The Challenges of NaNoWriMo and Dieting at the Same Time

Because participating in NaNoWriMo isn't crazy AF challenging enough, I've decided in addition, to go back on my restrictive sugar diet. 

How's it going you ask?

Well, let's see......

 

IWSG: I Tip My NaNo Cap To You

IWSG and National Novel Writing Month

Final Word Count: 25,650

Words Remaining: Ha, ahaha, ahahah!

Annnnd here's my recap.
(get it?! :P)

Well, I didn't win the challenge but I did get off to a decent start. Though I am a bit bummed I fell short of the 30k mark. Balancing writing time and my nutty personal life truned out to be a bigger challenge in November. 

"Tis what it is," I guess.

So what did I learn this month?

1: Getting off to a good start is paramount! 

I had been told to write as much as I could the first couple of days to surpass the daily requirement. I didn't really heed this warning, big mistake. There were days when I could have used the extra word count to compensate for unexpected setbacks. 

2: Have a good outline and stick to it. 

My outline was too general and I ended up spending too much time trying to figure out in what direction I wanted to take my story. The other thing that messed with me was by day 5 I had taken my story completely off its tracks in a different direction (into a wall) and basically gave my outline the middle finger. 

That was bad. 

Bad Elise, bad!

3: Avoid traveling during the challenge. You'll never get as much writing done as you think you will.

I told my self I'd get tons of writing done in the car. And I did... on the way down. But on the way back, it was all zzzzzzzzzzz. :P

4: No matter how prepared you think you are...BAM! Life comes along and kicks you in the ankles and sabotages your writing time. 

During the challenge I had to deal with some family crap and I lost two days of writing. Ugggg. 

Sometimes your real life gets in the way, but that's ok. Deal with it and move on. 

So I had a few setbacks. It happens. And though I didn't reach my goal, I am happy for giving it a shot and sticking through until the very last day. I also want to thank the NaNo team for all their work to make this challenge possible, and I tip my hat(s) to you and everyone who won NaNo or at least gave it a shot. And I also want to thank everyone for stopping by with your encouragements. You guys were great and made this challenge totally worth while. I wish I had had the time to reply to each and every one of you. However, I do plan on spending most of December trying to catch up with you all and see what's going on in the bloggosphere. 

Thanks again for all your support and to Alex and the IWSG for another great bloghop this month. You all rock! 

Now, back to work. :)

NaNo: Day26

National Novel Writing Month

Daily Word Count: Not nearly enough! 

Total Word Count: 24,285

Words Remaining: 25,715

Ok, so I kinda sorta fell off the writing wagon two days ago and holy crap I'm struggling to get back on. And now, I'm basically freaking the holy hell out. 

Plus, this weekend (the last two days of the challenge!!) I'll be going to my Ultimate (frisbee) tournament. I'm barely recovering from a sprained ankle but I'm not worried about hurting myself again, I'm worried I won't even hit the 30k mark. Accckkkk! But, I'll bring my laptop and try to sneak in some writing time in between games.... Ok, yeah I know that's not really going to work, there's going to be much beer drinking after the game....

So you know what?

I'm going to quit moaning, keep writing, try my best, and remind myself that things could be a whole lot worse. And if I don't hit my 30k mark by the end of the month, at least I got my F*ck Cancer t-shirt this morning, because... you know... 

FUCK CANCER!

And for all celebrating this Thursday, 

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

:D

NaNo: Day 21

National Novel Writing Month

Daily Word Count: 1, 003 

Total Word Count: 21,006

Words Remaining: 28,994


Yesterday, I only wrote about 950 words or so, but it was more about hitting the 20k mark than maintaining my thousand word a day goal. And I know it's all psychological and stuff 
but-- 
I HIT 20k and today I'm up 21K!

Now I know there are tons of people that already hit 20k+ weeks ago, but for me, I'm happy I've gotten this far. So now, the only thing left to do is to keep writing. "Onward and Upward! To Narnia!" err, I mean back to my writing cave! 

And I hope everyone has a kick ass weekend.

:D

NaNo: Day 19

National Novel Writing Month

Daily Word Count: 1, 000 and some

Total Word Count: 19,044

Words Remaining: 30,956

This is what I want to do right NOW.

I am so, soooo tired guys. It's been really hard pulling out these #!?%§!! words. But I've realized what makes my story move along more quickly and how to get my word count up--dialogue. I seem to be struggling with description lately. But dialogue, man, I can write pages of it. Maybe I should write the rest of the book with just dialogue. I think I'll start off by saying, 
"zzzz zzzz zzzzz zz zzzzzz zzz." 

NaNo: Day 16

National Novel Writing Month

Daily Word Count: 1, 040

Total Word Count: 16,093

Words Remaining: 33,907

Averaging 1000 words a day.
I think I can drink to that. ;)

Comet, who is always by my side when I write.

Galaxy, who'd rather I feed her than take her pic. 

One thousand more down today. Looks like that's going to be my average this month if I'm lucky. Hopefully, I'll be able to maintain this speed for the rest of November.  

Luckily, I've got my two fuzzy writing buddies that keep a watchful eye on me every day. 

:)

NaNo: Day 14/15

National Novel Writing Month

Daily Word Count: 1,257  

Total Word Count: 15,053

Words Remaining: 34,947

This is my midnight-humm-what-the-hell-do-I-write-next face.
I look like this most of the time. :D

Shhh, it's past midnight and I've finally broke the 15k mark-- *quiet dance* 

It's gotta be my tea cosy hats. ;)

Now, I need to get some sleep, it's the only time I can figure out what to write next. :P

Also, to everyone stopping by and being so darn encouraging, Thank you and I <3 you all. Sorry I can't be a better blogger/return commenter right now. But have a great weekend and I'll catch up with you soon. 

