Seasonal Plume

I’m convinced real life is the worst enemy of writing. ;)

Alright, of course I’m kidding, but I had not been able to get much writing done at all! I don’t think I should keep posting my weekend plans for writing my Nano novel — I pretty much failed and was only able to write a little over a thousand words.

nanowrimo 2006

words: 6,819 / 50,000 (14%)

Six thousand eight hundred nineteen words, by mid-November. Although I think I have fared a little better this year than in the last years, that’s pathetic, really. Let’s see now. I was out the whole weekend — I was out with friends Saturday and I was out with family Sunday. I was too tired both nights to write. The same happened with Monday night, and last night I was out having prolonged coffee with Ana.

When I was younger I had bouts of staying up all night writing my stories. I’d like to be able to do that again (and I’m in a rather interesting part of the novel, even if it’s still only started!) but the thought of needing to travel 4 hours and work the next day is enough to make me decide that I need a good night’s rest.

I should really come up with a better plan than finish this many words over the weekend! Any ideas?

Yes, it’s finally the weekend. I will write this weekend, I will see to it that I will write! My goal for this weekend is to reach 18,000 words. I should have reached 20,000 words by Sunday (according to my NaNo calendar!) but I will try to be realistic — 12,000 words in two days could be a bit of a challenge, although if the muse hits it could also definitely be easy ;)

Plan of action: write offline. Stay up late to write while the rest of the house is quiet. Somehow, that’s always been rather conducive to my writing. I also found that I like the fact that only the lamp is lit when I’m writing in my room (yes, disconnected from teh intarwebz). Write snippets of scenes if need be, but write, write, write! Dream of my characters. It doesn’t matter if I know the content will be cut when I edit the story a few months down the line, the point is that I have to get the writing out and I have to let my characters show me who they are!

Ahem. Now I shall go on up and try to do as I said. ;) Let’s hope I actually write and not end up procrastinating and doing the 1847612387428 things I also need to do. :P

So, yes. I’m getting myself psyched for this year’s Nano. I have a few items that are in my to-do list that should help me prep for Nano, and I’m putting it up here for posterity’s sake:

• Make a new layout for Seasonal Plume. Why is making a new layout supposed to help me psyche up for Nano? Simple. It’s something new and creative and will urge me to, well, write in this blog. Which means I have to have something to write about, right? Only I’m not entirely sure how I’d like the design. Keep this general layout? Return to a more traditional blog-type layout? I have no idea.
• Choose a wiki for story notes et al. I’d always been so interested in wikis that I just know I must use one. A number of people at the Nano forums have recommended TiddlyWiki which sounds really good, but I’m wondering if the AJAXy component of it is a bit too “liquid” for me. I’ll have to play around with it first. The drawback of having a “traditional” wiki like MediaWiki (which I’m more used to, user-wise) or PmWiki (which I’ve installed before but have not been able to extensively use as much as the former).
• Decide on a story. Yes, you heard that right. I have not decided. One of my ongoing projects (which never seem to be near completion) is writing in novel-format about certain events in my life. Think The Notebook. :p Yes, I am a sap like that. Only, obviously it is very personal, and how the hell am I supposed to write it? I’ve heard Nano tips that one shouldn’t write something very personal for Nano because it will make you very emotional and bog you down, and I have a feeling it’s true. But if not that, what? I will probably ramble about possible story ideas soon. (It should be soon, because it’s the middle of October already!)
• Choose a software to write in. I’ve decided I won’t use Word. I’ve written short stories and poetry on Notepad, which serves my needs well (and being a web developer/designer, I’m more used to it). But I’m not sure if I’m ready to default to Notepad with a 50k-word novel, plus it’s such an elementary application that I don’t think it will serve my noval needs that well. Suggestions are welcome!
• Figure out a physical battle plan. Meaning, when will I write? How will I write when I have a full-time job, I leave home at 6am and I get home at 9pm due to my horrendous travelling time? I can bring my darling Mr Darcy (my Toshiba Satellite M100) with me, but it’s not small enough to be working on while you’re on a bus (and neither do I want it on my lap while I’m working). It’s just not conducive to working. I think I should get my Palm Tungsten fixed, but that might take a few weeks yet, and I haven’t ever tried writing a story on it. I’d get annoyed at my slow-ness. Besides, I don’t work well creatively when there are many people about. So, when will I write? Will I be able to stick to writing a few thousand words everyday, even when I’m so tired I’d probably snap everyone’s head off?

Lists, lists.

Yes, I caved. I signed up, yet again, for this year’s Nano. I don’t even really know what the hell I was thinking when I did. I found out that I apparently didn’t sign up last year. And that I don’t remember when I first signed up. See, I’m headed for another failure and it’s not yet even started!

Well, not entirely. I actually feel somewhat optimistic, that maybe this year I will be able to stick to writing. It’s just around 2,000 words a day. I write longer journal entries than that. I think I might be going at it all wrong for the previous years, too, and that it’s not such a big surprise I never write after the first week, because I’ve been going at it the wrong way.

I don’t know what the right way is, but I feel a little bit clearer on the whole battle plan/plan of action thing here.

What do I know about my recent writing? I haven’t written creatively for some time now — no full-length stories. I do enjoy the snippets I do from time to time; I enjoy writing them immensely, and I have deluded myself into thinking that most of them are good. I write rather copious amounts of journal entries. I have such an affinity for almost-lyrical prose.

So… that’s what I’ll do. I’ve been toying around with a few ideas on and off about what to write this month, trying to match it with how I know I am when I’m working, or basically doing anything. Previously, for NaNo, I used to make up outlines. This is this, that is that, this is my main character, yadda yadda yadda. But the thing is, I’ve never written with an outline before, and that with an outline, it was easier to skip to the “exciting” parts of the story when I’m writing it, as opposed to just letting the story write itself (like I used to do). I love post-its and I have a couple on my desktop, and while I’m walking or doing other things I sometimes think up phrases or situations or whathaveyous that sound good in a story — I’m scattered and disorganized like that, and I think I might work better like that.

And, well, we’ll see!

(Yes, this was a rather pointless drivel.)