We’re already on Day 2. That’s scary, but at least there’s only 28 days left (after today!).
Yesterday I decided I was going to do 800 words before I made dinner, then another 800 after. I got 900 before with a little help from Em (from LovestoReadWantsToWrite) and Lauren Garafalo who were just starting an hour-long sprint when I got home. I didn’t make the whole hour with them, because I hit the 900 mark earlier (yay) and was hungry.
After dinner and a bit of TV (The Food Hospital – not pure entertainment, some useful things there!) and then the washing up, I tried for the other 700, and only made 300 odd. I was a little upset about that, but decided I needed sleep more than to write more words – and I was already 500 ish over the daily goal.
Today I’ve not made a plan yet. Boyfriend is out tonight so I’ve the house to myself. I might do the same as yesterday and set a goal for before dinner, then one for after. I think that’s a good idea. I’d like to stay well above the goal, so maybe 2k total tonight? Maybe more.
Lauren (above) is setting herself a 2k goal daily so she can then take a day off a week, and also Thanksgiving. I’m in the UK so no Thanksgiving for me, but I do have a boyfriend who has (rather selfishly) a 30th Birthday on 26th. I think he’s got family down from up North and the Midlands for the whole weekend soI’m probably not going to get stuff done then. I really need to stay ahead because of that, and that’s not even considering the days where I won’t be able to get any – or as many as I need to – done.
I do have a huge fear that I’m not going to be able to keep up the memento of being ahead. The first scene was already written in my head, so pretty easy. Nothing else is (well 2 are, but only bits of those) so going to take more time and effort. I’m not the only one that has this fear – Fallon Brown said exactly the same in her blog today – it can’t be a crazy irrational fear if we’re both feeling it! Lets just hope we can keep it up.
This weekend I’m going to set myself a crazy word goal. I haven’t decided what it is, but I know I can write 7k in one day (NaNo 2009) so may be something around that. Probably not as many as that, but getting that way. Eek!
I’m laptop-less because of mine breaking so I can’t go to any write-ins at the moment. Gutted! I think I’m going to be able to talk boyfriend into letting me borrow his, but it’s huge so I’m not going to want to carry that around too much. I could go and handwrite, but I get so much less done that way, and then need to type it up, so it almost seems like a waste of time. I’ll think of something this weekend so I can make a couple of write ins next week at least.
I’m cheekily still reading. I don’t like the idea of reading while doing NaNo because it scares me that what I read might influence my writing. This year I’m writing romance/chick-lit and currently reading a thriller so I think I’ll be ok there. I’m only reading on the tube in the morning and coming home, so as long as I can limit it to those times (no coming home and reading for me when I should be NaNo-ing) I’ll hopefully be fine. Hopefully!
How’s your NaNo going? If you’re not taking part, how’s ROW80? And if you’re not doing either – how’s everything else going?
newtowritinggirl.wordpress.com 
28 days! Wait, sorry. Flash back to that movie. hehe. Well, I guess everyone will be zombies at that point 😉 Make those crazy word count goals! You’ll be surprised how much you’ll be able to reach. Good luck!
Great job so far! I’m trying to use the first week’s momentum to push me ahead too, writing at lunch time (well 2pm-ish EST since I never get a lunch that is actually at the proper lunch time lol!) My worry is, I am going to get to the middle of my WIP and get stuck (that always happens and it drives me nuts!) But I think–and hope–that I did enough prep work this time–I hope. I guess we’ll see! 😀 Good luck the rest of the week!
You’re doing great – the laptop debackle is a little worrisome. How are you writing? Do you outline your scenes or pantser the story?
An approach that might be less stressful than the wordcount is scene count. If you write a scene a day then you will probably make the word count. I don’t know about your scenes but mine are usually 2K, so you can either write two or divide depending on what your normal writing style is?Just visualize the action or dialog of intro, same for the exit and what must happen in the middle.
It’s just an option.
~Kate
You are doing great – keep up the fabulous work. It’s going to be fantastic to see how many words you have at the end of the 28 days. Woot woot!
Well done on such a great start! I really enjoyed our hour long sprint (is an hour a sprint?!) and it did help me focus as. I am worried about keeping the momentum too and also that I am going to burn out because sleep has not been easy with a whirring brain!
I like the idea of write ins and will keep an eye out for ones near me. I am sure seeing others around me write with spurn me on!
Keep up the good work!
You are off to a great start and it is very cool that you are able to team up with Em & Lauren. The best advice I saw for NaNo is “just write” don’t worry about it being perfect just put the scene out there, right or wrong. Sometimes we just have to clear the garbage out of the way to find the gem lying underneath it.
Thanks for the information on the word sprints I’ll be looking into that tonight although I’d like to do them with ROW people, of course 🙂
Have a great week/weekend!
Fantastic start, my dear! Do get some rest — the words will flow much easier if you’ve had some sleep and aren’t feeling like a zombie. 😀