NaNoWriMo and Digital Vacation Recap (Week 2)

Here’s what the founder of NaNoWriMo has to say about week two in No Plot? No Problem! :

Welcome to Week Two. If you brought a poncho, now would be a good time to get it out. The storm will likely break in three or four days, exactly at the point when the novelty of the event starts to fade, and your book starts getting more demanding. Cue thunder. Cue Lightning. And cue some big time writerly grumpiness.

I’m glad he scared me beforehand, so that I would take it seriously. Here’s the shakedown.

Related post: Digital Re-Tox Re-Cap Week One

Week 2: NaNoWriMo Word Goal Results

Results:

• Read 1 book per week: I was successful and finished Treed by Winnipeg author Ariel Gordon. I had already started it, though, so have also been reading Water for Elephants.
  • Fun fact: Water for Elephants was written by Sara Gruen, who wrote the first draft during NaNoWriMo!
• Internet control: Stayed off the internet until 12:00 pm 3 out of 5 weekdays in Week Two. Not bad.
• Book Word Count: Today, I’ve hit 17 610 words in my book! It’s funny that in two weeks I went from “I’m going to write 20 000 words of short stories in a month, plus other stuff” to “let’s write a whole danged book of 50 000!”
• Total writing goal: Nailed it! 26 162 words out of 25 005 (goal). This includes blog posts, freelance work, speeches, podcast episode ideas and other web copy.

Reflections:

• I’ve also started to notice that with the fiction writing, it is MUCH easier to do a little every day rather than take a day off, since time off means that you forget about your characters and what’s going on. It’s like seeing a friend regularly versus every second month- a lot of the time ends up being ‘catch up’ rather than moving forward.
• A list of what I love about my favourite fiction books sits beside my desk so that if I’m stuck, I can choose an element to throw into the story.
• “Time snatching” has become a thing. If I have a spare 15 minutes, I’ll race down to the computer to write in a quick burst. It has the added benefit of giving my shoulders a rest since they’re getting sore from typing!
• I don’t miss social media, hardly think of it at all.

Other changes: I came up with rewards!

• In my original post, I couldn’t think of any rewards or ways to celebrate. But I’ve got them now!
  • To celebrate 15 days straight of writing AND meeting my word count goal so far, I’m registering in a weekend writing course for editing fiction. I know you think my first drafts are always impeccable and perfect and flawless. However, if I do write a 50 000 word book it will need some serious editing!
  • We’re going to Elkhorn Resort in Riding Mountain for 5 days after the month is over! We were going to do that anyway, but I’m doubling it up as my own celebration of awesomeness.