Welcome to March 10th! Glad you’re still here :)
The past five days have definitely had their share of highs and lows for us all.
1.
packsister:
Still coming in strong at first place, packsister has been an inspiration. Last time we checked in, she’d written 3,316 words in a mere four days for her werewolf novel. Let’s see how she’s doing now:
Tally:
Previous Total WC: 3,316.
March…
5th: Tougher-than-NaNo @ 2,350 words.
6th: Check-in @ 358 words.
7th: Update @ 1,094 words.
8th: Check-in @ 655 words.
9th: Check-in @ 459 words.
Total so far: 8,232!
That’s an average of 915 words per day!
She’s doing an amiable job, to say the least. Her motivation is obvious. In fact, she has enough motivation for all of us—She’s been great at cheering RG and I on over the past nine days.
Highs:
On March 7th, she wrote one of her best scenes so far. Also, she wrote the first ‘Tougher-than-NaNo’ on the 5th!
Lows:
In her March 9th post, she gave a very understandable heartfelt account about how this isn’t how she usually works. At this point, she’s thinking about dropping out. I truly hope she decides to stay.
2.
RG Sanders:
He’s finally shared some juicy details on And the Stars Ran Red. The premise sounds quite intriguing. A blurb can be found here. Let’s see how he’s doing in NPI:
Tally:
Previous Total WC: 2,209.
5th: Update @ 1,366 words.
6th: Check-in @ 656 words.
7th: Check-in @ 314 words.
8th: Check-in @ 832 words.
9th: Check-in @ 704 words.
Total so far: 6,081!
Avg: 676 words/day!
Actually, he’s not far behind packsister. I bet he’ll have the first draft of And the Stars Ran Red sitting in his lap before he knows it, ready for that dreaded First Revision. :)
Highs:
Several times in the past five days, he’s had epiphanies about scenes which made the rest of the story click in place. Don’t you love it when that happens?
Lows:
Well, actually, he’s been in good spirits lately. ;D Even on the 7th, where his heart wasn’t totally into NPI, it was into his family instead. And he still got a great start into a previously tough-to-approach scene. *salutes*
3.
Nick Enlowe:
Five Rings is chugging along. Despite a few dire mishaps this week.
Previous Total WC: 1,653.
5th: Update @ 1,275 words.
6th: Check-in @ 270 words.
7th: Check-in @ 384 words.
8th: Check-in @ 427 words.
9th: Check-in @ 829 words.
Total so far: 4,838!
Avg: 538 words/day!
Okay, I’m anything but consistent. Wait, I AM consistent! We all are. We’ve been writing every day!
But I’m not fooling myself into thinking I can keep up with RG and packsister’s break-neck paces at this point.
I feel pretty comfortable with what I’ve been producing, and equally comfortable with my stopping points.
Working with the middle of Five Rings has been a struggle. NPI is helping me break through that middle. I find myself having to constantly recheck my files and plotlines to make sure I’m staying consistent, but I’m getting through it.
Highs:
March 5th and 9th really flowed for me. The scenes were easy to write because I had them firmly in mind. And I wasn’t sick/etc (see Lows).
Lows:
My laptop died and I got the 48-hour flu, back-to-back! I think that triggered a temporary depression.
Thanks everybody for cheering me up :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<soapbox>
Well, I know I’ve had a few days where I just didn’t feel like writing at all. But somehow, we all managed to pull through.
I didn’t want this to be a word count competition. But, of course, it turned into a ‘friendly’ word count competition.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think we’re starting to see some of the adverse side-effects.
Maybe we should remind ourselves why we’re doing this in the first place…
So, why are we doing NPI?
Personally, I want to know if I can manage to add words to my novel every single day. I can think of four reasons why right now, but I’m sure there’s many more.
-One, I’ve never written every day for a period greater than two weeks.
-Two, I frequently experience large writing droughts where I over-think and research too much and don’t actually write at all.
-Three, I’d like to know if I’ll be able to handle NaNoWriMo later on in the year (keeping in mind NaNo is mostly freewriting, and we’re expected to produce ‘crap’.).
-And four, I’ve been following the blogs of several professional authors. Most seem to agree that once you’re in the ‘biz, you write. Every single day. No pussyfooting around it. Some writers, like Brandon Sanderson, write quality work a full eight hours per day, every single day. He has to, in order to keep up with the pace of his contracts.
Patrick Rothfuss has written 60,000 words for The Wise Man’s Fear in the last six weeks. What have I written in the past year? A third of that. And a few short stories. *sigh*
I realize they’ve been writing for a lot longer than I have, and that they are already recognized, and writing is their job and lively hood.
