Things are progressing nicely, so far. I checked my word count on NaNoWriMo this morning, and was startled by the number (I’d forgotten overnight what I clocked in at last night). My first thought was, Oh my, look at this person’s word count, whose is this? Wait, this is my page… where did that number come from? Did someone leave me some words? Are these yours?
Nope. By cracky, I did 1797 words yesterday! At the start of Day 5 I’m opening with 8551 words, well better than a day up on schedule. Maybe rocking out to the latest AFI release, Crash Love, is more of an inspiration for a novel set in the Gilded Age than I thought. (Honestly, the boys outdid themselves on this one. Davey, Jade, Hunter, Adam, this is your best yet.)
Anyway…
And how about that Pep Talk this morning from Jasper Fforde? Inspired. For those who question why spend time cranking out 50K words of drivel, you know it’s going to be crap going in so why bother? Because it’s part of the process. The way I’ve always phrased it is, before I can write anything decent, I have to write through all the crap, literally, like clawing my way up out of a hole in the ground. If I keep scrabbling at the dirt, it will fall in and fill the hole and eventually I’ll be standing on top where the good topsoil is.
Shooting for the 10000 mark today. Who’s with me?!?
D.D. SYRDAL 
I’m quite the opposite. Each time I look at my wordcount I think “What a slow start”. But since latst year was just about the same, I’m hoping to recover in next weeks, though I hope to get my act together sooner.
LikeLike
I’m trying to do more each day than the minimum 1667 words, because I know there will be days when I’m not able to write at all, and I don’t want a repeat of last year! After not being able to write for a few days, I gave up, thinking I would never catch up. You’re not off to a bad start, don’t beat yourself up! 🙂
By the way, I’m getting one of those word count bars that you have, how did you find that? The official NaNo word count widgets don’t seem to be working this year.
LikeLike
If you google NaNoWiMo bar ou just click on the bar at my site, you can go to the site. I found it last year, after NaNo and ended up uding it for the novel I was writing. It’s quite handy, considering you can change your goal and choose colours. XD
LikeLike
That’s so cool! I found it and put it on my page. It’s a little more work to keep up, having to go back to their site to recalculate the word count, but it’s good, I like it!
LikeLike
Great work, Digital Dame!
I know I’m off to a slow start this time around. But I had some other projects overlapping into this first week of NaNo. With luck they’ll both be done by Monday and I can concentrate on my NaNo Novel. So I’m thinking more of myself this first week of NaNo as the tortoise instead of the hare. 🙂
And that was a great pep talk! I like getting those.
LikeLike
You know what, I didn’t realize until yesterday that I still had your OLD name on my Buddy List (Jenna_Reynolds). I saw you on someone else’s buddy page, and saw you have a new site name without the underscore. I was wondering why your word count still said ‘0’! 🙂
You are my hero, doing all that on top of NaNo. You’ll get caught up, and you’ll probably beat me to the finish line!
LikeLike
Kudos to you, DD! I’m taking the approach that as long as I get something written every day, i’m gaining ground. So my measly 3400 word count is feeling pretty good. I have business travel next week so I might have to resort to using a compostion book and typing it in when I get home, but it’s been such a pleasure and creative release (even tho it’s really just pages of crap). And it’s all b/c of your blog and your NaNo icon that I’m doing it…. thanks again!
LikeLike
Awww 😉 Thanks, Rosie!
That’s how I approached it, too, that just improving my writing habits, actually DOING some writing, was the whole point. If you hit the 50k, that’s a bonus. Even if you don’t, I think you’ll find that taking part in this fun, frothy folly that is NaNo will have changed you forever. Or at least your writing habits 🙂
And it may seem like it’s just starting out as crap, as first drafts are wont to do, but I’d be willing to bet when you start revising it will take shape nicely.
LikeLike
Thanks, NaNo Buddy!
LikeLike
I loved FFord’s pep talk email. Receiving those emails from published authors is one of the great extra bonuses of participating in NaNo.
LikeLike
Aren’t they great? They time them so perfectly, they always relate EXACTLY to what you’re going through at that point in NaNo. I saved all of last year’s, I think I’m going to collect them all and put them in a binder so I can reread them periodically.
LikeLike
I signed up on Sunday Morning, 11/1, but I dind’t want to tell you guys until I could see if I would be able to keep up with it.
I’m up to 11,413, although I may get a little backed up this week ‘cuz I’m running a slight fever and I fear anything I write tonight won’t make sense. Didge, Rosie, Gypsy – how do I add you guys as writing buddies?
LikeLike
AHHHH!!! I’m screaming! 🙂 Yay!!
I’m Digital Dame on NaNo, what’s your username? You should be able to “Search” on my username. (go to Search/Authors).
Wow, you’re really cranking on the word count, with a fever no less!
LikeLike
I’m “catmama” Last night, when I was feel punk but not dizzy, I cranked more than a bit, but tonight I took the night off b/c my I can truly feel that my brain is not operating on all 6 cylinders. I’m going to teach “who and Whom” tomorrow b/c it’s a lesson that’s imprinted on my brain stem, like those ancient rock stars who can somehow play screamin’ guitar riffs when they are too stoned to stand up or complete a coherent sentence.
LikeLike
Excellent, I’ll add you at once. And yeah, like Gypsy says, don’t worry about hitting the 50k. Get as close as you can, but it’s the process that’s important here, not the outcome. If you hit the 50k, it’s just gravy.
LikeLike
MaryJ,
I’m so glad you decided to join. And don’t stress over it too much. It’s not the end of the world if someone doesn’t get the 50 K. (though I bet you will!)
I’m Gypsyscarlett over there. I’ll go add you as a buddy. Under your profile, you can see who you’ve made buddies, and who has made you a buddy. “buddies” and “buddy of”
LikeLike
thanx, ladies!
LikeLike