Nano Day #6

So, I see lots of you all climbing into the five-digit word counts, or getting close, which is totally awesome. But, if you're not, don't despair. All is not lost. Only day six of November is concluding. Not even the first week is over yet. If you've fallen behind, you can still catch up.

Firstly, make sure you've read 13 quick tips when you’re starting your novel at the Tumblog. Next, try some of these things:

• Try word sprints. Nano has an official Twitter for word sprints. Also, heck out TheWritersHelpers' Nano blog, because they hold word wars.
• Set smaller goals. If you're only making 200 words a day, try aiming for fifty words every half hour. Then take a half-hour break. Then come back. Sometimes the "end of the day" deadline gives us too much room to stretch out our legs. Setting several more smaller deadlines might help.
• Make sure you're not stuck. Sometimes writing becomes difficult when we haven't planned for what's coming. Simply planning out the next few steps often helps this problem.
• Do something active right before writing. Take a walk or a jog around the block, down the street, or get up and dance to What Does the Fox Say. Your brain activity increases, which is good for thinking.
• Write with a friend. Sometimes all we need for a morale boost is simply to have someone hold us accountable. Every half hour of writing, bug each other, whether through some sort of messaging or in person.

November still has many long days left, so don't panic!

How is everyone doing?

Nano Day #1

OKAY. So, it's the end of the first day. (I mean, it's not for us west coast folk, still got some time to go.) But, the day's concluding for our friends on the east coast. So, here are some troubles I've got glimpses of on the Tumblrsphere --

1. Help! Help! I'm barely into my story and it's horrendous! It feels horrendous because it's been a struggle, but the worst thing you can do at this point is to stop and go back to read. Keep going forward, don't look back, and don't rewrite!
2. I wrote way too much of [insert thing] into the beginning, what should I do? Nothing. Keep going forward, don't look back, and don't rewrite!
3. The day is practically over and I've barely written anything/nothing at all! Calm down. It's okay. Don't panic. The first few days are going to take some adjusting to, like stepping into cold water. At first, it stings, and it might be disorienting, but it doesn't mean you won't adjust. Let yourself adjust first.
4. I don't really know where my story's going, but it's not what I thought. The first draft is the first draft for a reason -- you're just starting to get to know your story. Some people have a pretty good idea of what they're going to write when they begin, some people write themselves into knowing what they're going to write. Some people even finish and go, "What the heck did I just write?" All of these forms of writing are totally legitimate.

 So, tell me, how did the first day go? What's your word count so far? Had any trouble? Tell me the thing.

Finishing Your To-Do List?

So, I got to read about your projects last week, which was super awesome. (Also, if haven't yet and you're still considering talking about your project, feel free to comment on last week's post anytime!) I saw some interesting fantasy-dystopian crossovers -- two of my favorite genres -- and lots of adventure and action and good stuff. I'm excited to see you all get some serious word counts down.

After today, there's only ten days left until November 1st. That's still plenty of time if you're still scrambling, but what do you have left to do? Are you still throwing plot points together? Researching? Gathering up all your favorite music for the best writing mood soundtracks? Doodling up characters?

I still have a bit to do, but I've made a whole lot of progress since last week. Here's my to-do list:

• Finish revisiting book 1 and finalizing all the things that need to be finalized there. (Hopefully I can get this done today.)
• Write the synop for book 3.
• Finish up the rest of the remaining 250 Words Smash intro critiques.
• Finish all the remaining asks in the ask box.
• Finish -- or at least get very close to -- the self-pub post series.
• Get the marketing things that I need to do accomplished.
• Revisit the outline draft and kick it in the face.

Whew, I think that's it. It actually helps to get all this out where I can see it. Organization? What's that??? But I'd definitely recommend making a list and prioritizing the bigger chores! It creates that feel-good moment when you get to cross things out like, "Oh yeah, I'm so awesome, I just accomplished something."

So what's left on your list?

So Maybe We Will Do Nano

Yesterday on the Tumblog, I asked everyone if they would be participating in Nanowrimo next month. Usually on KSW, the Nano months have been perfect times to get to know the writers who follow KSW, and it's also when I get to learn about everyone's projects. Even when followers change their names and icons, I can still be like, "Oh, you write THIS!"

Also, it's a time when I get to write alongside everyone else, which, for me, is when the whole writing help blog thing doesn't matter and we're all just writers together. The last Camp Nano I unofficially participated in helped me write over 90k of book three back in April, and I haven't plotted and written a full book since completing book three.

I mean, it's not for lack of wanting to write. In fact, I'm lusting so hard for writing book four that I'm ready to climb out of my skin.

But, ever since finishing book three, I've spent the past months revising, making covers, and marketing. All the self-pub stuff.

I will have to finish revising the novella this month (I should be working on that currently and am not, ehehehe), possibly another read-through of book one, and then the (hopefully) final revision of book three, which must be finished before December.

The lattermost can't happen until my betas finish reading, which is likely to happen in November. This means I'm totally going to have to both write and revise. My brain is unruly and difficult to divide between commitments, oh yes it is. I commend those who can, but alas.

I just ate dinner and I'm even hungrier than I was before eating. What's up with that?

Anyway, Nano is an awesome time for getting to know followers, but the blog has grown exponentially since even the most recent Camp Nano, and I can definitely see that in the comments. There's no way I can spend all the time I normally do copying+formatting everyone's progress responses to new posts. I had trouble last time -- I'd make it a full-time job if I did it now.

So, in short, I'll make posts here and encourage everyone to make comments here. Then I can reply, and keep replying, and I don't have to worry about losing track of things.

This'll be a test run and we'll see how it goes from here! (Maybe I can even elbow Victoria into making some posts or something. We'll see.)

So, KSW does Nano on the blog test phase 1. We'll see how it goes!

Let's start off things here. To begin, what's your project about?