When I did my JulNoWriMo, I spent about a month writing notes on story and character, making sure I had enough material for a solid novel and that I knew where I was going with it. That bit of preparation enabled me to hit my daily goals easily, because I never got stuck or had to think too hard about what was next. I was able to just focus on writing the chapter in front of me, as I already had the basics worked out on paper. If nothing else, planning can help you avoid an unexpected block halfway through!
Hmm... I should start to think about this if I am going to start. Probably something sort of auto-biographical would be a good place to start. Y'know, 'write what you know'. Which means I am looking at writing something in the vein of 50/50 (the movie).
All right, we're getting closer. Let's try and keep track of stats in this thread. Every time you post, assuming you don't necessarily post every day, tell us your word count and something interesting that happened in your story (and leave it out of context...it'll be more fun!).
Off to 2073 words, day one, for my first update--- and I think I'll try and push some more before I head to sleep. Add me to your writing buddies list! http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/danieljporter --Danny
I was a lot more exhausted last night than I thought I would be, so I only managed to get 511 words before I passed out. I'm gonna try and do 2000 words today so that I can get ahead.
I've done it the last 2 years, but for some reason this year the prospect hold no joy for me so I'll skip a this year. Good luck to all this year's participants.
This is my first year attempting to participate, but I am up to 4,000 words or so. The site keeps crashing on me.
It'll do that for the first few days. There is always a tremendous amount of traffic, and it's always more than they plan for.
Phew, day three. Just kicked out 1000 words this morning and I am up to.... 5402. I know they say you shouldn't edit, but I've found myself reading and editing and adding quite a bit every time I finish a block of writing. I'm really, really enjoying it so far. Having the outline has helped, though I've strayed from it a little bit as the story evolves. It's also been helping using my Neo Alphasmart for all of my writing-- I break myself from the internet and only allow myself my phone to look something up for the story (basically to avoid the distractions of say, TrekBBS, Facebook, Gmail, Skype, and a slew of news sites I check compulsively). How is everyone holding up here on day three! . My goal is to be up to 7000 in the next 12 hours.
Oh, that is so cool! I somehow looked over that in the forum. I got one that's Selene (Underworld) themed for this year. I love using these things. I really like it when it estimates when I'll hit 50k. I'm on day 2 and I've got 4649 done.