NaNoWriMo 2014 (Week 2): A hurricane called NOVEL.

NaNoWriMo 2014:

WEEK TWO

Week Two is officially gone, and we’re past that halfway mark! (And NO, I'm not talking about my word count. xD)

I say this all the time for the Update Day posts, but where has the time seriously gone?

All I have is the results of the few things I’d had wanted to do by this 2nd post of this series.

1) Fashion a summary for the fanfic (SCROLL DOWN*). Though a bit of background. The fanfic I’m writing is for Japanese visual novel game which stars sadistic, teenage male vampires. So think: the whips in FSoG—the game even has a torture chamber in lieu of Fifty’s Red Room of Pain—meets the teenage vampire drama in Twilight.

2) Hit 25K or w/e the word count is currently for Day 16: 26,672. Yeah, well this hasn’t happened. But I also mentioned how my goal for this month and beyond is to write daily. So I’m happy where I’m sitting so as long as I make progress every day. J

3) Also Week Two’s final promise was to keep sane. And I think I managed that pretty well. I never really went into the writing feeling like it was “do or die”. I would sit and aim to write at least 100 words. Maybe it’s also because I’m writing a fanfic…but truthfully I remember I felt the same with my other completed works. Low stress and more like a “wow, what’s going to happen next?” And at least with each successive writing task I’m approaching it more like the world is sitting on my shoulders in the writing session. Week Two was also supposed to be Storm Week in NaNo land.

No Plot? No Problem! Week 2:

Yes. In the words of author and NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty, Week Two is “a black howler of a tempest” (pg. 124).

All the advice packed in Chapter 6, or the Week 2 prep, tips and advice chapter focuses on gearing for the downhill part following the so-called sunny start of Week One.

I find that writing is more of uphill very quickly before it tapers off to a downhill roll once those first few thousand words are filling the pages.

But the book offers great tips and advice on how to weather out the storm that Week 2 could be. It talks keeping yourself healthy. Getting sleep and eating properly. There are tips to keep yourself afloat should your powerhouse of confidence from Week One should collapse in on itself from the winds of self-discovery…in particular the sort of self-discovery that blows your Internal Editor away from his/her island vacation back onto your front porch.

1) Picking away at your novel is hard at this point. And I agree. But for me it was on-and-off days that included Week One doubts.

2) Word count obsession is a big way to stifle your progress. Think of it this way, the more you start at the word count/page count bar on your word processor, the more you get little done.

For this I find using my phone’s Google Doc app is really great to avoid the word count bust, and get more “ka-boom!” when I surprise myself at how much I accomplished word-wise after copying my work over onto a word document to save.

Not a stickler for the sticky note idea?

Wordpad is great for this, too. And it saves you a sticky note!

Other tips include:

3) Involving family, friends and/or co-workers to brainstorm ideas for plot direction—of course you’d play host at your plotting party! Just make sure you don’t steal ideas by vaguely insinuating your plot. (Personally I think this idea works well with one-sentence pitch examples. Like “a literature student and a young entrepreneur enter into an erotic relationship”. This sentence blurb for FSoG is extremely vague and therefore perfect to work with!)

4) Tricks on padding your word count! Of the list of tricks, I liked the longer character names idea. For instance, rather than naming your heroine Jane, call her Jane Marie. Suddenly a find-and-replace feature will double from a couple hundred to four hundred instances of the name. Now rinse and repeat with all characters! Haha.

5) Unlike the unpleasantness associated with hot flashes, “plot flashes” are a great way to plot during down time. They can be planned or unexpected--though the idea here is to plan to use your time better. Eating, taking a shower, and lying in bed are times that could be used for plotting. Hash out what happens next during these times to bypass those brain farts during the actual writing. (i.e. “Well of course Character A should do this—even though that completely defies the rest of my set-up!”)

Also tons of motivational quotes. Here's some really sweet advice from five-time winner, Melanie Macek: "Week Two: chocolate."

Chocolate is good this whole month. (Unless it's expired. Then throw that crap out.)
Though on a serious note, leave the storm outside this year. Don't let winning bog you down. Write, write, write, but write what you can. 50K is a goal to aim for, but 5K and 500 words can be goals too.

Because weather-wise it has been getting colder and this time of year for those of us who actually are affected by winter and darker skies: SAD can be a problem. Seasonal affective disorder is a mild form of depression associated with change in season, and specifically winter.

I like to keep busy and distracted from pre-winter/end-of-semester blues. So Week Three will hold these goals, and by next post I’ll update just how busy I’ve been.

Week Three Goals:

1) An excerpt from the fanfic. Yeah. Not going to be as exciting as something “original”, but whatever. Deal. :P

2) I’m hoping to add another 10K to what I have, and hit 30K because I’ve never hit 30K for a NaNo comp. I attempted it first in April 2013 and my last attempt was this April’s Camp NaNo. More details on my ‘nanoing’ history next time.

3) Maybe a review of peppermint herbal tea? –shrugs-

I’ve heard it’s good for colds, and ‘tis the common cold season. So why not? I have a box of 20 bags to spare.

All this (and probably only this) next week! Until then, stay warm, healthy and happy.

EDIT (11/18/14): Forget to post up the summary. Doh! That was entirely intentional. Haha.
*Here it is now:

Retrieved from the desk of Karl Heinz--the Vampire King and a hunter's biggest game. What could these names mean...

SUBJECT: YUI KOMORI

Taken and dropped into this world of darkness, contine to watch this ningen carefully. It took a lot of time and money to find her. To bring her to this point. And already she's losing the battle against the vampires...she's losing her head and heart to them. I expect everything to come together soon.

SUBJECT: KIRIA HANASAKI

Unfortunately naive, despite all my efforts... She goes to school with vampires and continues to ignore the rumours of attacks. Nothing special about her despite what her lineage has to offer. The wolves have a purpose for her as well. Perhaps 18 years of monitoring and research have gone to waste. Details of project termination TBD.

Karl Heinz has left these documents behind in his hurry to evade us. Any clue as to where he might be headed must lie with these two young woman. Verify their statuses.