Wednesday, November 7, 2012

IWSG and NaNo do not mix

I completely forgot that today was the first Wednesday of the month! It's like NaNo drove everything else out of my head, which admittedly it does.

When I'm doing NaNo, I can't think of anything other than my story.

Since I do 2000 words per day (technically) the rest of the time, I decided to increase my goal to 4000 per day for NaNo. So far I've done that about half the time. I'm still accepting 2000 per day, since that will get me to the end of the month with the 50k.

But today I haven't written anything. It's not that I've reached a dead-end (I got to that and got through it yesterday) but I'm all distracted. So much is going on, and other things NOT going on, and my brain is buzzing. Loudly.

I really don't know how to explain it. I can't focus on the actions and motivations of the characters when my brain is running in fifty different directions at once. Forty-nine I can handle, but fifty?

On top of that, I have this one scene in my head that I can't write yet. I have to get them all in order. My brain keeps shoving it forward, saying nownownow but so many other things have to happen first. And last night at a NaNo write-in somebody said something about mermaid eels, which gave my brain something else to concern itself with. Which of course brough the total up to fifty, and led to total priority paralysis.

And if this post sounds scrambled, confused and rambling, there's a good reason for it.

It is scrambled, confused and rambling.

10 comments:

  1. I can relate to being distracted. I'm not doing NaNo, so I can only imagine how rattled that large commitment is leaving you. Good luck!

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    1. Lots of people aren't doing NaNo this year--the numbers were probably pretty much the same last year, but I wasn't paying attention.

      Last year I didn't have this blog so I didn't know so many writers.

      Lauren

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  2. Maybe you should just write that scene and get it out of the way?

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    1. I thought about it--briefly--but my brain works strangely. First, if I write the scene my brain will struggle to go in any other direction other than that one. Second, I know from experience that if I start writing ahead I never go back and fill in the missing pieces.

      Lauren

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  3. I'm not doing NaNo because I'm in revision and just want to finish my book. I can't think about how a scene should happen until I sit down to type. Actually, I mostly stand up to type. Maybe you should try that. You might find your brain works through your fingers like mine, and there's better blood flow if you stand.

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    1. At the moment I don't have an official go-to-work job, so I have time to do both writing and editing.

      I normally don't work that way either, but I got a flash of this woman being forced into the water of the Demons Bay and now my fingers want to write it. If it doesn't end up in the book, I'll probably do it as a short story.

      Lauren

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  4. I'm not doing Nano because I know I couldn't keep up. I definitely identify with a brainful of too many ideas - it's crippling! Good luck with getting on with your writing tomorrow!

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    1. I need all the luck you can spare. Send it my way!

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