Tag: NaNoWriMo

Posted on

November 2024’s GWIC Event Update!

Well… This month’s GWIC event is now history, which is sad because it’s such a FUN event! After updating my word count yesterday, I did a bit of GWIC “housekeepinng” by “tracking miles” (aka words written) for each of my fourteen (of thirty) GWIC stops, and I’m pleased to say that, as one of the 167 total registered passengers during this event, I wrote 16,300 of the 791,386 total words written!

This month’s GWIC event REALLY “jump-started” my NaNoWriMo word count! In the past (pre-GWIC days), I often struggled to “meet my quota” during NaNoWriMo, especially in the middle and towards the end of the month. However, this changed when a fellow writer told me about GWIC! With GWIC being the first full weekend of NaNoWriMo event months (April, July, and November), I’ve never failed to “jump-start” my word count during these months, and this month was certainly no exception! During this event, I wrote 32.6% of my 50,000-word NaNoWriMo goal!!

Here’s the day-by-day breakdown of my word counts for GWIC weekend:

Friday, 11/01/24 — 3,760 words/12 pages

Saturday, 11/02/24 — 2,663 words/7 pages for a total of 6,423 words/19 pages

Sunday, 11/03/24 — 4,909 words/16 pages for a total of 11,332 words/35 pages

Monday, 11/04/24 — 4,968 words/16 pages for a total of 16,300 words/51 pages

So, there you have it: my update for November 2024’s GWIC event. A great time was had by all AND, as you can tell from the graphic above, LOTS of words were written in a single long weekend!

One more thing… Since I’ve been participating in GWIC events for quite a while now, I think it’s high time I started “paying it forward” by becoming part of the group of AWESOME volunteers (including my writer friend who first introduced me to GWIC) known as the “Conductor Team” (since the event does have a “train” theme that I absolutely love). So… I have decided that my next GWIC goal is going to become a “Signal Operator”, which is the first step in being able to host my very own two-hour stop during a future GWIC event — my ultimate GWIC goal, one I’ve had ever since my very first GWIC event! Wish me luck on this grand GWIC adventure!!

Posted on

November 2024’s main writing event (NaNoWriMo) has begun!

That’s write… er… right! NaNoWriMo 2024 has begun, and this means one thing: “Update posts”! In the past, I published this kind of post on a daily basis, but that was before I became a full-fledged “night owl”! As such a “bird”, my writing schedule doesn’t always jive with NaNoWriMo’s Web site for updating word counts. Traditionally, the NaNo Web site required all word counts for a particular day to be posted by midnight of that day. Midnight is often when I start writing, so that isn’t usually a deadline I can meet. To combat this problem, I’ve decided to continue doing something I started to do during July 2024’s Camp NaNoWriMo: writing “weekly” update posts as opposed to the “daily” posts I used to publish. So…

Every Saturday, I’ll publish one of these weekly update posts, which will work out well since the last day of this year’s NaNoWriMo event ends on a Saturday. As always, I’ll continue using the same format I’ve been using for such posts — with the only difference being that I’ll list a week’s worth of data instead of just a day’s worth as I’ve done in the past. So… Without further ado, here are the stats for this “week” — from 11/01/24 to 11/02/24:

Friday, 11/01/24 — 3760 words/12 pages

Saturday, 11/02/24 — 2663 words/7 pages for a total of 6423 words/19 pages

As with the first weekly update post back in July, the main reason why the daily word counts are so high for each of these first two days of November is because I am participating in November’s GWIC (Global Write-in Crawl), which always takes place during the first full weeked of a NaNoWriMo event. It’s an event that is extremely FUN, AND it never fails to help me INCREASE my word count tremendously, which is definitely a great thing at the beginning of the month! The “jump-start” in word count that GWIC gives me early in the month is VERY helpful, especially towards the end of the month when I often struggle to “meet my quota” of at least 1,667 words per day.

