Days 15 & 16: NaNoWriMo 2023

 Current word count, at 4:00 AM on November 16th, is 64,188.

My writing buddy and I came over to the coast after we finished work at 8pm on Tuesday 11/14. We had to pick up her things and pack them into the car. But quickly, because we wanted to stock up on food for the rest of the week from Trader Joe's; which closed at 9pm. 

We made it.

We got some iced tea and ate in the car as we made the nearly three hours drive. 

The nice thing about driving so late at night is that there is significantly less traffic. Less traffic means the drive is less stressful. Generally I am not stressed on longer drives - I actually like it, and I can find it soothing, when not dealing with aggressive drivers.

It was lovely to wake up to the ocean today. The misty sky, looking out over the waves until I couldn't see them any longer in what I thought was an incoming storm.

The wind shifted and pushes the clouds, the fog south. Maybe that was where it was heading all along.

I did a lot of writing today, around a scheduling mixup with a couple of interpreters I'd placed on a show, added a matinee. The situation that created when I had to find a new interpreting team for the interpreted matinee fell into my "no work unless it's urgent" category. Working with the somewhat intermittent internet (no wifi at the place we're staying - yay!), I was able to get a second team for that second performance, connect everyone to each other, notify the theater. And now, hopefully, there is nothing else "urgent" which comes up related to work.

I want to focus these next few days on writing. 

I am long past the 50k in 30days writing goal. But I am still writing. I am still playing the quests in 4TheWords. And editing. Still working on the edits - which are going very slow. I have to step those up, for sure. Somehow, I will. I am hoping to shift the bulk of my writing time to the edits, to get it done.

This is the graph from the NaNoWriMo website, showing the trajectory of my writing this month. The angled dotted line is the 50k in 30days target; my actual writing word count is highlighted in yellow. Looks good!

Day 14: NaNoWriMo 2023

Start of day word count = 54,313
Total words written Day 12 = 4,352

I do believe this is the earliest I have ever met the 50k word count in NaNovember! I did it! 

November 13, 2023 I surpassed the target of writing 50,000 words in a month. My writing for November is far from over - but that benchmark was met. 

Maybe I will go for a double-NaNo this year. I am going to be shifting to more editing words than generating new words. I do have a final project coming up due very soon, and I chose to complete this draft's edits as my "senior" project. 

And I will continue writing, but probably a little bit slower pace.

Tomorrow after work I will be heading to the coast for a few days for my annual November writing retreat. I think that the beach will be the perfect place to sink into book revision.

For now: congratulations to me! And here's a toast of kombucha to the next leg of this writing journey.

Day 13: NaNoWriMo 2023

Start of day word count = 49,961
Total words written Day 12 = 8,012

photo by Dot.
Trees above Agate Beach

This is the day - November 13th. It will happen today.

I had no idea I was that close to the finish line while I was writing for my second round on Saturday. It's okay, though. Draw out the suspense one more day.

I'm smiling. There were more story words written, along with a lot of other things.

I will be heading to the coast Wed - Sat for my annual November writing retreat. This is the first year that I've had my 50k completed before the retreat. Which is exciting, because that will also be the perfect opportunity for sustained longer periods of time to work on the edits. 

Watch for the "congratulations banner" tomorrow!

NaNoWriMo 2022 - second week update

I have been staying at a very cozy, very Oregon, cabin in Oceanside OR since Tuesday night. The weather has been cool and clear for the most part, until yesterday. Yesterday morning woke to pouring rain and a light wind.

I do not mind storms while at the coast, at all. In fact, this is only one of two or three times I've stayed in Oceanside over the past many years that I haven't lost power. 

Pre-pandemic, coming over to the coast for a NaNovember writing retreat was pretty standard. I often came here to Oceanside because the town is small, slow going, and beautiful, with one of the most incredible views from anywhere. The cabin where I'm staying now is a definite favorite; I have stayed at a couple of others, but will get this one when I can. This cabin is about 1/3 of the way up the hillside, so the view goes for miles and miles: ocean, sand, sky, mountains. And there is a view of the quiet little town.

Also, Oceanside has one longtime restaurant, a very tiny ice cream shop/cafe at the edge of the wayside parking lot, and there appears to be a working pub of some sort now. There is no temptation or expectation of shopping of any kind, no museums, no bookstores - just nature doing its thing, with time and space to write. 

Once when the power went out for a couple of days, the longtime restaurant fired up a generator and had a portable cooking unit or two. They provided a very limited menu at shortened hours - it was during the winter so daylight was short - and even had limited hot coffee. Everyone was friendly and helpful. And the power did come back on; it always does. I learned after the second time it went out to make sure to keep devices charged. 

Speaking of which: there also is virtually no mobile data service available in town. I have found over the years that the only place to consistently have a chance of getting a signal is on the beach. Up here where I'm staying, or down below us in the town, mobile phones and data don't work. Which is another refreshing thing. The small cabin does have wifi, which is much appreciated. But even that fluctuates and drops off; there are a couple of hours midday where the signal is strong - usually.

So it has been delightful to feel comfortable coming back here this year for my annual NaNoWriMo writing retreat. My NaNoFriend - who is an IRL friend, coworker, and writing buddy - and I have been hanging out, writing, sleeping, sharing meals, writing and writing and procrastinating and writing.

This has been a very productive retreat and it feels good.

I admit that my story has not advanced very much at all. But there has been some progress. However, I do also include world building and backstory writing; brainstorm writing; and even process of writing writing during NaNovember. Some of this applies to the book project, some does not but since it applies to me and me being in the world as a writer and creator, it actually does apply to the project I'm writing.

