Cat Pollock Writes

Instead of writing (like a good NaNoer should be), I've been playing around with signature banners for the NaNoWriMo site. Here's what I came up with for this year's novel. And I'll be posting the last ten days' worth of word counts in the next twenty-four to forty-eight, so stay tuned!

This day will live in infamy for two reasons I think are very important. 1. I let myself get distracted by the Phoenix Suns/Orlando Magic game and trash talking through the second half with one of my World Race squad mates... that might have started sooner if I hadn't been at work or on my way home through the first half. The time I spent on that was not time spent writing. Therefore, I did not write a single word for the novel tonight. 2. After all the effort I put into talking smack about the Magic (which was, eh... not much - guess that should teach me a lesson, huh?), they totally handed the Suns their heads on a silver platter. 22 point loss, and the end of a 4-game winning streak. A season opening winning streak, at that. To add insult to injury, I logged on to Facebook after the game to find my squad mate had posted something on my wall.

Day 4 Word Count: 0 NaNoWriMo Total: 7,386 The sun sets today on a day of shame. Not a stinkin' word on the novel, and no way to spin it otherwise. Guess I'll be spending some extra time at the computer this weekend to catch up.

Here's how I imagine the conversation would go if someone I know were to ask me about my NaNo progress. Them: "Hey, I heard you were doing NaNoWriMo again. How'd that go last year?" Me: "Good, I guess. I won." Them: "Awesome. Can I read the novel?" Me: "Not yet. It isn't anywhere near ready to read." Them: "Oh... so, how's it going so far this year?" Me: "Really well. Funny story, though - I had an idea at the beginning of October I was fleshing out, but on November 1st, it decided not to write itself." Them: "Not to..." Me: "So I switched plots." Them: "You switched plots. Um... wow." Me: "Yeah, I know, crazy. But this plot's been rattling around in my head since November of last year, so these characters are absolutely ready to spill the beans." Them: "Okay, well... nice to see you, Cat. See you next year." Me: "Actually, two years."...

Day 3 Word Count: 2,487 NaNoWriMo Total: 7,386 "Tomorrow" has held up very well for me... at least yesterday's tomorrow, anyway. In three days, I've never seen less than 2,100 words, and two of those days, I've almost encountered 2,500! The average so far is 2,462 words/day. I want to see if I can raise that average. If I manage to get to over 2,500 by November 15th, then I will adjust my goal for the rest of the month by raising it to 3,000 words a day. At the rate I am writing at this moment, at the end of the month my manuscript will be 73,860 words... not too far short of a length publishers actually like. If the story is anything publishable is another story entirely, though. Onward to Day Four!

I'm curious, as a returning NaNoer myself, about the writing habits of some of my fellow writers. Here are my questions: Do you do all your writing strictly at your computer? If not, then how often would I find you with a journal where you write odds and ends when you have no way to get to a computer? Am I likely to find you in a stone cold silent room, or jamming to some hot tunes? If you're a jammer, are you likely to be sporting sound reducing headphones or cranking it up so loud the neighbors are on the verge of calling the police because your music is loud enough to be considered noise pollution? Does your flow come better early in the morning, or late at night? How much do distractions throw you off track for your writing target for the day?  Answer any of the above, all of the above, or make up your own question about writing habits and answer it. See you tomorrow!

Day 2 Word Count: 2,164 NaNoWriMo Total: 4,899 Today was a really rough day on the word count. Between the Day One post and two thirty this morning, I added about 2,000 words to my total, and went to bed with bright visions of well over 6,000 words in just two days. I came back to the computer three hours later to find that the computer had somehow erased everything I wrote in that three hour time period. A minor heart attack ensued. Instead of a very healthy 6,500+ word count tonight like I was anticipating when I went to sleep, I am staring at the 5,000 mark. I'm a little bit ahead of where I was when I went to bed... which is something. I console myself with the knowledge that I am still well ahead of my goal so far, and that I am light years ahead of where I sat at this time last year. As for what tomorrow holds? We'll see.

When I logged in to post my first NaNo total for the day, I found a comment waiting for me in response to a blog I wrote at the beginning of last month about NaNoWriMo CD Share . I was asked to post an example or two of playlists NaNoers have listened to. I can certainly do that, but with this caveat - no one has exactly the same taste in music, and what is going to work for one NaNoer isn't going to always work for another. I know, for me, there are a lot of variables when I make up a playlist. A few examples:  What state of mind is my MC in?  Where is he/she during the scene I'm writing?  What type of music does my MC strike me as listening to? Not everyone writes the same way as I do, though. A lot of people need instrumental music in order to write, because songs with lyrics get to be a distraction (especially when the song is catchy enough to start singing along to). Some people can't write to music, period. No one person writes the same way, so you really do h...

Day 1 Word Count: 2,735 NaNoWriMo Total: 2,735 It was a slow start, but a couple of hours ago, the dam burst. It's certainly looking better than last year's fresh out of the gate total (927 words for the day). But a better start this year doesn't necessarily mean a better finish. This is an encouraging starting point, though. I'm pretty excited about it, and it certainly gives me a lot of hope for the rest of the month!