NaNoWriMo 2010: Day 8

I am officially in week 2. Or did that start yesterday? At any rate, this is the week when you're supposed to be kind to yourself and give yourself a break if things aren't clickin along as they're supposed to. this is the week where it feels useless and futile to continue, where all hopes of becoming a writer or even writing a coherent sentence is lost.

I had about 1000 words today, 670 less than the daily goal. I hit a wall in the story. What was supposed to be so easy, suddenly appears to be a hole in the story. i know, i'm supposed to just go on, but i say that a lot. Ok, skip this, move on. Cant figure out which character is sitting next to hero, ok, just put in a list of 3, and come back to it later, except hero has dialogue with that list of 3 and the people on that list of 3 range from allies to enemies.

alls i'm sayin is that it's hard to just skip and move on. too many of those, and you've left way too many holes in your story. you cant move forward if you dont know what happened in the past, can you?

But you can. i think you can. i think that writers often mistakenly think that everything needs to be tied up perfectly before you move on. It doesnt. It really doesnt. Especially because often times you dont know how to tie up things until you've plowed through the future and realize what you want to happen in the past.

ok, it's late for me here. i've been staying up way too late. i'm still taking this herbal remedy for my stomach issues and i spend my evenings with a very unhappy stomach, which delays the time i go to bed. i dont know. another long winded way of saying i have insomnia.

NaNoWriMo 2010: Day 7

I wrote about 3000 words today. A lot more than my daily quota, but i'm still behind. They say that week 2 is supposed to be the week in which you hit the wall, or the fall from the euphoric glee of having starting a novel that is now not going in any direction you can work with. I think i hit that wall early on. I've been spinning this yarn for a very long time. Over many many months, spanning a few years. Whenever i could squeeze in time, i was thinking about the novel. But then, life would intervene, and months would go by where i didnt think about it.

At any rate, i knew what i was going to write about and where i was supposed to go with it. My fall is that the characters arent behaving as predictably as i thought (the nerve!) and the plot is clicking as easily as it seemed.

But, today was a good day. i wrote 3 hours in the morning and about 2.5 hours in the evening. i am having a hard time juggling the rest of my life. i havent worked out. i dont have time to see or talk to people. i'm behind in my other commitments. well, at least i'm showering. i guess that counts for something.

i just didnt think it would take me so long to write. Well, again, i've been deleting words, so that's hurt my count somewhat.

NaNoWriMo 2010: Day 6

This day did not see much of a ground recovery from what was lost yesterday. In a word, i am behind. It's not helping matters that i have been deleting stuff that i know won't work in the long run. I realized too late that i'm not supposed to delete the nonsense. it's all good in this crazy month. It's not about quality, it's about quantity. Quality comes next month.

Lesson learned. I just hope i can still catch up.

NaNoWriMo 2010: Day 5

And so Day 5 of this jaunt was basically a sick day. My stomach issues have been flaring up, and then we had this Dhow ride to go to, which basically ate up the whole afternoon and evening. When we got home, i had to take the herbal remedy, which literally took me 3 hours to get down.

Anyway, that was November 5. I'm sorry i didnt get to writing. I have to make it up along with the 5 days of Eid that are coming up. I'm still deciding how to approach that. Make up 1 day on November 6 and recalculate my daily quota to make up the 5 days while i'm away? I might do that.

For now, onwards.

NaNoWriMo 2010: Day 4

I met the quota today, just barely. I'm struggling with a scene. I can't move forward when i know the scene before it fizzled. Oh, I just realized what i need. i need to remember what the goal of the scene is.

I'm tired--had a long day. I'm drinking an herbal remedy for some stomach issues, and it took me a long time to drink the 3 different teas. And i have to do it twice a day, God help us.

I just wanted to drop a quick note about my progress because when i look back on this, i want to remember what happened on day 4. Today, the scene lost momentum, and at least now i know why.

NaNoWriMo 2010: Day 3

I feel better about today. Because of the plotting i did before the month started, i was able to get ahead today and meet my quota quickly. This freed up some time, and i decided to go fix some of the things that weren't working for me in what i wrote so far.

i know what you're thinking, i'm not supposed to edit. i wouldnt consider what i did today editing. Over the course of the first few days, i found myself trying to move way too fast over the plot. i wasnt able to savor the scenes, and i was losing touch with the main character. So i went back basically to reconnect with the main character. For me, i feel the beginnings matter. They set the tone for the rest of the story. I cant make the argument for the main character when i dont believe in him or her, and i'm just going through the motions of putting words in my character's mouth so that i can meet my quota. This is definitely not what i want to achieve in this month--a mouth full of empty words.

On a side note, blogger gave me a huge headache today. I spent a lot of time checking out the "new templates" and wound up losing a lot my formatting and links. How utterly aggravating. Ok, i get you're a free service, but a little user-friendliness might go further in not having me convert to wordpress.

NaNoWriMo 2010: Day 2

I'm here again, with virtually the same dilemma, except i'm even later than yesterday. It's 5:31pm, and i have about 1000 words left to go. What's the hold up you ask? Well, didn't you know i just had to bake a chocolate cake today, and make rice porridge, and peppered steak sans the peppers. This from the woman who can count on one hand how many times she's cooked in the last two years.

i actually like cooking. Love it, to be exact. But, i havent had the time or energy to do it justice in a long long while. Then comes NaNoWriMo and suddenly i hear the call of the kitchen beckoning, enticing me away from my duties.

So, here i am. i've cooked and baked. I still need to make chocolate frosting, but that's for later. i should also eat dinner, but that's reserved for those who finish their daily writing quota.

Tomorrow, i think i should actually venture out and find a cafe or some sort of writing nook. There's a fabulous library in the south suburbs of chicago that i just love to go to. But alas, we are oceans apart. I need to find a quick and easy substitute here in doha, but i dont want to spend too much time looking for a place to write instead of just writing, as i am now...talking about writing but not really writing. Julia Cameron would call this living in my shadow.

And so now, i shall venure forth, back into my WIP.

oh, btw, the League of Extraordinary Comedians was very good. I haven't laughed so well and hard in a long time, and so, it was well worth the late night.