What NOT to do to reach 50,000

OK - the title is supposed to be "reach" an not read.

KarenManeely.com
FireballPublishing.net

"Fire and Ice" - released October 2008

signing up for too many classes

~~mae~~

Edit.

Get hung up on fiddly little details you can fix later.

Get sick.

Use a computer that dies in week 3. >.<

Let yourself get hung up over trying to make your Mulligan more than a plot device.

Allow yourself to think, even subconsciously, that A: You've won once so it's okay if you don't win again, or B: That one win was just a fluke.

Start planning too much, too soon, and lose interest halfway through November.

Give up.

* * * *
"A blank page is God's way of showing you how hard it is to be God." ~ Anonymous

Last year...going on a bushcraft course the first weekend in November. This year ... I'm studying for my private pilots licence.

But most of all....editing.

Don't re-read anything. It just brings negative thoughts to mind.

---

- Formerly Lakitu. • My writing Live Journal.

---

- Formerly Lakitu. • My writing Live Journal.

Join a traveling drama group that goes all across the US and try to handwrite it as you travel in the van.

DOESN'T. WORK.

I'll second the getting sick part. Don't do it. You will regret it.

Kill your character for being a pain in the butt.

Forgot your plot line after 4 days.

Delete your work at 48950 words.

Sticking to a plot too firmly.
Nothing slows you down more than writing a part of the plot that doesn't interest you much, or which your just don't feel like writing just then. I attempted to follow a plot the last two years and ended it throwing it out the window at around 20000 words. This year, I'm not even bothering with one. I got by before with a silly subplot that I could edit out later, but I think abandoning plot altogether will make things easier.

Realism without purpose is like fish.

Starting a week late.

[URL=http://www.mybannermaker.com/link.php?nurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mybannermaker.com][IMG]http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/4073/mybanner492b2485e7d4blv3.png[/IMG][/URL]

Oh, but how much story-fodder you'd pick up!

get sick
go on vacation (at all)
get a crashed computer
have a little sister

Ellisands rarely do have to make final stands, but, when they do, it is for something that will be remembered.

This will be my first NaNo, but problems I can foresee :P

I have a horrible backspace key addiction, which can only slow me down

I'm a junior and have usually 4 hours of homework a night :(

I don't live in the quietest house lol

As others have said, plot issues because of starting too soon, or getting to a part I hate.

Get sucked into the boards...
Host the halfway party for your local region, followed the next week by hosting Thanksgiving for 35 people.

The Beatings Will Continue Until Word Count Improves!

My first NaNo my parents had their divorce case go to court so I stayed with my mother for a week when she came up for that. I have to say that cause some serious problems.

I second the computer dying 3 weeks in. Had that happen during my second NaNo so I'm huge about saving my writing to my gmail account.

My 4th NaNo I moved - also not a good thing to keep your word count up.

This year I now live with my boyfriend, his three kids and our menagerie. I now have to do my writing while they're in school or after they go to bed - a new thing for me to handle.

So I only had two NaNos without big issues and I have still won every year. It is possible if the problem isn't too huge.

Ken

ML - Maine: Portland to Augusta
Mod - Y/A & Religious Genre Forums
"Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards." Heinlein

Based off the years I've done NaNo, I agree with overplanning - I once did post it notes of every single scene I wanted done and stuck them to my desk. Eventually you stare at them and stop having fun. It was the only year I quit. Also, if you know your style and what interests you, don't try to do the opposite of it. Like, experimenting is fine, but if you're used to doing a male GLBT themed, mystery/supernatural genre-ed type novel, don't do straight mainstream fiction with no sort of element of something you like to write about, even if it's just this itch to see if you can do it.

I also agree with not getting sick - be very cautious in November. I've come down with the flu, standard colds, and food poisoning over the years. The food poisoning was fun, me just throwing caution to the wind and eating some questionable peanut butter, and I was out for three days straight.

Follow the progression of my novel at my writing journal here.

Feeling like the story so far is *too good* so you shouldn't write today because you're not at your optimum. Or tomorrow, or the next day... yeah, you can see where this is going.

Just write it!

=)
Highest Daily Word Count This Year - 10,003 ~ New Record: 11/1/08
Characters in the Story - 16
Days with No Nanoing - 1
Characters Killed - 3
Characters Revived - 1

2008 ~ The Truth About Our Universes

Focus too much on other people's wordcounts. If you jump on the boards after finishing your first 1,667 words and see that someone else already has 15k, yeah, you might be a little jealous. But don't let it keep you from being proud of your own accomplishment, and definitely don't let it make you stop in despair.

NaNo 2006 - Divergence: 50,021
NaNo 2007 - A Love in Darkness Wrought: 50,023
NaNo 2008 - Missing (near)

DON'T make a fetish out of your ideal writing setting. We all have an ideal of course, you know, a particular time of day, with your laptop, with this particular album playing, with the cat 2.6 feet away, with this particular brand of coffee, this particular snack, wearing your lucky writing underpants/socks/t-shirt, using your lucky pen and notebook... otherwise you just can't write!

Great to try and get your ideal when you can, but do you want to end up losing hours of writing time because the cat is hiding in the attic tonight, or you ran out of that coffee, or your lucky socks are in the wash?

As long as you have a means of recording words you can write, don't convince yourself otherwise.

not meeting daily deadlines... i'd tell myself that i'd have 1667 words a day, and then one day i wouldn't hit it, and same with the next day, leaving myself with 10,000 words to catch up on..
so motivate yourself! and find someone to punch you if you aren't writing enough.

Have your fiance move in after not having seen one another in about six months.

In week one.

Good-bye, free time.

Give a man a fire, he'll be warm for a day. Light a man on fire, he'll be warm for a lifetime.

~~NaNoWriMo 2008~~
Batman Beyond - Paradigm Ethic: Root of All Evil

think that for whatever reason what so ever that there is anything that can keep you from doing it! Even if you start a week late. Oh yeah, and thinking that it has to be good.

Sounds like to many problems and not enough solutions. First problem, thinking there is a problem. Here are the solutions, do not under any circumstance whatsoever are you allowed to use the backspace. even if you cant spell. buy a pair of headphones. go to the library. And you only have 4 hours of homework a night that is not that bad, and to the last all you have to do is keep on typing. you can do it. you really really can all you have to do is fill out some onerosity coupons that you would not ever want to do. oh yeah and get some friends that will give you a good kick in the but. Best of wishes.

Oh!

Have best buy LOSE your laptop (Thank god for company spares.)

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
- Voltaire
2007 Count - 57,363 words

I dont know what not to do but I can tell you what you CAN do ....

1.Duct Tape your kids to a wall and feed them intravenously
2.Ship your spouse back home to his parents.
3.Make enough coffee to caffeinate an entire army
4.Dont sleep.
5.Frozen dinners or pizza should be a staple.

take courses that have combined, fifty pages of reading on certian nights =/

.
--------------------
~*clicky here for photography

(2007, First Year) What is working two jobs and getting sick, Alex?
XP

Everywhere I always go, is nowhere I have ever been, and everywhere I long to be, is somewhere I shall never see.

I think having a job of any kind during November is a great way to sabotage NaNo. We should really all just save up our vacation and sick days and take a month off. Or get someone to kick us in the kneecaps on Oct. 31th. Well, maybe the 30th, then we can get fixed up in the hospital for a day and be ready to go on Nov.1st.

Kneecaps, anyone?

Do NOT let the sugar rush die. ;-) Last year, I purposefully overstocked my dorm with candy for Halloween.

Also, do NOT use the delete/backspace keys. You can use those after Nov. 30, when you're editing.