BellaOnline Forums Career Fiction Writing NaNoWriMo Progress Tally

I'm just joining the Bellaonline community all together. I signed up as member probably about two months ago but it wasn't until I was just accepted as an editor last week that I've really started learning my way around the website. I've been reading all your posts about NaNaWriMo and think it sounds like a great challenge! As a preteen and teenager I use to write all the time. In fact, I have five fully finished handwritten novels in some box back in my parents home, but I haven't challenged myself to write a novel since I left high school. I've been thinking about it for a year now and finally started writing one again about the time I found Bellaonline. I'm 6500 words in so with this being the 5th day, I think I'm about a day behind the daily goal Lisa mentioned in her earlier post but I'm going to try my best to see how close to the 50,000 word mark I can get by the end of the month. I'm not very optimistic that I'll make it with a full time job and two small children but it's a challenge worth trying. I wish you all the best of luck and would love to hear more about what you're writing.

Dear Angela -

Welcome - it's great to have you! That is fantastic about your finished novel. You should find them and publish them! We would be happy to help. Self publishing is quite easy and many of us have published novels we wrote when younger. I myself have published medieval novels I wrote in high school and post-high-school. It's a great project!

It is fantastic that you are working on NaNoWriMo! So much of this is about mindset. A negative mindset can affect our energy so much! Put away all thoughts about "it won't work". Erase those. Know that you can do it. Know that many people out there are doing it with kids and jobs.

Yes, absolutely be gentle with yourself. It's OK to miss a day! It's ok to have hurdles! The point is not to be rough with yourself. The point, instead, is to have glowing energy. It can work. The more you know something CAN work, the more it DOES work. And the more you're gentle with the normal hiccups, the more they fade away.

This is all training for real life. The more you build that glowing, solid energy within you, and the more you can ignore the nay-sayers, the more *everything* becomes easy in life. The more *every* project finds success. That is what this is all about!

What type of novel are you writing? I'd love to hear more about it in that novel's area! For example mine is a mystery so I'm posting the specific details in the mystery books forum .

I am now on Day 5 and I have reached 12,560 words. My average is 2,512 words a day, at an hour or less a day. I am striving to stay within the hour to show everyone that this CAN be done even on tight time. And I am not rushing at all. I am not "frantically typing nonsense" . I am flowing out scenes and characters that I adore.

I think that is a key thing to keep in mind here. It is about creating a mindset that it CAN BE DONE. Believe in yourself. Believe in your characters! Let all judgement go. Know that the story you have within you deserves to be told. This is a first draft. That is fine. Release that writer's block and critical voice and simply let your mind do what it was meant to do. The more you do it, the better your mind gets at it. The more you practice, the better you get.

The NaNoWriMo interface is very cool. It encourages you to keep going. Here is my screenshot for the day.



How are you guys doing? It is OK if you hit challenges!! Challenges are normal. Challenges are fine. Keep going. Perseverance is what wins out in the end. So many people who have "succeeded" in life say it's not about brains or brawn or money. It's all about sticking with it. Harry Potter's author was turned down 20+ times. WalMart's owner failed several times. So did Macy's. Just keep at it. It's keeping at it that gets you through the hurdles and to your goal.

Made it to 8000 words tonight. Lisa, I guess it would be considered literary fiction. Do I just post it as a new thread in the literary fiction forum or under which existing thread? I would love some feedback so I'll post information on it once I learn where soon. Thanks for the encouragement.

Dear Angela -

That is *awesome* !! Congratulations!

Sure, make a new thread in Literary Fiction! I would love to hear about your work there.

Today I wrote 3052 words. Today was election day so I voted and then we went to a farm stand and then to a local Italian restaurant for the story. The restaurant was deserted. So it was interesting to integrate that into the storyline.

I wrote for an hour. My words for today were 3,025. Again I want to make clear that I'm not pushing or rushing. I'm simply writing out what is happening.

Hi Lisa,

I just read your question about posting in the sci-fi forum about the content. I have issues with discussing too much of a work in progress. It always seems to stop the flow. The most I do is throw out a few ideas at hubby. With it being sci-fi, if he gets excited about it I feel like I'm on track.

I'm at 8,052 so far today. A bit behind for nano but way ahead of what I thought I could do.

Thank you all for such a supportive writing environment.

Alice

btw - I can't even imagine typing 3,000 words in an hour if the story were sitting right in front of me. That is impressive!

Ugh, this is a tough year! Not so much because of the story, but because of time restraints... we're in the process of doing some work on the house to get it up for sale, starting to work out the logistics of a move to another country, on top of work and work and more work. My husband works 80+ hours a week, so when he's home, we spend what time we can getting some fun things in.

That said, I'm right at the 10,000 mark. Hoping to get ahead today, as I have the day off from work... we shall see. My dogs aren't thrilled with mom sitting at the computer all day... but the occasional game of fetch will at least quiet them for a little bit.

Lisa - love the idea of writing in different places... I find that, too, that there's something about your surroundings that can really spark the creativity - especially when you're in the place you're writing about!

Good afternoon, ladies, I posted a synopsis type of thing that I sent to my sister awhile ago about my writing project in the literary fiction forum. Feedback and direction would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. And happy writing to everyone.