Tag Archives: countdown to nano

All NaNo’s Eve

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Well 5 days ago I had a list and everything bar one thing has been completed (or at least completed to the amount required for the moment). The one thing that didn’t get done is writing so duh just going to write it next month AND get to count the words for it – no brainer really.

So yeah. Wow. Did not expect that. Go me! Hehe 🙂

Anyway, what is on the list for this month? Not sure if I’ve already said. If I have then bear with me:
– 35k of a lingering original project (aka finish the neglected first draft)
– finish the poor languishing celeb/fan AU for Ripper (Garcy fic)
– Painting Layers of Love (Chapter Eleven)
– post-season 2 fic for Ripper (Garcy)
– In You Arms: Part Three
– One night stand turns to true love (Rumbelle)

I think I’ll probably take a leaf out of Worry’s book and do a little report everyday. I’ll make sure to pick a tag so you can blacklist if it bugs you. That list is in order of priority. If the last two items don’t get done then I can live with that, but I really want the other four.

How about posting? I would like to post something during November but it definitely won’t be this week heh. Maybe next week. I don’t know what percentage of my writing time will go where during the month yet. Have to see.

I’m excited – next week I’ll be groaning heh – but for now I’m just enjoying the anticipation of my most favourite time of year 🙂

(even if I am being a rebel which doesn’t have quite the same magical sheen as a trad nano)

T – 2 (Update)

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So three days ago I was panicking a bit. Had a big long list of stuff to do pre-NaNo and was despairing being ready. Last November I had my worst NaNo total ever and I so want this year to be different and it just felt like a bad omen

Buuuuuut

Progress!

I finished my series bible and created the book bible for Painting Layers of Love. They were big tasks, lots of reading and I got good practice typing with all the notes. I also thought about it and combined the two Garcy fics I needed to plan into one fic, seeing as it was turning out longer anyway.

Still to do:
– plan that Garcy fic
– outline PLL (if I can that is)

I decided to shift the poor languishing Garcy fic to next month. It’s been shifted every week to next week for a month or more already, so it’s kinda used to it heh. Also my tutor did send us more homework as I predicted (why can’t she give it to us in class so we have the weekend?) so there is that to do pre-Thursday as well.

Ultimately though I have staged a comeback and caught up a bit. Which given that today was a bit of a day and I did next to nothing off this list, thank merlin the weekend came through for me.

T – 5 (aka time to panic)

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Can somebody please tell me how come there are only 5 DAYS left in October? Please? Seriously, I was chugging along and then bam, it’s like being hit by a 2 by 4. Little things slip but /shrug no big deal right? There’s time

And then suddenly there’s no time

Yesterday rather than do anything about this I did absolutely nothing instead, because losing an entire day is definitely the way to help *rolls eyes at self*

Before Thursday I need to:
– finish my series bible
– plan two more fics
– create a book bible for PLL
– outline PLL

My tutor will also email more homework at some point because rather than give it to us in class, she likes to surprise us mid-week/day before class. I also have a play I should have read (and haven’t) preferably before Monday’s lecture, but definitely before Tuesday’s seminar.

I would also like to:
– finish the Garcy fic I’ve left languishing half finished for weeks
– finish the formative assignment due for the 5th

Yet I refused to get out of bed this morning and it’s nearly noon and I haven’t started yet

Dammit self

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Decided to practice writing my NaNo daily pace today to see how it felt. It wasn’t easy and it’s going to be a real challenge to do it every single day for a month. I’ve learned from bitter experience that the marathon is so much harder than the sprint.

I learned some things to watch out for:

  • Writing stories I don’t care about that much is at least 3x as hard as writing something I enjoy. I can do it, it just takes longer. The procrastination demon gleefully loves the ‘meh’ stories and I really need to practice focusing. I waste so much time on this and it’s unnecessary and needs to stop.
  • It is way too easy to stop writing, when I reach a good stopping point like the end of a chapter. I need to find a way to push through that, and not waste a ton of time trying to convince myself to restart and write more.

Tomorrow I’m going to do this again but try a couple of different things:

  • When I reach the end of a chapter and start procrastinating (like I’m actually doing now), I’m going to swap to a different project, and see if that gets me going again any quicker.
  • On the meh stories I’m going to either take them scene by scene, and swap to something else in between. That way I only have to do small chunks in one go, which should be less boring and easier to knock out faster. Or if the scene is taking forever, I’ll just spend 20 minutes or something, and then switch.

Then on Monday – I’ll do it again!
Only I’ll have to work as well. Let’s see how that goes, when I don’t have all day to play with. I’m thinking it will be interesting to say the least. However, this is why I’m practicing and building it up. Today I’m finding out what my trouble points are, tomorrow I’m seeing if I can fix them, then Monday I put it into practice and then I’ll take it from there.

Naturally, I should at some point plan my actual projects for NaNo. However, there’s still a few weeks left, and I have a lot to finish writing this month before NaNo starts, so one thing at a time 🙂