NaNoWriMo – A Review of the First Day
Bria poured another cup of coffee from her NaNoWriMo thermos as she stared at the blank Word document in front of her. The clock ticked away the seconds, each thud mimicked by a twitch in her eye. The blank page mocked her with it’s whiteness. She wanted to scream at it; to tear it to pieces. Unfortunately, it’s electronic and thus not tear-able.
They need to make electronic scissors, she thought. She envisioned a pair of digital, shiny blades tearing through the digital, white paper. It was a satisfying thought. Her fingers rested on the keys as her mind remained blank.
Why am I doing this again?
End Scene
Sooooo, the first day of NaNoWriMo is complete and I have reached 2, 579 words (you can verify that in the handy counter on the side of the screen). I meant to post this last night, but I got distracted trying to reach 2,500 words… Here are a few things I learned yesterday:
- The NaNoWriMo thermos I purchased holds 2.5 mugs of coffee and keeps it pipping hot from 8am until around 11am… and warm until 1:30pm. (for your reference, my mugs are fairly big… not those little tea cup sized mugs. Oh no, not for this writer.)
- All of the story planning in the world will not prepare you for the first moment of hesitation – if you doubt your plot has any validity or lose your passion for the story and thus your drive, it’s like doubting your whole existence… ok, that might be overly dramatic. But, if I may refer to something my father taught me – do NOT be a squirrel my friends.
- Social Media was created to distract writers everywhere.
- Blogs were created to reduce the word count/day average of writers everywhere – or at least to divert it from the story.
- Re-reading your work is a death sentence – don’t do it until you’re done writing for the day. And even then, don’t do it. Wait until December 1st when it won’t be so depressing… or maybe it will be more depressing. I don’t know. Do you know?
- Competition is the key to success… sort of. It’s at least the key to completion. I was about to stop after writing a measly 1,625 words, when I went on the NaNoWriMo website and saw that some of my Writing Buddies were already at over 5,000 words. That’s when that evil little competitor in me went “you SLACKER, get those fingers BACK on the keyboard RIGHT NOW and TYPE, WOMAN! TYPE!”
- The best laid plans… they don’t really work out. Haven’t once used my iPad/Evernote as a tool for tracking or referring to things, and I’m fairly certain I’ve already deviated from my outline… such is life, I suppose.
- Make use of your resources! Or don’t. It’s up to you.
- Exercise/physical activity sparks creativity – at least in my case it does. Or maybe it was the knock to the head at soccer that really shook up all that inspiration.
- I don’t really have a number 10 but that’s ok! – in fact, even if you don’t know what you’re going to write, just write. Type a word. Then a second word. Then a third. Eventually you’ll get to four…. and so on.
Well, those were my thoughts on the first day of NaNoWriMo. So far, today’s word count is at zero. Sometimes paying the bills just has to come first.
Anyone here participating in NaNo? Share your first day stories in the comments!
PS: This is my 50th post. I like milestones. They make me happy.
Great post! Good luck! I’m doing NaNo too! You can see my progress from Day One here!
http://wp.me/p2EVWK-8c
Great blog you’ve got here! I’ll be sure to follow! 🙂
Thanks! I’ll definitely check out your blog too. Happy writing!
You’re welcome! Thank you! You too! 🙂
Hey! I referenced this article in my blog post about my first day of writing for NaNo!
Great post! I love hearing from other people doing the challenge!
Visited your blog – keep the rebellion alive! 😉 Thanks for referencing my blog. I will be posting more about my experience in the coming days… partly because it seems to be easier to write a blog than to add words to my story.
Good job not giving up! My first day was okay (1788 words), Day 2, I worked 12 hours at my paying gig and had nothing to give to my story. Had the day off work today, finished at a little over 10,000 words (okay, okay, if you insist…10,103 words to be exact…and really, don’t we all know exactly how many words we’ve written?)
Great job! Have you been able to progress further since then?