NaNoWriMo Diary: Week 1

Day 1

At last, NaNoWriMo is here! I did the stay-up-til-midnight thing to kick off the event. It’s a lot like New Years Eve, but instead of making a bunch of noise and possibly kissing a stranger, at the stroke of twelve you simply sit down and write. I practised some restraint and did not break out the champagne and confetti this time around. (I’m saving them for the 30th!) After getting a solid hour in, I went to bed. The cool thing about this year’s start of NaNo is that it fell on the Daylight Savings Time “fall back” day, rendering my first hour free. (Yay!)

On November-the-first proper, I tried a new thing and got started writing early in the morning. I’m one of those not-a-morning-person people, so this was weird for me. But all the experts claim it’s the thing to do, so I figured why not. Also, my dog still doesn’t quite get Daylight Savings time (nor do I, but that’s another topic), so I was up annoyingly early anyway.

Another new thing I’m trying this NaNo season is brain yoga. If you’re wondering what brain yoga is but can’t be bothered to google it, just picture playing Simon Says with the Mad Hatter. And now you know. I figure it’s a no-lose endeavor. If it helps me write, cool. And if it doesn’t, well at least I’m adding some very low level exercise into my routine during a month full of sitting at my desk.

Day 2

Monday’s are rough. I got a ton of research done for the short story that I'm writing on the side. A ton of words? Not so much. But any progress is good progress, right? And oh boy did I learn a lot about angels today. Holy, holy, holy, moly! (<--This is what an angel reference looks like.)

(Also this:)

Day 3

Tuesday is my chat night with my favorite online NaNoWriMo group! For reasons irrelevant, this group happens to be the Southwest Florida group (Hiiiiiiii guys!), rather than my own regional group. (Sorry regional group, they got to me first!) We chatted, talked shop, battled in word wars, and were given some excellent writing prompts. And as always, Timmy was on fire.

I should probably tell you about Timmy. Timmy is a chatbot that lives in the NaNo chatrooms. He performs some useful functions, but most of the time he runs around interrupting the group with nonsensical gibberish.

Some examples:

“Cat null. JE SUIS FÂCHÉE. Lol, kind of distraction! I was working on dialogue. ”

“* Timmy mutters under his breath, "Ohh, i see any birmingham west midlands :D. Birmingham was my cousins double 21st, poppy's memorial golf day (in addition to the transfers line up! Line i wrote a program called L2Ps which might be the late morning."”

Yeah, I don’t know either. Timmy also likes to hurl refrigerators at people and keeps a running tally of all velociraptor sightings. If this sounds like fun to you, you should probably try out a NaNoWriMo chatroom!

Day 4

The handy dandy word count calendar I’m using (found here) says I should drink a pumpkin spice latte today. Who am I to argue with a calendar?

Okay, so perhaps I’m not one to argue with my calendar, but as it turns out my schedule was up to the task. My schedule said it had too much work to do and couldn’t justify running around in search of a delicious pumpkin latte. My calendar was understanding and offered it a rain date. My schedule accepted.

Day 5

Big progress today! Beat my word count goal and even tackled a scene I’ve been putting off; wait for it...a battle scene!

(not my battle scene)

Day 6

Finally got around to getting that pumpkin spice latte. Thank you, Wawa!

FYI - A steady diet of writing plus a nighttime coffee drink may result in dreams that are heavily narrated. You have been warned.

Day 7

And on the seventh day I wrote a blog entry. It was super interesting and attracted many readers. And then I got back to work.

After said work, I stopped ignoring my husband for just long enough to celebrate our anniversary. (Happy Anniversary, Cutie!)

Then, back to work again.

Week 1 Word Count: 7988

Week 1 Mood: Sleepy with a dash of exuberance.