5 Days Left!

        

       I have learned so much about myself and about the job that writing is in these last twenty five days of NaNoWriMo2014. I can honestly say that I underestimated the undertaking, I let my mind convince me that once I was behind I would never be able to catch up, and that the whole endeavor was inconsequential.

Three plus weeks of the obligation of writing has been exhausting. Even when the story seems to be there my motivation to put it on paper isn’t. Mid last week I let the numbers game take over and I felt so defeated seeing how far behind my word count was that I thought I should just give it up now and give it a shot next year.

But then I realized that some momentum is still left to find in the story and six days is a lot of time. Is it ideal to try and write around 30,000 words in five days? Absolutely not, but in the spirit of all that NaNo is, the words don’t have to be polished and runway ready, they just have to be written.

Will I reach that magical 50,000 number? I don’t know. But I do know that I will tackle these last 5 days with intensity and vigor to put in a respectable showing. No matter what that number at the bottom of the screen shows on the 30th, this experience has been so beneficial and I look forward to recapping and summarizing it all. I am all ready a more knowledgeable and appreciative writer. I take back all the times I cursed the author of a series book that I was hotly anticipating when they pushed back their release date....I am truly sorry, I understand now! You can take all the time you need, I will still be waiting (Samantha Shannon, I'm talking to you).

Okay, I need to walk away from these words and put down some more where they should be. Check back later for more updates or more picture of Benedict Cumberbatch...you can never have too many of those.

Write on. -T

Damn you NaNo!

Who thought this project was a good idea?! I mean writing 1,667 words a day is insane! 

Okay, it's no one's fault but my own that I've gotten so far behind but I still am going to exercise my right to be a prat. Between overwhelming stresses at work, needing to blow off the steam on weekends and having had a mini vacation thrown in I am well off my word count goals as we pass the halfway mark on the month. 

My plan to make up words a little each day to make up for the shortage was a good one but I didn’t follow through on it. I was writing everyday but I wasn’t even hitting the daily 1,667 minimum so I was continuing to dig my hole deeper when I really needed to be climbing back out.

The easy answer is that I am getting distracted and am not writing but the true answer is that I am not believing in my story and myself doubt is making me believe it's not any good so I am not wanting to work on it. I'm not sure if my lack of planning worked against me here or if the idea has just run its course.

I feel encouraged today though because a unexpected plot twist seemed to crop up which will give me some momentum. If I can ride the wave and build the second half of the story around it then I may just yet hit the 50k goal come the 31st. 

I need to keep my mind focused on this month as a beneficial writing exercise and a task in persistence and consistency. Outwardly I told myself that I wouldn’t write a Pulitzer prize winner in the month but my writers ego still hoped I would. Now eighteen days in the realization hits my pride and lets me know clearly this isn’t going to be anything special but it will be...

• Beneficial
• A learning experience
• Great practice
• Developing discipline
• Making me better

That is what these last thirteen days will be about; accomplishing a goal, not giving up, and continuing to try and leave me doubts behind. This will not be the best thing I write, nor will it be the last.

On a happy note, this is a picture of Benedict Cumberbatch which always makes things better. Enjoy.

-Write On -T

The Inevitable Fall Behind

Oh, to be in love. The very welcome visit of my Military boyfriend turned out to be a welcome distraction from work, stress, and (I'm a little ashamed to say) NaNo.

The long weekend celebrating our one year anniversary was packed with trips to the beach, bookstores, frozen yogurt, mini golfing and lots of naps. With him being active duty and based in Colorado our time apart unfortunately far outweighs our time together but we have managed to form a bond that transcends the distance. I am happy to say that we are at the final countdown to the end of the long distance relationship. 

Even with all of the activities going on I did manage to write something almost every day but even the days I did write I did not meet my word counts. Despite him asking me each of those days 'did you get your words done?' I managed to be too distracted. It didn’t help that his visit coincided with, what most NaNo writers claim is, the hardest week.

If we were constantly together I don’t think the words would have suffered because the overwhelming novelty wouldn’t be there and we'd be living a much more routine life but seeing as it was basically a vacation for both of us we threw routine to the wind and just enjoyed our days.

Now I am in crunch mood trying to regain some ground. I am not going into it thinking I have to get make up all the words in a day but I certainly do need to break the required amount by a hefty margin over the course of a few to reach the 50K mark at the end of the month.

Twelve days in NaNoWriMo2014 has proven to be a formidable beast but I am determined to keep trying and to come out with at least 50,000 words as evidence of my persistence.

Wish me luck and stay tuned for updates.

Write on. -T

On·o·mat·o·poe·ia

Five days into NaNoWriMo2014 and oddly enough one of the things I am finding most challenging is putting the sounds in my head onto the page. Without giving too much of it away, my story is largely based on a character who cannot speak in a way that we humans can understand. 

As I am playing the story out in my head I am making certain noises and expressions that I cannot figure out how to put on the page. When I was a kid I thought words like onomatopoeia sounded dirty and where funny to say but it turns out that this word and its definition will either make or break the story I am writing. 

onomatopoeia

1. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) the formation of words whose sound is imitative of the sound of the noise or action designated, such as hiss, buzz, and bang

2. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) the use of such words for poetic or rhetorical effect

Think about it; just take a second to be cognizant of all the ways you express emotion through sounds.  Everyone does this so differently that you can't really put it into words. But there are some universally recognized words in literature that express sound. Take an easy one, 'Pow'. You get a mental image or can easily associate that sound to some context. But what about something like the word sigh? Short from writing 'Sally sighed' it is difficult to express the noise of something sighing. And I've found in the case of onomatopoeia, subtext is king. You have to be able to describe the situation in appropriate detail to make those words work as you want them to.

Sounds and body language can be just as powerful as words but in the writers world those things have to be expressed with words. I've had to search for terms to use as I write for this character and I have found that the alphabetic combinations are not doing my mental sounds justice.

It falls back on me, the writer, to creatively and thoroughly describe scenes, contexts, and background for the limited options of onomatopoeia to make sense and create the impact that I want them to. This was a unique challenge I didn’t see coming but I know the practice under the insane expectations of NaNoWriMo will serve me well in other works later on.

26 days to go! 

Write on -T

3 Down, 28 to Go.

November 3rd all ready. It really is crazy how fast time can go. Three days into the month and three days in NaNoWriMo2014. It has all ready proven to be an interesting undertaking.

In the first three days I have managed to meet my word count goal without a whole lot of difficulty but I can all ready tell my story needs some serious direction.

I went into the month with very little planning which is actually okay for something like this. You are trying to be a word generator and anything that needs too much focus or pre planning will lead to your words stalling. With that said however I came in with an insanely minimalist idea. I had one main character and my supporting character and a general couple of words to guide me in writing what should happen to them.

This approach has left me almost too wide open with my plot. I like having options but at the same time having no guideposts is letting me flounder. My story is going in and out of focus but I have enough of an anchor to keep it coming back to where it started.

Also within three days I have all ready altered my perspective toward this experiment. I am not hoping to have a substantial draft by the end of the month but I am more concerned about the exercise in writing that the month can prove to be. Getting used to putting words on paper everyday is a hugely beneficial skill as is letting my inner critic die so I can get text on the page will serve me well later in my career.

The month should be about learning to let your inspiration flow and remembering that sometimes it leads to better results than others. Everything is a learning experience and I am enrolled in the intensive 31 day course that is NaNoWriMo.

Write On!