See? Being a writer means writing. Whether I'm writing on the current project or the words belong in a different category, I am writing.

Will I come out of November with a 50k draft of a novella written? Probably not. I could be surprised; but if the second half of the month goes like the first half, it will be difficult once I return to the rest of my life in the city and my life as an interpreter and performance interpreting coordinator.

This writing retreat was just what I needed. My writing is better for it. My writing confidence is better for it. And my word count is soaring! That I also needed.

My current word count? 31,077 words written since November 1st. Woot! I am on track to hit 50k around November 20th, which gives me plenty of time in November to work more on the story. 

[I'm not going to take the time to go deeply into it now, but I will write a post about a website I'm trying out for NaNovember, as well - 4THEWORDS. It pairs writing and gaming and, so far, it's been good and helpful. They have a special event this month, pairing dragons and NaNoWriMo, so, good time to try out what my friend has been using for a couple of years!]

NaNoWriMo 2020 Update

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I have managed to write every day of NaNoWriMo this year. So far. I am going to try to complete another full 30 days of writing. I am also hoping to get to 50,000 words before Thanksgiving. If I'm not at 50k by that day, then I hope to be close enough to wrap it up on Saturday 11/28. Because this year I am working the last two days of the month, which means that there won't be much writing happening.

As of right now, I am 1000 words underneath the target number for November 14th. With only 30 minutes until midnight, I doubt I am going to get caught up before another 1667 words are added to where I should be.

I am also three days in to my at home writing retreat. What I realize already is that my annual writing retreat during NaNoWriMo is absolutely the best thing to do. I always write more when I'm at the coast, with the express purpose of being there to write. No expectations about amount of sleep, about doing the laundry or medicating the cat or anything else. No need to go do household errands. Well, honestly, the errands and such are very minimal because of the pandemic. We are on the brink of another heavily mandated stay at home order because the cases are on the rise. I didn't leave the house at all for three days. Today we went to my ND's office to pick up a supplement and then we went to Starbucks for a special treat - through the drive-through because we are not going in. No way!

But this year I am not dragging my Multnomah County germy air to the doing well in terms of COVID-19 numbers to the coast. Not even to a private beach house which is probably safe - but someone will have to clean it after us. And someone else could have been there before us. And on the drive over, unless I dehydrated myself ahead of time, I'd probably have to use a public restroom somewhere, which doesn't feel at all safe. 

So. I stay home this year. I've watched two streaming performances (both short) and I started to watch a Philip Glass opera (which I will finish later; it was not conducive to my writing and my partner is feeling a little grumpy, tired of the pandemic and being stuck home so much - so opera was not at all melding with that energy; I don't blame her, I understand - but too much for the opera to continue). I will finish the opera later or maybe tomorrow before it goes away tomorrow night.

I'm writing. Signing up for the Writing with the Tarot online workshop with Ariel was also a lifesaver. It has definitely helped me keep writing. Even if the pieces are incomplete or with compacted endings I need to open up, I feel like I have an actual, viable project this year. Which is a good thing, because I also signed up for the manuscript workshop in January to March of 2021. My plan all along was that I would (hopefully) have the beginnings of a manuscript from this month to bring to fruition. And I believe I will.

I am writing a book. It is not a novel - although recently I discovered that rather than a set of short stories, this is looking like those stories will still be there, but there is mostly likely going to be a throughline story tying them all together. Somehow. That is not entirely clear, although I have had a glimpse of what that uniting thread will be.

I am excited. When I'm not wondering why I'm doing this. And I am missing the coast, the ocean outside the door, the wind and it's salty rain, the seagulls crying and warning; the digging in under the blankets on the corner sofa, side to the window so I can still see along the coastline.

Writing intreat? Sounds better than a "staycation" a friend commented. And she's right.

NaNoWriMo is happening in 2020 style. Which means, the unexpected can and will happen. Words are flowing and we'll see what I have when I return to work later next week.

NaNoWriMo is Happening!

This has been a up and down NaNoWriMo so far. But I have written every day - which is awesome! I have been a little behind and growing more and more behind every day. I wasn't upset because I knew I had this writing retreat coming up, which is where I am right now.

The plan was to be over here early afternoon yesterday. But my mouth had other plans, which included an emergency trip to my dentist, where I was told that I had a dead or dying root and that's where the pain was coming from. And that I needed to see a specialist and probably needed a root canal. (It was pretty bad. If you know me in real life, you know that I tend to have a higher pain tolerance; I've been told that's because I'm a redhead.) I told them that I was supposed to be going out of town that day and was going to be gone for almost a week. They were very kind and helpful and found someone who could get me in yesterday afternoon. There is more to the story - but enough for here is that I had the appointment, she confirmed the need for a root canal, a bunch of the work is done but I need to go back to get it finished up, which can be done after the retreat is done.

So we headed out about seven hours after we planned, but we arrived. We are tucked into this lovely quaint Oregon coast cabin until next Thursday. We went to New Seasons and Trader Joe's and we have food (and alcohol and other fun things) and we don't plan to leave until we head home on Thursday and back to work. Except we might, weather depending, go down to the beach. (We are in a place where the cabin is up on a hillside, so "go down to the beach" includes actually going down the hill.)

Today I wrote a lot and made good progress on both my NaNoWriMo novel and on an assignment in the online workshop I am participating in. Good work all around! I am not done writing for the day. This day will be done before I am done writing. Which is "all good" as the saying goes.

Below is my current word count graphs, and you can see the ups and downs, now moving closer to on target. My estimate is that I will be at goal tomorrow and then keep going. I can' really predict how far I will get on this trip. But with very little to do except writing, hopefully it will be a lot of words on the page.