NaNoWriMo Time Again
Though I’ve been writing for the last year, my blogging has fallen off. I’m going to be using it over the next month as a way to stave off my urge to use social media throughout the day. I’ll be saving up the the things I want to say to put into one long post, rather than doing fifteen short ones scattered throughout the day. I’ll just make notes of them as they come to me, rather than getting on Twitter or Facebook which turns a five second post into a forty five minute scan of cat videos and cute baby pics and TV show spoilers.
I spent a couple of days last week setting up a table so I can work away from online distraction, and so far, it’s proved to be very productive. NaNoWriMo will really put my plan to the test. Wish me luck!
My office has become a really comfortable space, and I truly love my ever-growing library. When I moved back from Saint Louis last spring, I had twenty eight big paper boxes full of books (the equivalent of about 5000 volumes), and at last I have all of the books put in order. There is even room for my collection to grow, which I haven’t had in…well…ever. I’ve always had bookshelves that were overflowing. This is a new era in my life. Eventually, I plan to repurpose my garage into a giant office (This room is the smallest of the guestrooms in the house.), but that change is at least a year away, so in the meantime, I’m making this space as functional and useful as possible.
There’s a little spaceheater that looks like a fireplace, and I’m looking forward to keeping this room cozy throughout the long winter days and nights.
In order to keep myself on task, I’ve set up a whiteboard near the door, and I’m going to keep track of my word counts throughout NaNoWriMo. My hope is to finish the last of the additions to Book One by the end of October, then spend November completing Book Two and setting to work on Book Three. In a perfect world, with no distractions or problems, all three novels in the series would be completed by the end of December.
In addition, I’ve begun using Toggl.com as a way to keep track of my time on various tasks and to help me with time management. For instance, so far, I’ve spent forty minutes writing this blog entry. Somehow, if I can see the timer spinning off the minutes and seconds, I stay focused better, and it forces me to be more efficient in my use of time.
I’ll also be using my Scrivener to keep word counts, then recording my progress on NaNoWriMo’s website.
To keep myself from scanning relevant and interesting articles all day long, I’m using Klout.com as an aggregator and to schedule my posts, spacing them out throughout the day, rather than being online all day long or, conversely, dumping them all in a short span of time and overwhelming people with a bunch of links at once. I’ve used Klout in the past, and I find it really helpful. I scan the articles under my chosen topics when I have free time, then let the site take care of the rest. That’s a much better use of my time, and I really like it for that purpose. If I can ever afford to hire an assistant, they can take over some of that sort of work for me, but in the meantime, Klout is the next best thing.
Things I found and posted in the last twenty four hours, include:
- How Many Stars are in the Universe?
- What Ghost Stories and Haunted Houses Tell Us About American History
My friend Kari Kilgore’s new novel is out, and I highly recommend it!
Also, my friend Jeff Chacon also has a new book coming out. The second installment in his Zombie series is due out next month, but the first novel, American Badass, is out now and being made into a film. If you’re a fan of The Walking Dead, it’s a great read!
As for my writing, I’m very excited and making good progress.
In the early summer, I made some revisions to Book One based on suggestions from beta readers, and I’m very pleased with that work.
I’ve made some major changes to my overall outline for Books Two and Three (and maybe even Four), based on where the characters have lead me, and those changes are going to be truly fun to write.
To prepare for the scenes I need to write, I’ve been doing a lot of research, and books are arriving daily to give me inspiration. I’ve also surrounded myself with items that will help me when I get fidgety, including more action figures. I now have a Casanova action figure with Carnival mask action to stand next to my beheadable Marie Antoinette. It seemed appropriate since part of the action in Book Two takes place in Venice.
I’ve got a lot to read, but I’m not going to let that bog down my draft. I can always come back and add more details in the revision process. What’s important is to let the story unfold and give life to the characters. I’m letting myself become immersed in their world, and I can’t wait for what happens next.
It’s all right there in my head.
In addition to my vampire series, I have ideas for a few other novels as well. One that’s a collaboration with another writer, and I’m looking forward to seeing that happen.
Exciting things are coming!
Tell me in the comments:
- What are your upcoming projects? Do you plan to do NaNoWriMo?
- Do you have books/stories that you recommend or that you’ve recently published?
- What do you do to balance writing and social media time?
- How do you keep track of your word counts?
I finished this blog post in an hour and fifteen minutes. Thanks Toggl.com!
3 Comments on “NaNoWriMo Time Again”
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The Real Delia 
Thanks for the plug, Delia – I look forward to reading all 3 of your books!
When I’m feeling distracted – which is quite often – I write in sprints. 30 minutes, no messing around, and then see how many words I churned out and take a short kitten video break. It’s pretty effective, actually, and it’s pretty much how I wrote my sequel. You could try that. We have a Facebook page for Colorado Writers and there’s always a sprint going on there. We could start doing them in our Room 217 Facebook group, too. Hmm….
Sprints really work for me too. After about thirty minutes, I need to stretch and have more tea or coffee, pet a puppy, go for a walk, read my notifications everywhere…whatever. My brain gets tired. I’d love doing sprints in Room 217. Last year was too hectic for me, but this year, I don’t have so much going on, and I plan to stay focused.
Congrats again on the upcoming sequel! I can’t wait to read it when it comes out. The first was was so great, I’m excited to see what’s next.
I tried Nano once. I finished an outline, but didn’t start writing the book until the following year (now it’s finally almost done.)