So, there you have it: my first weekly update for NaNoWriMo’s main event in “NaNo-vember” 2024! If you’re a writer, you should consider participating in a GWIC event — OR all of them, like I do! Need more information about GWIC? Please don’t hesitate to contact me about this event! I’d love to welcome you aboard the GWIC train for a FUN writing adventure in the future!!

Posted on

Camp NaNoWriMo — July 2024

Today’s stats: 3 pages, 924 words

Camp totals: 3 pages, 924 words

For July 2024’s Camp NaNoWriMo, I will continue to work on a project that I first conceived back in January of this year, and as I told my April 2024’s NaNoWriMo postcard swap recipients: “I might be working on this project in both July and November — and probably every month between then and now.” My word-count goal for this month’s Camp is going to be 25,000 words, which gives me a bit of a cushion to allow for days of not writing and/or coming up against a block.

As I did in November 2023, I will be participating in the GWIC (Global Write-in Crawl) event during the first full weekend in July, which will take place 5-7 July 2024 — with a “Packing Day” on 2 July 2024, a special event on 8 July 2024, and “Baggage Claim” event (in which awards will be presented) on 9 July 2024. I love GWIC because focus on my writing for an entire weekend — cranking out as many words as I can during as many of the GWIC’s TWENTY-ONE stops around the world that I can possibly fit into my schedule that weekend. This event definitely helps build the afore-mentioned “cushion” needed for “winning” Camp NaNoWriMo this month.

Please check back as I WILL be posting regular NaNoWriMo progress updates this month (something I wasn’t able to do back in November 2023 when I only managed to post a a mere two posts with updates). In addition to these NaNoWriMo progress updates, I’m going to be publishing other non-NaNo posts as well, including new “7th of the month” and “Tasty Tuesdays” posts. So, yeah… Please check back often, so you don’t miss anything! Oh, and don’t forget to comment, too!

Posted on

NaNoWriMo 2023 — Day #2

Today’s stats: 4 pages, 914 words
NaNo Totals: 12 pages, 3134 words

Today was a frustrating day, which left me unable to really focus on my writing. One of my motivators during NaNoWriMo is a bit of “friendly competition”. In other words, I track the progress of other writers — as a way of telling myself: “If they can write so many words, then so can I!” I can’t remember when I began this “friendly competition” habit or how many years I’ve been doing it, but I’ve found over the years that it definitely keeps me writing and (most days) “meeting my quota”.

Well… Due to “real life” distractions, I wasn’t able to “meet my quota” today — writing a measly 912 words. Yesterday, my total word count of 2222 put me in 2nd place (out of 15 other “competitors”). Today, my rather dismal word count dropped me down to 5th place.

So, yeah… I’m a bit bummed, but something Mark Oshiro said in a pep talk that I read after updating my official word count gave me hope. Here’s what Mark said:

“You don’t have to write every single day in November to accomplish your goals. I did not have consistent word counts each day, but I remained consistently engaged throughout the process by reminding myself of what I loved: the story and the joy.“

I think I’m going to turn this quote into a poster that I keep within sight while writing — to remind myself that I don’t have to write every day OR have consistent word counts each day. Thanks, Mark!

Anyway… Please keep checking back to see more updates. Oh! If you’re a “WriMo”, I’d love to hear about your experiences, progress, and/or progress, so please post a comment!

Posted on

NaNoWriMo 2023 — Day #1

Today’s stats: 8 pages, 2222 words
NaNo Totals: 8 pages, 2222 words

For NaNoWriMo this year, I decided to be a REBEL by working on “Curaçao Eyes”, the historical romance novel that I began at the beginning of this year. It’s a story that I am bound and determined to FINISH — and SUBMIT for publication eventually. However, I won’t think about that part of the process until after I’ve written “The End” on the first draft of the manuscript for this novel! One thing at a time, and right now, that “one thing” is NaNoWriMo — 50,000 words of the first draft!

