This is first chance I had in weeks to put up a new entry, as I have been so busy. I been trying to keep to the 2,000 word a day, but work kept coming up. Great for my wallet, not so great for the novel. I would set aside a day to do a whole day’s writing and then a I get a job offer. Driving jobs, extra hours at work and an editing job - I couldn’t well so no to them.

The last couple of months I had plenty of spare time and not a hint of work. As soon as I start writing, jobs come out of the woodwork. Work begets work. Though try to pretend that you are working and it never works. You can’t cheat it.

So this week I had to say no to work and put the novel first. On Sunday, I was under the 30,000 word mark. I decided there and then to up the amount of words I wrote each day. It has worked out really well. My current word count is 42,360 words. I been able to write 13,000 words in 4 days. This means I am in good shape to reach the 50,000 word mark by next Monday.

But the 30th will not mean the end of the novel. The novel is going to longer than 50,000 words. I am starting to head towards the finale. The main characters heading towards the final confrontation, and it will take more than 8,000 words to tell this part of the story. I plan to keep on writing until I finish the novel, no matter the length.

Just to let you know that my fellow NANOREMO, Rob, has finished his novel today. You can read

about it at http://excusesandhalftruths.com/2009/11/26/a-quiet-moment-to-contemplate-victory/

Another thing that happened last week was that I receiving emails from other members of NANOWRIMO. In these emails contained pep talks for those who were having difficulties with writing their novel. Personally, I wasn’t having any problem with characters or plots, it was finding the time to write. I could see how these emails could help those that hadn’t been involved with storytelling before. I have listed one of them below:

Okay, NaNoWriMo folks, let me guess.

Right now a lot of you are doing the same thing I'm doing, staring at this piece of screen in order to put off actually writing, because at this moment in time the writing is decidedly starting to suck. You are stuck; worse, you're bored. You're thinking you were bounced repeatedly on your head when you were small and easy to bounce. You're thinking you have no talent.

So am I. The chief difference between us, probably, is that I've been at this for a long time and I know where to go for help. I know I can throw in a new character and get more content from the way the old ones react to the new one. Who becomes friends; who becomes rivals? Who's lousy with babies when the newcomer is a baby? Who can't deal with people who live a non-standard lifestyle?

Have something happen: the power goes out; there's a car accident; there's a flood; there's a war; there's an epidemic. All kinds of new problems and new heroes arise, often the last people you expected to be heroic. Set characters in motion, even if it's just to higher ground. You learn something, you can tell us something, by how people deal with with something that requires them to assemble themselves and move from their comfort zone.

Talk it out with someone you trust, someone who shares your tastes. You may not like their ideas, but something they say may spark the idea that will work for you.

Go for a walk. Watch a TV show. Have a nice cup of something soothing. Then throw any old thing at the page. Don't worry if it's any good or not. Don't back up and cut. Don't rewrite. Just throw whatever comes to mind at the page. The idea is to finish, remember? You have a whole different month for that.  ;-)

These times are a colossal pain, there is no denying it. In desperation, I will time my breaks. Twenty minutes to read, and I'm back to the desk, to turn out a page, or two. Another twenty minutes break, then back for that page or two. Sooner or later my characters will get out of the wagon or off the ship, and they'll start doing things again.

Just keep after it. Think of how proud of yourselves you'll be once you have that novel-length manuscript in your hand! There is nothing like it, nothing like knowing you have finished something of that length.

Go for it!

Tammy

As I said it’s good advice for those who are struggling. Here’s a link another pep talk by Neil Gaiman - http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node%252F1065561

If those don’t work, then remember what my friend told me the other day, “Don’t worry. Every first draft is shit!”