1,472 words today. Just under the usual goal and I'm breaking early because I have to go get Liquid Plumber for the sink in the bathroom. I'm also going in to school early today to sub for a friend.
So life calls, but the writing is in good shape. I didn't leave off in an obvious place for tomorrow's start, but I have a lot of balls in the air so I should be able to snatch one and start off running. (I hope.)
I was wondering the same thing. Also I don't know... do the rules allow you to continue a current project, or does it have to be a new novel from scratch? I'm actually considering somehow attempting it, except I don't have a clue what I'd be doing or what the plot would be.
I think for NaNoWriMo you can pretty much do anything you like: continue a project, start a project, whatever. Any pretty much everyone who does it has no clue what they'll be writing or where it'll go. The point is, I think, just to get a ton of stuff down, like a freewrite, and then go back and hack away at it to create something interesting out of the chunk of marble you're left with. (In a Rodin kind of way...) But my assumption is that many of the folks who do it just leave their piece when they're done and take more pleasure in the feeling of finishing 50k words than really go for something complete/finished.
But that's just my assumption. There's also NaNoEdMo (April?) where you're supposed to spend a month editing your novel from NaNoWriMo, but that's (understandably) much less popular.
I do about 1,500 five days a week on a good week, but since the YJ project is longer than any I've done before, I'm finding myself needing more off days. I work on it/look at it every day (or wish I did) but I can't do 1,500 every day forever. It's funny, I'm kind of in NaNoWriYear kind of mode right now. And that's about exactly where I'd like to be!
PS: A couple years back PG Holyfield and MY Nemcoff and a bunch of other writers and I did a NaNoWriMo podcast series of short pep talks that might still be around. Have a look for 'em.
I checked the FAQ and apparently it's only for new original works (I don't even think they allow previous outlines). Something about how you'll care too much about your characters to just write, write, write or something. Just an FYI for anyone reading the thread.
Happy (scary) Halloween!
So yesterday turned into a rabid teach-fest for me and last night became a battle royale with the bathroom sink that I finally won with the use of *gasp* sulfuric acid. Guess you really can get anything at a hardware store these days.
Today, looking at the book, I feel more exhausted than ready to bang. I like where I'm left off, but don't know for sure yet where I go next. Still, with 75k+ words in now, I'm feeling good about where I am.
Truth is, the recording for episodes this weekend beckons. Got to do the intros for CW and--though this week's episode of YJ is set, I'm trying to stay a bit ahead. How about I just work on CW for a start...
So the upside of November is that we're only two months away from 2009, the Year of the Palms!! And then we're just five months away from JWU's release. Fuck. That still feels like a while. Seven months!! Jeez! And Sigs gets to pump out *another* frigging book? That fucker.
Anyway, yes, seven months from now you'll have the chance to get more JWU into your hot little hands.
Work update: recorded two chapters yesterday afternoon (32 and 33 for those of you keeping score). And this morning I woke up and worked on the MS. I only got maybe 350-400 words done, but it'll keep me on track. I know what goes down first tomorrow morning when I hit it.
(Always important to leave off where you know what happens NEXT. --Good trick I learned from ole Hemingway.)
Huh, Hemingway was a smart one. That makes perfect sense. When I manage to get *started* being productive, it is *way* easier to keep rolling. It's really hard to start sometimes (I guess it's pretty much coefficient of static friction vs. coefficient of dynamic friction, but applied to getting motivated :). If you know exactly what you need to start doing, it's much easier to get started. I should really try to keep that in mind myself. It applies as much to writing software as writing stories.
Saturday the biggest check of my Three Rivers deal came in the mail. It's the one I've been waiting for since July. In that time, I've gotten new credit cards, transferred debt, and now owe more than the big ole check can pay off. But that's due more to the fact that my wife's been unemployed than anything on my end of things. So we do what we can.
The point here is that it came on a Saturday, it was already spent, and that day all it did here was rain. I mean a lot of rain--you don't even want to leave the house kind of rain--and I didn't feel like celebrating. This basically brings home a point that I think is really important: that with writing it has to be more (or at least as much) about the process as it is about the product or the rewards. When you get that reward, whether it be acceptance into a journal, that contract you've always wanted, your first book in stores, smelling the ink the first time your work is published, the NY Times Book Review, Bestseller status, whatever the reward is, chances are it's going to come at a time when you have other things on your mind. Rarely does something come in and sweep you up with such amazing greatness that you're blown off your feet and really, truly wowed. Sure, sometimes it's good to go out and celebrate with your loved ones and those make for great memories you can cherish, but the fact is the juice just isn't there enough when something goes right for that to be your whole driving force in this thing.
