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I have to admit I am struggling with my novel! I crashed last weekend, just exhausted from moving house plus the day job has gone into overdrive. But hey, I am still trucking with NaNoWriMo and I'm still learning about fiction writing! Word count: 20,033
Here's my video of lessons learned, with text below.
Lessons learned from NaNoWriMo in the last few days:
- I have total respect for people who have already reached the goal of 50,000 words. That's hardcore – congrats! I don't expect to get to 50,000 words by next Monday but I will still have done a good chunk of work on my thriller novel. I have started it this month and the encouragement of Nanowrimo has been a fantastic start. One of my goals for 2010 is to complete that novel, get it edited and submit to the publishing process (shock horror!). I also intend to podcast it at some point as I am such a fan of other podcast novelists.
- I made the mistake of printing what I had done in order to review it and see where I could fit some scenes in. This made me realize how much is missing, and that I need some kind of map to follow. I am not an organic writer it seems! I am also struggling with the ending which I wanted to write so I know where it's going. I am going to go back and outline after I finish this month, and then slot what I have written into it and fill in the blanks. I would like to use Scrivener but it is only available for the Mac! There is a whole post here about writing software options. You can, of course, use Post Its and basic tools, but hey, I love the gadgets!
- I have got some decent word-count through using Write or Die which is a fantastic free online app (or PC edition for $10). There are lots of settings, but I have it on full-screen mode with no interruptions for writing. You set word count or time and then just write. If you stop writing for too long, I have it set so the screen goes pink, then redder to bright red, then the evil violins start until I get writing again. It is surprisingly motivating and you can get a lot done. I am going to be using this for my fiction writing as an ongoing tool, and attempt the early morning write-a-thons.
- I have a lot to learn. I got to my first fight scene and then realized I seriously have no clue about guns and fight moves. It is also interesting that how I want it to sound ends up being a long way from what comes out on the page! I am very comfortable with business writing, blogging, non-fiction writing and even marketing speak, but fiction is another thing entirely! Luckily, writing is a lifetime experience and we are all learning! I LOVE learning, I would say it is one of my top motivators, so this is great for me. It's good to realize I have a long way to go, but everyone starts somewhere right!
I will have one more final post after the close of NaNoWriMo next week, and then I will keep you up to date with the novel as it progresses.