My original goal for NaNoWriMo 2023 was to use a “reverse word count chart” — in which I write the most words at the beginning of the month (i.e. 3,000+ words during the first week) and then slowly decreasing until I’d only have to write 1 word on November 30th. I’ve been trying (off and on) to approach NaNoWriMo in this manner, but it’s never worked out for me. Now that I’ve discovered GWIC (Global Write-in Crawl), an international event that features days and days of sprints designed to help writers crank out the words in 15- to 30-minute intervals, I’m hoping to make easy work of those initial days of 3,000+ words. Once I’m able to get past that word-count hurdle, the rest of the month SHOULD be fairly easy since each day’s quota will go down every day.

Anyway… Please check back as I will be posting regular NaNoWriMo progress updates — which I’m hoping will lead to other non-NaNo posts as well (i.e. my “7th of the Month” and “Tasty Tuesdays” posts), especially after this year’s “competition” becomes history.

Posted on

NaNoWriMo 2022: “It’s a wrap!”

The main event of NaNoWriMo has come and gone, and even though I didn’t feel ready for it, I managed to cross the 50,000-word “finish” line. As with many of my other NaNoWriMo “wins”, this one was definitely at the last minute!

In my first post about NaNoWriMo 2022, I mentioned that I was going to be a rebel — by writing a series of short stories that I hoped would “read like a novel”. Well… The first “short” story morphed into a novel! So, I have yet to finish a short story, but that’s another journal entry…

In my (few) posts about my NaNoWriMo progress, I used the following format for updating my official word count here in my journal:

Day # — daily word count (total word count)

Since I posted the first four days in an earlier journal entry, I figured that I would include this information for the last four days of NaNoWriMo 2022:

Day 30 – 3,488 (51,015 total words!)

Day 29 — 1,610 (47,527 total words)

Day 28 — 2,219 words (45,917 total words — Note: I didn’t record this data on 11/27/22.)

Day 26 — 1,979 words (43,698 total words)

I absolutely LOVE the fact that I ended NaNoWriMo 2022 with a total word count that is a PALINDROME: 51015! It just happened! I don’t think I could’ve planned it that way! Well… Maybe I could’ve noticed I was close to a palindrome and then did what I could to end with one… Only I will know for sure!

Since I livened up my first NaNoWriMo 2022 post with some NaNo “swag”, I’m going to do it again — by adding some WINNER’S “swag” to this last NaNoWriMo 2022 post…

And there you have it: PROOF that I am, indeed, a NaNoWriMo 2022 WINNER!

Posted on

Came up short…

In yesterday’s post, I mentioned that I was going to try something new as far as my word count is concerned. I was going to try to write five pages during my first writing session of the day, which will be after I update my word count and before I go to bed. Then… During my usual writing session (after 9:30 PM), I’ll try to write the rest of my 10-page quota.

Well… As the title of this post indicates, I came up short — by 410 words. 🙁 Instead of writing 2,500 words (ten 250-word pages), I only wrote a little over eight pages. I think the reason I came up short was two-fold:

First, I didn’t write the full five pages before I went to bed “last night”, and

second, I didn’t start writing early enough today.

Oh, well… I’m sure it’s going to take some time to get used to the new “catch up” writing schedule! However, the good news is that this new writing schedule maintains my “Unplugged Sundays” — though I might try to do some writing the old-fashioned way: pen on paper in order to prevent myself from falling too far behind to catch up.

Speaking of getting caught up, I did a bit of figurin’ after updating my word count, and I figured that I’d be able to get back onto a NaNoWriMo pace by Thanksgiving AND get AHEAD on Black Friday. Of course, this may depend on what we end up doing for the holiday. If I’m able to get my writing done on Thanksgiving AND maintain the 10-page quota I started today, I should be able to cross the 50,000-word “finish line” A DAY EARLY — on the 29th of November. If I continue at this accelerated pace, I might end NaNoWriMo with a grand total of…

(Wait for it…)

52,639 words.

