The Myth of Writer's Block

Okay, this is the Week 3 update for NaNoWriMo, but I cheated and waited until I had good news before posting this.  To explain the title, I don't believe in Writer's Block -- it's just a mythical creation to excuse a day off.  Still, I do believe in Writer's Boredom which is what struck this week.  I reached a surprisingly muddy part of the story and found that I hated the story, the characters, the very concept.  The beginning of the week I piddled around, and produced a lousy amount of material.  Last Tuesday, I had set the goal of 3,000 words since I didn't have work -- I ended up with 276.  Pathetic.  Finally, I threw in a completely random and inappropriate flashback, just to write something out of context.  By the end of the flashback I had figured out how to continue and suddenly, it was like the faucet had been turned back on.

I think the hardest thing to do is to remember to think ahead.  I'm no good with outlines, so most of this is on the fly, but once I come to the end of the scene I want to know where to go next.  I think that's what got me in trouble early last week and I needed the time outside the main story to decide how to continue.  The benefit of this experience is it helps me learn what kind of writer I am and what I need to do for lengthy projects.  Hopefully, at the end I can say that this particular project was a success.

Here are my stats from the end of today (as I said, not actually representative of the week):
Your Average Per Day: 1,673
Target Average Words Per Day: 1,667
Words Written Today: 3,560
Target Word Count: 50,000
Total Words Written: 36,827  
Words Remaining: 13,173 (looks pretty good, I'd say!)
Current Day: 22
Days Remaining: 9
At This Rate You Will Finish On: November 29, 2011 (how I hope this is true)

Meet Algernon

Btw... I realized in writing the post below that I never introduced my new car.  Meet Algernon:

Algernon is a nautical blue Toyota Matrix (pre-owned) with everything I could have wanted and more.  Poor Richard the Lionheart fell in a terrible accident, but he died nobly, protecting his family and even strangers.  Algernon and I took to each other right away and he has graciously stepped in to fill the void Richard left behind.  Oh, and did I mention he has a sunroof?

20,000 Words Onto the Page

This update pertains to yesterday, so take a moment to pretend it is Sunday, November 13 and the end of the week.  This was an interesting week now that the show has closed and it was my first pure American Greetings week since I started in September.  Monday was a very important day.  Algernon went on his first road trip with Mom and I to College Station and carried home his first load -- my desk and three boxes of books.  Oh, and while in CS I had to go to Hastings.  And buy two more books.

The rest of the week I pretty much devoted to writing a book and getting caught up from performance week.  Friday, I met trouble when I got sick.  I managed to write for a full 5 minutes, churning out a prolific 130 words before succumbing to a medicine-induced sleep (I slept the entire day.)  When I read the thing in December, I'll see if those 130 words stick out horribly.  Fortunately, I had the rest of the weekend to make up for lost time.

What I found this week is that it does start to come more naturally.  Last week I sometimes struggled to get 450 words out of a half hour, this week I'm consistently getting 650.  However, my concern for the weeks ahead is that I'm going to run out of story.  I may need to do something drastic!  For this week however, I am proud to report that I have caught up!  Here are the stats from last night:

Your Average Per Day: 1,646
Target Average Words Per Day: 1,667
Words Written Today: 3,325
Target Word Count: 50,000
Total Words Written: 21,402
Words Remaining: 28,598
Current Day: 13
Days Remaining: 18
At This Rate You Will Finish On: November 30, 2011


This is the first time it has told me I will finish in November!  Woohoo!

Silence Will Fall

When you see me next ask, me what happens when a show that has 168 (called) sound cues needs to perform without a working sound program.  SPOILER:  It's an experience.  The story is much better in person with wild hand motions and a myriad of sound effects, or I would post it now.

That's the teaser; the meat of this update is a status report with NaNoWriMo, now that November has started and I've been through a week.  Write or Die is the only way to do it.  As the catch phrase says, it puts the "prod" in "productivity" (I saw that a few days ago and I still find it hilarious).  I always set it to 500 words in 30 mins and sometimes I struggle to make it through and end up with around 400 and sometimes the words just fly from my fingers and I end up with 600.  Interestingly, I usually have more trouble with the first chunk of the day and just fly through the second portion.  This is nice because while I may not have 500 every 30 mins, I consistently have 1000 every hour.

Which is to say in plainer terms, I have been making good progress despite my busy week thanks to the useful tools at my disposal.

I did fall behind my personal goals for the week and certainly fell behind what's "par" for the course, but I still feel good about what I squeezed in and am hopeful for the month as a whole.  What I've written so far is absolute rubbish, but that's the whole point of this thing.  Keep going, no matter what.  I've made a lot more progress in six days than I would have in six weeks if I kept trying to make it unrubbish.  (Please forgive me as I modify an extremely British term for my purposes).  I'm already a winner.  So here are my stats so far copied from the very helpful chart on the NaNoWriMo site.

My Average Per Day: 1,004
Target Average Words Per Day: 1,667
Words Written Today: 2,023 (it was a pretty good day)
Target Word Count: 50,000
Total Words Written: 6,026  
Words Remaining: 43,974
Current Day: 6
Days Remaining: 25
At This Rate You Will Finish On: December 19, 2011 (yes, I know I have some catching up to do, but I think this morning I was poised to finish sometime in January)

NaNoWriMo

I'm diving into a new adventure this year or, more precisely, tonight at midnight.  I decided to participate and am determined to complete National Novel Writing Month, better known as NaNoWriMo.  Every year thousands of people all over the world take the 30 days of November and write a 50,000 word novel.  Every one who reaches 50,000 words wins.  This is one of those situations where a You Showed Up! Prize is quite appropriate, because the goal is steep.  NaNoWriMo focuses on quantity over quality based on the idea that sitting down to write is the hardest part and you can't go very far without a first draft.

I first heard about this in 2005 when a friend threw out the word NaNoWriMo as if it were a common part of the English language.  I thought it sounded cool, but I never had the discipline or motivation to do it and some years I literally did not have the time (I know, I know, you make time, but Cyrano consumed everything).  This year I figured, whyever not?  Let's see what I can do.  I know that I will be starting at a disadvantage since it is tech & performance week on top of my "day job."  November 1, 2, & 3 will be 9:30am to 11:00pm days for me, so I don't anticipate much of a word count in those early days, but the show ends Sunday which should give me the rest of the month to aim high.  I don't really know if I'm prepared or not, never having done this, but I'm hopeful.  If I'm super motivated, I'll post updates meaning my current statistics, not anything more involved than that.

Here are some statistics I need to meet:
Daily Average -- 1,667 words
Week 1 -- 8,335 words
Week 2 -- 11,669 words
Week 3 -- 11,669 words
Week 4 -- 11,669 words
Week 5 -- 6,668 words

(weeks end on Saturdays, except for Week 5 ending on Wed the 30th)

Using Write or Die, I can squeeze 500 words into half an hour.  More realistically, 500 words will take 45mins to 1hour for a total of 75-100 hours throughout the month.  I plan to use Write or Die for that extra push (if you pause for too long it will punish you based on the settings you've chosen -- annoying messages, horrible music, or deleting your text one word at a time) and see how it goes!

Wish me luck, and I'll see you in December.

Johnson City, Texas

Anniversary

It needs to be said:

A year ago today, I graduated from college.


More thoughts to come...