XXXOO

NaNo: Day 13 What The...

National Novel Writing Month

Daily Word Count: 1,099 and counting... 

Total Word Count: 12,921

Words Remaining: 37,039



From my NaNo Stats page it says: 

"At This Rate You Will Finish On 
December 21, 2014"

NaNo: Day 6 and a Moustache

National Novel Writing Month

Daily Word Count: 996 

Total Word Count: 7,995

Words Remaining: 42,005

Today's word count is pretty dismal but I knew it would be. I have a short trip planned, and updates, and writing time for the next few days are going to be complicated. However, I  am looking forward to the 5 hour car ride tomorrow to do some much needed catching up on my story.  

I'd also like to mention something far more important than my word count. The month of November is also Movember. It's a challenge  started by The Movember Foundation to raise awareness for Men's health and fund health programs. So to all my male friends and writing buddies out there, your health is important and early detection is key, so get your checkups done, and don't let something as little as a finger get between you and your health.

And in support, here is my Movember stache:

NaNo: Day 4

National Novel Writing Month

Daily Word Count: 1, 166

Total Word Count: 6,040

Words remaining: Too, damn many

It's coffee shop Tuesday! 

I usually enjoy coffee shop Tuesdays, the only inconvenience is having to do normal people stuff like shower, brush my hair, and put on normal clothes... :P But other than that, coffee shop Tuesdays are like mini field trips and I usually write best at the coffee shop, but not today. I'm not sure what happened because I really thought I wrote more words than I actually did.... though, my goal was to break 6k today so at least there's than. I also found out (while stuffing myself with a croissant) that trying to take a selfie in a French bakery shop and not look like a complete dumb ass, is impossible.

Focus Elise, FOCUS! 
Now get back to work. :P

Here's a different shot of me trying to be all discreet and stuff... doesn't all that bread in the background look yummy! 

Anyway, I'll try to get in a few more hundred words this evening after my daughter's swim practice...we'll see. 

Hope everyone is doing well this week! :)

NaNo: Day 3

National Novel Writing Month

Daily Word Count: 1, 566

Total Word Count: 4, 874
Words remaining: 45, 126

Today, I brought out the heavy artillery: beer, and BOOM! I got my word count back up. Not  really. I just wanted to write the word BOOM! 

Can you believe some folks have written well over 13,000 words after only 3 days!? I personally think they're using witchcraft which has to be against the rules, right? But then again, what do I know. 

Anyhow, I should probably stop comparing myself to others and just keep going nice and steady... *hiccup* this might be a problem.  ;)

NaNo: Day 2

National Novel Writing Month

Daily Word Count: 1, 552

Total Word Count: 3, 308
Words remaining: 46, 692

Pffffffffffffffffffffffffff......

I'm having a hard time finding my groove. 

So far it's all crap, crap, crap, crap....

NaNo: Day 1

National Novel Writing Month

Daily Word Count: 1, 756

Total Word Count: 1, 756
Words remaining: 48, 244

I barely squeaked by with the minimum requirement today. But to my defence, I had to deal with a lot of this today >> Comet, my fuzzy writing buddy, sauntering in front of the screen 10x a day, inspecting my work and frankly, she was not impressed, not one damn bit. I'm lucky she didn't puke all over the keyboard. I have a bad feeling this is going to be one hell of a month.

I've Done Something Crazy: NaNoWriMo

Ok, I've gone and done something dumb. I know, it's a regular thing with me these days...

After several years of avoiding the challenge, I've signed up for NaNoWriMo and beer wasn't even involved. I know damn well I don't have the time to write daily, plus I've got a trip planned around the 11th and an Ultimate tournament at the end of the month. Plus, I still don't have a solid outline finished and the plot keeps shifting and changing in my head every 7.8 minutes. 

However, I'm thinking if I survive the next 30 days, (all bets are on) I'll certainly have a heaping pile of shit pretty good first draft and surely better writing habits. I'm really trying to kick the Don't-edit-as-you-go, habit and just WRITE THE DAMN THING.  

Anyway, I've been a pretty terrible blogger these past few months, I keep getting curve balls thrown at me but heck, that's life. However, I'm going to try and give regular updates during the next 30 days which may or may not include pictures. ;) For example, here is my before or Pre-NaNo picture, along with my writing buddy, Comet. (Her sister Galaxy was building a sand castle in the box when this picture was taken. ;)

For those of you not doing NaNo, please hold me,  I hope you have a productive month and a fun and safe Halloween (if you're celebrating). We like to celebrate Halloween (candy anyone?!). Unfortunately, Halloween isn't a big thing over here and most folks don't even go out trick or treating. I know, it's sad. However, we are invited to a Halloween party Friday night (my FIRST ever Halloween party!). My daughter is dressing up as a scary fairy, my son as Mikey the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, and I'm going to try and paint a sugar skull on my face and sport some wild purple hair. Scary for sure! 

Anyway, having a blast Friday night is definitely on my list of things to do. In fact, it's the only thing on my list for Friday because I know what's coming the following day....I have an English class to teach. Oh and yeah...... it's also the start of Writing-My-Ass-Off-NaNoWRITING MONTH! 

See you all for my next update!

*******

Do you guys celebrate Halloween? What's your favorite costume and/or what's your costume this year? And are you crazy enough to do NaNo this year too?