The Confabulator Cafe

Tag: week 2

  • Death Week

    Wrimos or NoWris? Anyone have an opinion?

    Crap. It’s Week 2. Death Week. The Week of flaccid attempts to go somewhere with the brilliantly (and last-minute) conceived ideas that started the month off so well. The Week where WriMos/NoWris drop like flies.

    Hi, I’m Jason.

    This is my fifth NaNoWriMo, I’m familiar with this week. So are you if you’ve participated more than once. I’ve had trouble with it and I’ve overcome it, too. This year, I’m taking a different approach, though.

    I think I’ve mentioned a couple of places that last year’s novel, after some serious editing and revisions, got a RR notice (Revise and Resubmit). I also believe I’ve mentioned here or somewhere (I’m all over the internet, I can’t remember what I’ve said where – whups!) that this year’s novel is a kind of sequel to last year’s. So as I hit the dreaded Week Two, I wanted to be ahead of the curve and I am. A good five days ahead of the curve. Yay, me.

    I wanted to be ahead so that I could split my time revising the first novel while I’m writing the second one.

    So far it’s working pretty well. I’m topping my personal goals every day for word count and making excellent progress on the revision. In addition, they’re informing each other. I can see where foreshadowing in the first novel informs the second and also I’m able to tie the second book more firmly to the first.

    Another bonus is that this year’s novel is better to start with. I’m not head-hopping like I was last year. Still writing too many passive sentences in the effort for sentence variety but that’s easily fixable. I’m also still avoiding a lot of -ly adverbs and that’s a trap in itself.

    But it’s all good. I’m managing to juggle the day job, writing, and editing all at once.

    So far.

    But you know – jeez, three jobs. And family and chores and even some down time.

    I’ll let you know how it’s going next week. ‘Til then, I’ve got writing to do.

  • Week Two Sucks. That Is All.

    Well, here we are. The dreaded week two. Jane Lynch continues to scream abuses into my ear, but I have to admit, her voice is getting weaker.

    I’m currently well over 30k words, but the gap between the regular NaNo goal and my spazzy personal goal is narrowing. I still hope to catch up and finish this first novel by next Monday, though. Not quite a two week NaNo finish, but damn close.

    Still, this is about training myself to write every single day, regardless of whether I feel like it. Because it’s my job. Jane’s right about that, at least. I’ve had two or three days where I only managed to produce 1500 words, but other than that, it’s been 2-4k every day.

    Every book I’ve written has, at some  point, sent me into a spiral of self-doubt. Usually it begins right around the 30k mark. The fact that it didn’t hit me this time until about four chapters from the climax scene (at which point, it’ll be downhill, and I’ll finish quickly) must mean something. Either my ego has grown tremendously since the last one, or maybe, just maybe, this one is better.

    But I seriously doubt it.

    I look at what I’ve written up to this point and pound my chest in despair. It’s not funny enough. People expect me to be funny. This one is so dark. I’ve already cried twice since I started writing it. There are continuity issues that need to be fixed. One very important character doesn’t sound the way I want her to, except for rare one-liners. I have too many characters. My story has holes. I am the worst writer on the planet.

    And I’d rather set my hair on fire than write another festering word.

    And that, my friends, is the dreaded NaNo week two.

    So, yeah. My progress has slowed. But that’s okay. I’m still making progress each day, even if it’s not at the pace I’d wanted. And I will still finish about two weeks early.

    You know why?

    Because I need a two-week break from this piece of crap before I start editing it into something I can send my editor a month later without her falling into a dead faint.

    If that’s not motivation, I don’t know what is.