For anyone else doing NaNo, you can tell it isn’t going super well. Weirdly, I seem to be a little behind on the 43,000 words I am supposed to be at . . .but for how many days I have skipped writing, this actually isn’t that awful. And, I know I should just be laughing at myself right now, but I”m still going to try. . .. I think. 😛
I have had a couple great writing nights. My friend, who is doing this with me, came up with an awesome game that combines Hallmark movies, wine, and writing. A drinking game, if you will, but without doing actual shots so we can still write. She came up with this very impressive list of items that dictate when you get to take a sip of your drink and write words. So, you start that Hallmark movie, and then you watch for the cliches. For instance, every time it snows, you take a sip and write 10 words. Every time someone has a deadline by Christmas, you take a sip and write 25 words. Every time someone goes Christmas tree shopping, you take a sip and write 50 words. Every time someone overhears part of a conversation and misinterprets it, you take as sip and write 100 words. Every time you spot a common overarching theme, such as pretend boy/girlfriends, you take a sip, set a timer and write for 10 minutes. You get the idea. Obviously those aren’t the only criteria. The guidelines are 2 pages long. But, I”m sure you will be shocked to hear that in the course of watching one Hallmark Christmas movie, we generally get a minimum of 1,000 words done. Maybe I should just do that from now until the end of the month . . .
Anyway, I”m mostly checking in here to let anyone struggling with the last pages of their novel know about this awesome way of getting word count in and to let those who are struggling to get past the first HALF of their novel know that they are not alone.
Good luck, NaNoers!
Forest Idylls 