have no idea what that person means by “the dice thing” in the tweet I posted. Could be any number of things.
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