That would be SO COOL, but only time will time if I’ll be successful in this endeavor! So… If you’re curious about whether I’ll be able to maintain this rather grueling pace, you’re welcome to check back as often as you’d like!

Posted on

Ugh! Flat-lining…

Even though I managed to write more words today, the word-count graph on my official NaNoWriMo stats looks like it has been flat-lining for five days! Almost a week!! Ugh!!!

By the end of today (Election Day 2022), I should have written a grand total of…

(Wait for it…)

13.336 words.

Sadly, I only have a grand total of 5,449 words. Consequently, I’m a whoppin’ 7,887 words behind! (Like that number, though, because it’s a PALINDROME!)

All is NOT lost, though. Tomorrow, I’ll be starting a new tactic: writing TEN 250-word pages in a single day. I’m going to be doing this by splitting the ten-page quota in half — writing five pages after updating my word count (read: before I go to bed) and then writing another five pages in the evening when I normally do my writing. We’ll see how that goes…

Posted on

Dismal, dismal, dismal…

By this, I’m referring to today’s NaNoWriMo word count. Due to a variety of factors (that, I think, shall remain nameless), I only managed to write less than 100 words before midnight today. 🙁

The past couple of days haven’t been a complete loss, though. Yesterday was one of my “Unplugged Sundays” (the day of the week when I try to remain “unplugged” — by not using any electronics), so I didn’t get on the computer to “meet my quota”. However, I did spend much of the day researching the main historical event upon which one of my NaNoWriMo short stories will be based; created a timeline of this historical event, AND, most importantly, tried to figure out how my fictional characters will fit in with — and be affected by — the event. Today, I did a bit more research, specifically, about one of the “real life” people that was affected by the historical event in a major way and with whom my characters will interact.

Because I am now a whoppin’ 6,429 words behind a NaNo pace, I REALLY need to figure out how I can get caught up while maintaining my “Unplugged Sundays”. At this point, I think I’m going to start putting in TWO writing sessions per day:

The first one will be after midnight since I’m a “night owl”. Haven’t been doing this one since I’ve been trying to get all of my writing done before midnight — in order to update my NaNoWriMo word count for the day.

The second one will be in the evening — when I’ve currently been doing all of my writing. This should allow me to “double up” on my writing and thus, help me get caught up — and maybe even ahead — in word count.

Well… That’s the plan now. Only time will tell how effective this plan will be in the long run. Wish me luck ‘cuz I’m definitely going to need all I can get in order to “win” this year’s NaNoWriMo event!

Posted on

Just when I thought…

Just when I thought I was getting myself onto a “NaNo pace” (of 1,667 words per day), I came skidding to a halt. Well… Maybe not quite a complete halt (because I did manage to write some words today), but not nearly as many words as I had hoped to write — split between two different writing sessions. These two writing sessions are part of this month’s plan for tackling NaNoWriMo. The plan involves “putting my writing first” by writing after my “wake up” and “morning” routines (the latter of which includes writing a “Pages” entry, which is actually a part of my writing routine) AND before I tackle “the three tasks” of the day. Sounds simple, right? Sadly, it’s not so easy to put into practice, especially since I’ve discovered that I’m VERY easily distracted — often bouncing from task to task. “Practice makes better” as I always say.

Anyway… As I mentioned in the “Important note” in the post with that beautiful image (courtesy of NaNoWriMo), I will be updating my NaNoWriMo progress with posts to my online “Journal”, which is where I hope this post will end up after I push the “Publish” button.

In these “Journal” posts, I’ll be sharing with you my daily progress during NaNoWriMo. This will include the words I managed to write each day as well as my total word count, using the following format:

Day # Daily word count (total word count)

AND they’ll have the current day’s totals at the top and the older entries further down. By the end of the month, this part of the posts will be quite long.

Day 4 – 1,084 (4,726)

Day 3 — 1,768 (3,642 total words)

Day 2 — 871 words (1,875 — just a bit over one day’s needed word count of 1,667 words)

Day 1 — 1,004 words (1,004 total words)