NaNo Interlude

I took a brief pause in feeling like a heel for not getting any work done on my novel this week – and thereby pretty much ensuring that I wouldn’t meet my NaNo goal – to read a conversation between Nathan Bransford and Sarah McCarry.

The very last comment makes Sarah my favorite person:

Sarah: The best advice I can think of is…that the one thing everyone who finishes a book has in common is that they got it done. The circumstances of people’s lives are so different–I don’t think it’s useful to say “you must write for at least fifteen minutes every day” or “you must achieve a certain word count weekly”…Some people write a book in a year and some people take a decade, or their whole lives; some people write every day and some people don’t write at all for months. There’s no one right way to do it. I think the key is finding the story you want to tell, which no one else can do for you, and finding the best way to work with your own brain…

You can read the entire conversation here.

NaNo Day 16

Aaack!! What happened??!!

I’ll tell you what happened.

Parent/Teacher Conferences happened. (All of my creative talent was used up on conference reports.)

Rescuing a friend’s computer from the brink of crashing happened. (All of my extra time – and not a little creative talent – out the window.)

…there may or may not have been a rather intense bout of Christmas shopping as well…

Word Count: 7183 (still)

Feeling: …Ashamed

NaNo Days 7-8

Remember that episode of Friends where Ross accidentally cheats (or not, depending on what camp you’re in) on Rachel, then spends the rest of the season explaining that “We were on a break!”?

That’s how I felt when I opened Microsoft Word this morning, and the pitiful little word count glared accusingly at me.

“We were on a break!” I wanted to yell. “Remember? I explained that! I had a lot to do yesterday! It was a busy day! It’s been a busy week! Can’t you just give me a break? I promise I’ll write scads and scads this weekend! I promise! I promise!”

It didn’t help that I overslept and already felt guilty for having only a few minutes to devote to writing.

It didn’t help that the cruel overlords at the NaNoWriMo headquarters sent out an email from “My Novel” begging me to get back to work.

We were on a break, I tell you!

Word Count: 3574

Feeling: Harrassed