But this is me going to the next level. I may not be ready to start hammering out 1,000 words a day, yet. And I’m not even sure if I’m going to carry on writing every day after March 31st. But one day, I plan to take that step as well.
Before I can get there, I want to see if I can write everyday for a month. If I can’t even handle 250 words a day for a measly 31 days, I seriously need to do something else; like hire a pro-wrestler to drop-kick me in the head every time I take my fingers off the keyboard.
I’ll leave you with this:
If I keep up my current pace, I’ll end up with 16,678 words on March 31st.
RG: 20,956 words.
packsister: 28,365 words.
This is an endurance race; it doesn’t matter who crosses the finish line first.
On March 31st, I hope to see both of you there at the finish line, where hugs will be given, cake shall be eaten, and wine shall be drunk.
If I should fail, remember to save me a piece of yummy cake. :9
It’s already been a wonderful journey; thanks so much for taking it with me.
</soapbox>
Anyways, you’re the one who organised us under the flag of your initiative, I’m really glad to be doing this with you guys!
About me quitting, though… I’ve been working in my mind all day on a scene. It’s been a really interesting day because of it. Try listening to the professor in the uni when you have death screams in your ears, and walk home in the crowd when in your mind a crowd of people burns a girl on a stake and kills a boy with a pitchfork. I love days like that, I love this part of being a writer so much! When I sat down to write, however, I picked a different scene. The pitchfork one isn’t finished yet. And as I wrote it, my character only managed to trip over his feet, drop some papers and catch them, all the while checking out a girl. That was worth about 300 odd words and when I counted them, I thought: what, that’s it? Already? It felt like nothing. But then again, I wrote my share today and it didn’t get into my way of working out a magnivicent scene in my mind. This way I might actually keep going.
And sorry, some pertering. Heh.
[Reply]
Comment by packsister — March 10, 2009 @ 3:08 pm
Thanks, just for that alone guys.
[Reply]
Comment by RG Sanders — March 10, 2009 @ 3:15 pm
@packsister: I’m so glad you found a way to still make this work for you ^__^. You’ve been a blessing to have around during this endeavor.
“If you count exactly, 60,000 words in six weeks are 1400 words a day. And you have already seen each of us do that at least once. It’s not that hard.”
Unless I’m really inspired or completely making stuff up (like blogging, freewriting, or making up fairy tales), I can’t easily write more than 1000 words in one session. Sitting there trying to get to word one-thousand feels like a chore.
And to do that every day for six weeks? Humm… I wonder if I have it in me to do that? Am I a writer of a different kind? I wonder. I don’t want to end up being one of those authors that promises a book in two years and here it is three years later with no sign of the end. Eep!
@RG Sanders: I’m so glad you’re getting so much out of this. I’m really enjoying it too. I get excited each day that I sit down to write more.
~~~~~
Thanks, you two. I don’t know if I would have made it this far without you.
Now, I’d better get back to writing my daily quota or I won’t make it past day 10! ^__^;
[Reply]
Comment by Nick Enlowe — March 10, 2009 @ 3:53 pm
[Reply]
Comment by christopher. — March 10, 2009 @ 5:43 pm
I do admire what you’re doing, but I think there’s danger in these kinds of writing exercises sometimes. Competition can arise or forced writing or too much focus on the exercise and less on the actual quality of writing. Of course you can edit afterward, but these sort of exercises stress me out a bit. It seems a bit unnatural in a way.
At the same time, as I said, I admire your tenacity, your determination to keep on. Just don’t lose site of what you’re writing in the calculation of words and days and time and so on…!
[Reply]
Comment by steph — March 10, 2009 @ 7:28 pm
@ Steph, I understand that concern, but I don’t think any one of us would still be chatting and ‘bigging’ up one-another if it really was evilly-competitive. I, for one, am keeping my quality and going as usual. If it feels forced, I don’t get past 400 words, but it takes me that far to determine if it’s not working.
[Reply]
Comment by RG Sanders — March 10, 2009 @ 9:49 pm
Like RG Sanders, I’ve also been writing scenes in order during NPI. Maybe because it’s giving me the sense of progression I need right now.
@OS: I have this tendency to wear my heart on my sleeve around here every once in a while, don’t I? ;)
I totally agree with what you’re saying; There’s definitely a danger inherent with these contests.
BUT!! Maybe what I posted was a bit of an over-reaction to packsister’s post a few days ago. Now I’m thinking my worries were a bit unfounded; everybody seems to be getting along great and enjoying NPI for what it is. Packsister’s latest posts and the comments here have all been reassuring, and I think we’ll all make it to the end—happier, wiser, and better writers for it.
[Reply]
Comment by Nick Enlowe — March 11, 2009 @ 11:37 am