My Secret

A friend and fellow NaNo'er is struggling with meeting her word count goals and asked what the secret was from those of us who are doing okay thus far. This was my response to her:

My secret? Plot the next set of writing (I'm not separating chapters yet, just vomiting it all out in one big mess) at night while I'm dozy. It's the time I'm most creative, but least productive. Then I get up in the morning, set a specific word count and write until I reach it -- even if it's crap: backstory, description, flashbacks, thoughts... all that taboo stuff we're not supposed to put in our books. It may not stay, but it's getting me to know my characters and their motivations. And it's writing. NaNo doesn't care if you write crap. In fact, they encourage it.

It's a bit intimidating to compare word counts, though. About a third of the folks in my WVU NaNoWriMo group have reached almost 20,000 words. In less than a week.

That's a super human effort. I've heard around the NaNo halls that many people have already hit 50,000. Sheesh... when do they sleep? I have to console myself with the thought that those who are already NaNo "winners" must have written absolute garbage, because no one can write quality stuff that quickly.

Right?

Okay, enough NaNo-crastination. I'm gonna hit 13,000 today or die trying.

UPDATE:

Did you hear my death rattle? I didn't quite make it. I'm at 12,576 and I'm out of steam. So close... but, tah-marah is anothah day.