NaNoWriMo 2009: Day 21

Just over a week ago when I posted my NaNoWriMo ramblings on Day 13, you probably would have guessed that I was a lost cause. But being one to never give up, I was determined not to let the looming word count of NaNoWriMo get the best of me.  I was on vacation last Friday and sat down for my three day weekend with plenty of coffee and determination to catch up.  I was only 7,000 words behind the suggested goal.  Easy as pie!

Boy was I wrong.  It seems I let Facebook and the television become easy distractions mainly because I still had no idea where I wanted my story to go.  The plot I had conceived so far in 14,000 words was just a slow build to where I knew I wanted the story to go, but I still had no inkling of plans for what was going to happen in between.  And this comes from someone who hardly ever uses an outline.  I’ve always jumped in feet first.

I blame it on the characters in my head.  You’ve heard me say it here before: I believe I’m a character medium and whoever is talking to me in my head at the time is the story my fingers have to tell.  So, I guess my psychic vampires and side show freaks are mad at me and not ready to have their story told, but gosh darn it, they are going to give me 50,000 words this month – like it or not!  But last weekend, playing catch up just wasn’t happening.

But a young author named Dawson Vosburg came to my rescue.  You might remember him from when we reviewed his book, Double Life, earlier this year. Dawson “tweeted” to me on Twitter (say that 5 times fast) that I should give a program called Write or Die a try.  At first, I rolled my eyes and kept plugging away, grunting and squeezing to conceive a sentence or two and pouring more coffee to cure my creative constipation (nice imagery, I know). By Sunday morning, I had written another 2,000 words but was still falling thousands behind.  I decided to listen to the advice of Dawson and give Dr. Wicked’s Write or Die a try.  And I’m so glad I did.

For those who haven’t looked into it, it’s an easy online or down-loadable program that helps prevent you from getting distracted.  You set a writing goal (word count).  You then set a time limit and your off.  If you are using the online program, you are taken to a blank screen where you start typing.  The word count goes up in one corner, while the time is counted down in the other.  If you pause for too long, your screen starts blinking pink and then red, until you start typing again.  If you pause for too long, screaming cats start screeching at you…literally.  Be sure to turn your volume up to get the full effect. This is if you are using the “normal” mode with a “strict” grace period.  You can change your settings to be more strict or more forgiving, including a “kamikaze” setting that will start to delete what you’ve written (one word at a time) if you pause for too long.  Here’s a YouTube video demonstrating the desk top version which you can download for $10.00.  While I haven’t downloaded it, I think it’s pretty neat because you can choose your own sound or upload your own to play when you pause for too long…

So, yes I was a skeptic at first, but ended up having so much fun with the program last Sunday that I experimented with different settings just to see how much of my story I could pound out in different amounts of time. Now, for the sake of the argument of quality vs. quantity which I discussed last week, yes, I admit that whatever you get out of Write or Die is probably NOT going to be of good quality.  But it does work when it comes to achieving word count to catch up with your NaNoWriMo goal if you are behind like I was. I went from 16,000 to 24,000 words in one day!  That’s probably THE most I’ve ever written in one single day.

And I have to admit that not all was lost when I went back to reread what I’d written.  Write or Die definitely helped to eliminate distraction and while I was more focused on achieving the word count goal in the set amount of time, I discovered that my story actually began to take some interesting turns that I had not expected and which I probably wouldn’t have written  into the plot on my own.  Somehow I was able to put the blinders up and not just pound out words, but the story took on shape and definition which it had lacked before. So, I was very satisfied with the results, and happy to catch up on my NaNoWriMo word count at the same time.  Thank you, Dawson, and thank you Dr. Wicked!

And I highly recommend the program to other writers.  Try it at least once.  If anything, it will help you improve your WPM and typing skills!  I posted this as a suggestion in my NaNo regional forum, but didn’t get any responses or feedback from other authors who might have tried the program before.  And speaking of the St. Louis forum, I quickly turned off the forum updates this week after I received this little gem in my email box a few days ago…

yesh, im a freshman in a stl public skool. I had to find out about nanowrimo on my own, actually…..13 days late. -_-’ yeah, but ill catch up, as i have way too much free time anyway. I wish we had posters of that in our school. :/ maybe then i wouldnt feel like the only insane person in the skool. I wouldnt be surprised if i was the only one.

Ummm, sure, while we’re at it, lets just text our novel on our I-Phone, why don’t we?! Posts like these are also the same reason I’ve decided NOT to attend one of the local write-ins that have been hosted at coffee shops and bookstores around the city each weekend.  I’d probably end up being the oldest person there, and the only non-Twilight fan at that!  So, I’m going at it alone here, but with only 10 days left to the month, I’m not really that worried.

My current word count stands at 26,205, and according to the NaNo calendar I’ve been following, I should be at 35,000 by the end of today.  Piece of cake with Write or Die!

(1140 words wasted on this post)