This is what I mean to say: if you're not excited about getting to the typer (whatever you use) in the morning, or the night, or whenever you write, and there isn't some love and fun in that process of putting your thoughts down on the page or stringing the images in your mind together to make a story about characters doing what they need and want to do, then you're cooked. If you're in it for just the rewards, then you'll never get it done. I mean you have to love the process of writing, the time you spend at the job, if you're going to keep this up. That's of paramount importance in the whole shebang we call writing, son.
Now I know for sure that this is what I want for my career and for that to be a reality it has to involve money--and in that sense the check coming this weekend means one whole hell of a lot (it's basically about the worth of two full term classes)--and that if this is my career path I want it to be a successful one: I want that fucking big ass TV and a BMW and shit and I want to sell books! And that all means money. But I know I'll never get there unless I can't just enjoy where I am today: the place where I'm broke again, have to crank out more chapters of Young Junius, and get to sit at my computer putting my thoughts down in writing as soon as I wake up in the morning. That's what I mean: that today's just the same as any other day in the big scheme: that I'm getting to do exactly what I want with my life, now for the first time it's starting to pay some of the bills, and I'm damn lucky for that. And I'm enjoying this. I mean to say that waking up and going to the typer and getting myself into the whole Young Junius world is something I'm excited about, something I really like doing. There are times when it doesn't quite flow, and times where I'm better off waiting, but the fact that I can sit here and even write out these thoughts about the whole process of writing and hope that maybe it'll be a decent essay some day, or that even a few of you Palms Website addicts (Soldiers) might read it, that makes me very happy. And feels like I'm also really getting something done. This is the good part, every day, and if you have to wait for the money to feel like it's worth it, my guess is you'll never even get there.
As to whether the fact that you guys are listening to YJ and letting me know you dig it? Well... that part's a real reward that does help me and drive me right away. But that's not money, see?
Just so you know people are reading, yep, I read it. :)
I'm sorry to hear that you couldn't really enjoy it, but it is a very good point that you need to do it for the love of it, not for profit. Profit's good, but it can't be the central thing it's about. I hope Joelle finds a new job soon, as I'm sure you would both be happy about that. It's not much fun being out of work -- even though time off sounds awfully nice right now, I wouldn't wish for it that way.
Keep up the great work and working towards your goals and it'll pay off in the end, in some way, monetary or not.
Thanks for that bit of honesty there, Seth. Sounds like the author life is a genuine human struggle, and I'm glad to hear you know this exactly what you want to be doing. Here's hoping Jack Wakes Up sells like crazy on the store shelves next year! I know I'll be buying my copy, and quite likely a few for friends.
Busted out some writing today. Less than 500 words, most-likely. But I sat at the desk and stared at the screen, read my stuff, and got to the piece that'll connect to the next piece. Stuff's coming and slowly.
Usually with a project I can crank more regularly, but with this project being longer and having the podcast going on as I'm writing it, has been more fits and starts. It's going slower, but it's going.
And I'm still in great shape as far as the podcast is concerned.
Did I mention I won't have a show the week of Thanksgiving? Yep. Taking a break. And taking TWO WEEKS off for XMas and New Years. How about that!?!?
Ahhh... feels good to just say it.
Up early and banged out 1,511 words today before 9:30. (Though the time change might've helped that a little.)
Joelle's got a job interview later and I have to drive her to the BART, so I'll probably just head toward work from there, stop at the gym to get in a little run.
Go Election day!! Go VOTE!!!
Damn, can you tell I had coffee this morning? Zing!
Makes me damn happy to see you guys burning up the forums like you are. Please keep rocking it.
Also working on: applying for a few creative writing jobs for next year and writing up my Stanford class week-by-week plan which is due in about a week and a half. Yeh yeah!! Getting a stack of papers today from my Chabot class, which'll suck up some time...
Just over 400+ words today. Short writing but I'm in there, ass in chair.
Three mice this morning. I had to buy a trap and since I got up I've dumped two and caught a third in the trap. This is our first problem with mice in this apartment. Now I have to dump the third and set the trap again. Fucking doing this gives me the ankle-creeps. Makes my feet itch!
On the upside, I printed out a bunch of pages of the latest chapters and I need to go read them back somewhere this afternoon to get a keyed-in sense of what's going down. Got some serious threads on the table.
I should also mention that yesterday I took a lot of time to check news about the historic election and listened to a ton of NPR. Fucking glad Obama won. I really am. Change. Change is good. Have I mentioned I hate W.? Jeezez, the man is an idiot. Preemptive war? WMD's? Alcoholic cocaine addict? Don't get me started. Punk ass chimp. 'nuff said.
It's the writing life. Here's what I did today: I wrote 1,624 words and the overall total puts me at 71,982.
Episode 10 goes through 47,080 words, which means I'm still 24,902 words ahead of the podcast. Right about where I should be--and it'll get better tomorrow.