[Update] NaNoWriMo 2011

When I write this, NaNoWriMo is exactly a week underway (it is Monday when I type this) and people are starting to panic that they won't make their goal. Other people are celebrating their X amount of words and write like they're being chased by a rocket. They have one thing in common: they all write. 

And that's what I've done for the past week, too. I wrote. And I wrote some more. And then I outlined some more, thought of characters, places, small plotlines and important dialogue. I researched until 2 in the morning and then I wrote some more. Needless to say, I'm so thankful that I can just wear my writers uniform while I spend my days becoming more and more like a zombie sitting behind my laptop. 

So.. How is my NaNo going? Up until now, I must say that it all goes very fast. Days go by very quick, with me in a position that's similar to the one in the picture below.

Either that, or I'm typing. My outline is 14 pages long at the moment, with numerous post-its stuck to the outlining with notes on it like in what tense I should write (Me and I do not agree on this. I have found post-its with 'PRESENT TENSE' and 'write everything in past tense' in my notes.) and character traits that I still need to type out in Scrivener. I have drawn several maps, have four pages filled with names alone, and have found some things that I need to tackle in the sequel (yes, you read that right).

Which brings me to my saviour of this month: SCRIVENER, I LOVE YOU. I downloaded the trial version and immediately fell in love with it. Somewhere last week I decided that I wanted to add another POV, which meant that I had to add several chapters and had to shuffle some stuff around. Scrivener is genius and saved me with this. How? SPLIT LEVELS! OMG, I can't give this software enough praise. It's frigging fantastic!

But, back to the writing before this post turns into a Scrivener ad. I have written my ass off in the past couple of days, and with result: on Monday at 4 PM, I reached 20,000 words. I passed 20k! That's the total amount I wrote in 2010 so I'm super proud of myself. *happy dances around the room*

It is hard work, writing 50,000 words. Hard work doesn't really cover it. A word more fitting would be 'crazy'. Or possibly 'insane'. But it's also a lot of fun. I love seeing other people tweet about their wordcount, people posting shout-outs on one of the forums when they reach 5k or 50k, doing the sprints and talking about what we love. Books, writing, reading, TV shows.. I love the forums. I love the people who post on there. We're a writing community and it's SO awesome to talk with others about minor characters that suddenly take over the limelight and turn into main characters, love interests we didn't know where there, and bunnies (the bunnies are always there).

Because if you're participating in NaNo, it's about writing 50k, but mainly it's about having fun while writing. The 50k is just a challenge. If you're ahead of schedule; YAY! GO YOU! If you're behind, remember that everything that you wrote wouldn't have been written if you didn't participate in NaNo. Even though you may not make it to that goal of writing fifty thousand, you wrote when you wouldn't normally have written. Which means that with every word you wrote, you won.

Write on, WriMos!


PS: I apologize for the (lack of) structure in this post. It is all over the place, which is a perfect representation of my current state of mind. I had cookies to celebrate reaching 20k. The sugar is doing its work..