Was I Supposed to Write a Novel This Month?

The hall monitor caught me goofing off in the teacher's lounge. Actually, it was at the vet's office where I had to take my diabetic cat because, to use the medical terminology, he is "out of whack." Blood sugar too high. If only my word count were as high as my cat's blood sugar.

Was I supposed to write a novel this month? Uh oh. I seem to have fallen off the wagon and landed in a puddle.

Lots of personal stuff this month, but isn't that true of everyone? Writing should have been an escape from that, but somehow that didn't happen. Instead, the farther I fell behind in my goals, the more desperate I became. The more I pressured myself, the less I could do. I've got five chapters written and I've stalled.

The good news is that while writing my chapters, I laughed. (And I also burned a couple thousand calories on the treadmill.)

I earned some gold stars but there are too many voids. The interesting thing is that pattern of gold stars. It tells me how I work -- and how I don't work. When I get gold stars, I get them every day. When I don't get them, a whole week can pass by. That means I either work every day -- or I don't work at all. That kind of self-truth is pretty ugly but what it says is don't lose momentum. Keep going!

I need to forgive myself for failing to meet my own expectations, let it go, and get back to writing. This little check-in is a good thing (thanks, Marianne), because it allows me to adjust my goals.

What's done (or undone) is undone. But there is tomorrow to do more and to bring fresh hope to my book. So, my goal for the rest of the month (actually, I'll have to stop January 30) is to write 18,000 words.

Did I just write that? Can I erase it? Too many zeroes in that number.

Here I go again -- starting to back down. But, oh yes I can do it. I grant myself a fresh start. And a fresh big fat number. All I have to do is Write Every Day.

Anne AKA smellshorsey, who appears to have give up but has not.

Write or Die

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lab.drwicked.com

I earned my gold stars with two visits to Dr. Wicked, one while on the treadmill, where I'm writing this though I think I'm about to make myself seasick because I sway from side to side when I walk (I'm not going to call it a waddle but that word comes to mind). Can't say much for the quality of anything but I wrote nearly 2,000 words today -- the first day I've almost achieved my word count goal this month. Kind of sad but overall I'm glad. Will keep going.

If you haven't tried "Write or Die," you might like it. You put in your word goal and your time goal then press "write." Anytime you pause the screen starts turning pink, then will get red, then will play obnoxious noises. Today's noise was a crying baby. You can also set it to kamikaze where it erases your words one by when while you pause, but I'm not that stupid. I've found it's a really good tool when I need to be forced to write.

Now, if only I could figure out how to get off this treadmill..... Burned 156 calories. There. It's off. That felt good and will continue to feel good unless I make the mistake of reading my work.

Looking forward to reading about everyone's success and strategies.

Would anyone like to do a Vanessa Grant Writing Romance book work group after JaNo? I like hanging out with y'all and would like to continue after January.

Anne AKA smellshorsey

Honesty Calendar

I am really six-years-old. I will do anything for a gold star. The more stars, the better.

I'm not motivated by public humiliation, the joy of writing, the excitement of finishing a project or even ice cream (since I was going to have some anyway). But -- a gold star. Now you're talking.

My friend Joan reminded me of Honesty Calendars mentioned in Vanessa Grant's Writing Romance book. These are calendars where you keep track of your real progress. Right there, in front of your eyes. It's either encouraging or guilt-inducing. I set the bar quite low so that it's encouraging unless I do absolutely nothing, and then I should feel guilty.

For 2009, I have two Honesty Calendars. One is on my desk for writing paragraphs or pages in my novel, the other is on my wall next to my treadmill for days I walked. I can't stand to see too many blank squares. Today was going to be a blank square on my writing Honesty Calendar. I couldn't stand it.

So I wrote. Not much. But I wrote. I got a gold sticker.

If I keep it up, maybe I'll get a whole novel.

And the best part is, that little piece of writing seems to have brought my excitement and confidence back. Now I'm all set to earn my gold star for tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow I'll even write several chapters.

But the important thing is that I get my gold star.

new strategies

I'm trying something new--or rather doing something I used to do but stopped doing--this month as I write up my JaNo project. I'm writing each day's "new words" by hand, instead of on the computer, then the first thing I do the following day is type in the previous day's submission. The biggest reason I'm doing this is since I'm a freelance writer I've become addicted to using the Word Recount button--have it firmly available in the middle of my toolbar. This is important when I'm doing articles, so I don't spend more time "editing down" than I did "writing up" the article to begin with; but I've found I get a little too fond now of hitting that button to see "where I am" at the moment.

I used to write every first draft by hand, but changed that tactic as deadlines became more frequent, and writing on the computer became more comfortable. Even as I changed over, I knew I was missing the potential for having that quick edit when I moved my words from pen to keyboard. But I never realized what an addict I was to the Recount key until recently.

This fall, I was watching a morning program while procrastinating on an assignment and checking email instead, and the talking female head (don't remember which on it was) mentioned that during the continuous stock market dive she was continually checking the stock tickers and making herself more and more depressed as the day went on. While I don't get depressed by checking my word count (well, not enough to be concerned about), her words made me realize I was spending time stopping myself from being productive whenever I hit that dastardly little button. Worse, if I was near my daily goal, I would mentally start letting myself "shut down for the day."

Writing by hand also keeps me away from the possibility of checking email--or finding new reasons to research while I write (and become addicted to reading new sites that shift me over to other sites that let me click to other sites, and so on).

While I've always edited by hand (I just don't notice things on the screen that I should, and find things--especially repetitive words and phrases--jump out at me when I read them on paper), I'm finding this low-tech re-habit is kind of comforting right now.

That's not to say I'm writing any better. I've found that as I reread what I've written the day before, as I type, I tend to ax much more than I do when I'm just re-reading a previous day's work on the screen. Guess my fingers don't want to bother typing what I know will go anyway. And while I'm "writing" my 2000 word goal each day, I'm actually typing and keeping something between 500 to 1000. But that's okay. The editing I do now won't have to be done later. And I'm not throwing away these handwritten pages until the project is completed, so if I find I absolutely must have something I didn't give enough credit to during the first readthrough, it will still be accessible--if harder to find.

Best of all, doing the retyping the next day gives another deadline to keep me from straying off track. If I allow myself to only read the previous day's work while I'm typing, I'm not tempted to waste the morning rereading and editing a whole chapter.

It's only day 4, so I don't know if this new habit will be the best thing that ever happened to my fiction; but since my nonfiction has "deadlines", and my fiction has only "wantlines," if I don't find ways to make it have some kind of priority in my day, I just work on assignments instead.

Anyway, that's my life at the moment. Now I'll go back to reading about all of your more interesting lives. Love seeing all the collages, BTW.