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Doubling Up

Our college kid decided to spend the weekend with us, so Saturday I doubled up on my wordcount quota so I could "take off" Sunday to spend with her. Then on Sunday night she went to bed early, so I wrote my daily quota anyway, and now I'm 1667 words ahead of plan.

I can't always double up on my quota; it's actually pretty rare for me to do that. The free time + creative energy it requires is harder to come by, especially in the evenings, which is when I usually work on my NaNo novel. It takes me about two hours to write the daily quota. Twice that can take another two or three hours. Also, by the time I get to my writing session for NaNo, I've already spent eight to ten hours working at my day job plus whatever I needed to do for family and home.

Still, on the days I do write more than my quota, or I can double up, I feel very good. It's like adding an extra couple of hours or even a whole day to November.

Comments

nightsmusic said…
I'm stuck. I've been staring at my page for three days now. I know where I want the story to go, but not how to get there. *sigh* I'm screwed. I think if I don't have a breakthrough today, I'm just going to write and see where it takes me and I'll figure out how to glue it all together by the time I get to the end. This is the trouble with pantsing. I've never been able to write an outline though. Once I do, I lose interest in the story :(
the author said…
I haven't been a very good NaNo buddy to you this week. I think your idea about just writing through might be the right way to go. Or stick a placeholder note where you're stuck and move on to what you think the next step in the story is.

I don't know how you pantsers manage it. I have written spontaneously without a plan, but it made me very anxious until I started outlining the next chapter in my head. That was when I embraced my planner soul. :)
nightsmusic said…
Don't be silly! I don't work. You do. You've been busy.

For me, it's like I'm watching a movie in my head when I write. I just type everything I'm seeing in my head except this time, it's like someone changed the channel. *sigh* I managed a thousand words yesterday though so I'll take them. At least it was better than just staring at the page.

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