NaNoWriMo: Well, I’m behind, but not by much. I’m probably going to fall further behind though, since I need to make some baby hats for my new cousin before I see her this weekend. But I am determined to keep up as well as I can!

Holly Lisle lessons: Trying to keep up. I think I accidentally skipped a lesson. I’ll have to go back and do that.

Other: Fellow ROW80 participants and campaigners, I plan on going around and reading your blog posts and leaving comments and stuff. I just…yeah, you know I’m busy. I’ll get to it, I promise!

Now let’s keep writing!

I finished my outline a few hours before NaNoWriMo started. Isn’t it pretty? (The colors don’t mean anything, except that Giant was out of white 3×5′s.)

Then my friend and I had our annual launch party. We started writing at midnight on the dot – although neither of us lasted for longer than half an hour. We’ve gotten so old!

I didn’t make the daily goal the first night (thanks class and commute), but I should be able to make up for it tonight.

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you probably already saw my love note to Scrivener:

“Finished first scene of NaNo last night. It’s honest to goodness awful. Not at all what I had in my head. But thanks to Scrivener, I can put how I want to fix it in the “document notes” section of each scene. Scrivener, I love you, and I might just want to have your babies”

Before Scrivener, I would have had to open up my Word doc reserved for the novel’s notes and describe the scene so I could (hopefully) find it again. Now it’s all in one place, and I know exactly what my notes refer to! Thank you Scrivener!

Apologies everyone. I’ve been sick for the past week and a half. Didn’t help that I had a final and a midterm, but what are you going to do?

I’m almost done my outline – and just in time too! So glad to be getting the muddle of the middle out of the way now. I’d much rather have a game plan – even if it does end up changing.

I think I’ll start NaNo tonight, though I don’t expect to finish the first day’s goal before I go to sleep. I just want to start writing!

Speaking of NaNo, I’ve added the badge and a progress bar on the left sidebar. If you click the badge, it’ll take you to my author page, and you can add me as a writing buddy. I expect it to be lots of fun. If I can’t word war with one of you, I can word war with another one of you!

My other goals have stalled a little. I caught myself thinking of Narrator yesterday (bad Jenn!) and I’m behind on my Holly Lisle lessons as I try to finish up the outline lesson. But since that’s almost done, I can move on to the others!

Okay, I think that’s it. Happy Halloween everyone!

Update:
Day: 12
Word Count: 30,288 and counting

I’ve almost reached the half-way point! Hopefully I can claim that goalpost by the end of the weekend. Of course, the first half is bound to be easier than the second half, since I’m not changing as much.

Today I would like to push the awesomeness that is solitaire. I’m sure most people play it and go brain-dead – but to a writer, what a great tool!

I’ve spent the last few months floundering with Arianna’s new storyline. I have the basic arc, but in terms of scenes? It was all awash.

But yesterday, during my commute, I pulled out my ipod to play solitaire and let my brain figure out what scenes to do. I thought of three – all with sweet, sweet conflict.

This sort of technique works with repetitive tasks too, but I have a special fondness for solitaire’s ability to break creative blocks.

Too bad my Mac doesn’t have it.

I suffer from a fatal flaw. I am a Planner. I cannot stop planning, no matter how much planning I have already done. And it doesn’t help that I find it far easier to plan than to do.

How else do you explain why I have so many ideas for stories and so few finished ones?

Writers cannot just be Planners. We also have to be Doers. If only there was a switch we could flip – but there isn’t.

Even writing this, I’m tempted to form a plan on how to become a Doer. Which pretty much sums up my problem.

NaNoWriMo is a good remedy for this. They encourage you do Do for a whole month, and give you no good time to Plan. It’s a good system. That’s why my friends and I came up with LoNoWriMo. You can see how much progress I’ve made in just the past week!

Are you a Planner or a Doer? How do you manage the other side of the coin?

Update:
Day: 5
Word Count: 16,185 and counting

The last five days have been a rocky start to LoNoWriMo, but it’s starting to get into a groove. I’m realizing that I’ve been procrastinating my revisions for a very simple reason:

I don’t want to mess up!

This is my third draft of Narrator and I’ve already made major changes. That doesn’t in itself bother me, since I know I’m improving it from the amateur attempt it was in November 2009. But I’d be lying if I said writing new drafts isn’t super difficult.

So I hope this will be the last major overhaul for Narrator, but I seriously doubt it. Oh well, one draft at a time, right?

August is officially Local Novel Writing Month! (Or AugNoWriMo, if you prefer, but I think “August” and “Month” is redundant, haha)

So grab your notebooks and your computers and get writing! Same rules – although it doesn’t have to be a project you haven’t started before. 31 days, 50,000 words.

For me, LoNoWriMo is going to be the big push to try to finish Narrator. I don’t have any classes this month, so I should have plenty of time!

Let’s do this!

Aaaand pencils down! NaNoWriMo is officially over! Count your words. How’d you do?

I certainly didn’t make it. Huzzah for real life. But if you’re like me, and didn’t reach the month’s goal, there’s plenty of other stuff to be proud of. Maybe that scene you never thought you’d figure out. Maybe that character you hadn’t expected but who stuck around through thick and thin. Maybe that frying pan on a rampage that…wait, that was Tangled.

And just because NaNoWriMo’s over doesn’t mean your novel has to be. (Especially if you realized your novel is longer than 50,000 words.) Keep writing!

Update:
Day: 26
Ideal Word Count: 43,342
Real Word Count: 17,038 and counting
Welcome back for the last of my NaNoFriPo series! This week, I’ll be discussing Motivation.

I bet you’ve told your friends and family that you were doing NaNoWriMo. I also bet they had no idea what you were talking about. I also also bet that when you explained it to them, they said something along the lines of “you’re crazy.”

And we are crazy, each and every one of us. Who else would try to write 50,000 words in 30 days?

It’s a challenge. Not everyone finishes. And why should they? You don’t get an award, you don’t get money. The prize of a measly certificate saying “Congratulations!” isn’t exactly the best motivation. You need something…more.

If you can spare the time from your mad rush to the end, think for a moment. Why are you doing NaNo? Because you love to write? Because you want to be published? Because your friends pressured you into it? Because somewhere, deep down, you love a good romance?

Knowing the answer won’t help you finish NaNo. But it will help you figure out what to do with your novel on December 1st. Stick it in a drawer, pass it around to your friends, send it out to agents – it doesn’t matter. As long as it’s what you want to do with your writing.

Good luck in these last few days! See you at the finish line!

Update:
Day: 19
Ideal Word Count: 31,673
Real Word Count: 9,015 and counting

Welcome back for the third of my NaNoFriPo series! This week, I’ll be discussing Perseverence.

If you haven’t already crashed and burned this month, don’t worry. You will. You’ve reached the dangerous waters of The Middle. You’re probably as behind as I am, and losing hope of ever finishing.

Guess what? You will.

The point of NaNoWriMo isn’t to win. It’s to write. As long as you write every day, you’re doing great! Don’t worry that you’re writing crap or that you’ve left plotholes as big as your house.

You are writing.

And that’s all that matters.