It’s day four, I’m on target and I’m gaining a lot from this experience. Here’s ten little snippets I’ve learned so far:
- My NaNoNovel is not the greatest novel of all time. There’s a few bits and pieces that are really nice, and I’m enjoying getting to know my characters, but it’s not the best piece of literature ever written. That’s okay though, because it’s NaNo and it’s all about the wordcount.
- Writing fast and under pressure is exhilarating, intense and liberating.
- I’ll be cutting half of that exhilarating, intense and liberated writing come December.
- Most days, there is no time for blogging! Not only no time, but no creativity. My creative juices are squeezed dry by the time I’m done writing and thinking about writing and planning my writing for the next day.
- Talking of planning, I should have done more of that before November. A lot more.
- I can write 1667 words in a day! In fact I can write them in a relatively short space of time. I tend to spend about two to three hours a day on the actual writing, and so far I’m over on the word count most days.
- Resisting the urge to research is really hard.
- Resisting the urge to edit is even harder.
- Resisting the urge to surf the net is harder still. There’s a button on my computer which turns off the internet. I know it’s there and I know what it does, but there are strange forces at work which stop me from using it. I don’t understand how. Why can’t I just press the button and kill the net?
- There are only twenty-four hours in a day, and sometimes that’s not enough.
EL Appleby: Brain Fragments 
I completely understand. I’m on target as well. Kudos to us both! And I want to edit so bad it almost kills me. But I won’t. I might not have the greatest novel ever written, but not sure I want it. Talk about the pressure of writing the next one! 🙂
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Congrats on being on target, Jackie! And very true about the greatest novel – maybe I should stick to being mediocre for a bit longer!
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I’m quite ahead of target – got a big work project going on – so I need to make sure I leave myself NoNaNo days. My editing muscle is so going to need to go the gym to limber up after 30 days of stagnation (I do try to keep it in shape with blog posts … when I can). Now step away from the internet …
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I’ve failed with the internet button again already today! Must turn off internet and write…
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Yay for you! That is fantastic! Just keep writing.
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Good points! Thanks for sharing.
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The realization of how many words I can get out and how little time that actually takes was pretty surprising to me, too. I would add that this is also teaching me that I can, indeed, sit down and write something even if I don’t feel like doing it. So long as I have a goal in mind and somebody breathing down my neck to get it done.
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It’s quite a revelation, isn’t it. I’ve heard of people (Le Carre was one, I think) who get up every morning and write for an hour before breakfast and I’ve always wondered how they do it. I suppose they must have their own personal version of NaNo going on in their heads to keep them going. I’m hoping it’ll rub off so I’ll continue writing a considerable chunk every day when November has been and gone, but we’ll see.
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[…] NaNoWriMo: Ten Things I Know Now That I Didn’t Know Before. (elappleby.wordpress.com) […]
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Good job! I’m on target, too. So far…I can do the writing, but I know it’s not best. In fact, sometimes I’m not sure I like it all. I’m trying NOT to judge myself too harshly. When it’s all done, I plan to put it aside for a little while before reading it. 🙂
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Congrats on being on target. I’m exactly the same with my story – I know it’s not great but when I feel like forgetting the whole thing I remind myself that this is excellent practice in writing a longer piece and I am enjoying writing it. Even if I don’t pick it up again, there’s plenty there already that I can recycle into other stories in the future (so it’s sort of an eco-novel – waste nothing, recycle!)
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I think the internet button has an inbuilt forcefield. Well done for getting this far, I wouldn’t have managed a couple of days at the moment!
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Great points, all! Surprisingly I’ve found I DO still have the creativity and time to blog, and doing my silly TV show recaps is coming faster and easier because my mind feels very sharp (I hope that continues through the month, and it doesn’t shift from sharp to mush by week four). Keep up the good work!
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