Happy as I am with Tom's foreword to the book, I've come to realize that what's tripping me up right now is that I need, if not a formal outline, a list of important dates on a timeline.
So I'm doing that right now. I will take advantage of my status as a job seeker to catch up on the writing. I think I need to do this if I'm gonna be able to write at all. When you're doing mock documentary, you need to be able to drop facts in easily. Right now I don't have all my made up facts at hand. So, yeah, working on that.
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Who decided November was a good month for NaNoWriMo? Its awful: midterms, term papers, finals prep, elderly patients dieing left and right because they sense winter coming. Staight up suxxor. I'm seriously doubting I'll get this done in a month... but I guess I'll try.
-Gordon
Gordon, I'm right there with you. May I suggest you join me in my pseudoNaNoWriMo quest? I can speak from experience that it's a beautiful thing when one can count one's academic papers as part of one's word count, and then the academic deadlines aren't seen as distractions but as extra motivation for extra word count.
Look at this weekend, for instance--thanks to that conference paper deadline, I wrote and revised a ton (4759 new words and 49 revised pages, baby!) despite my habit of taking Sundays off (which I'd built into my NaWriMo plan for the month).
And because I now have a healthy word count cushion, I'm free, once my short Wednesday paper is handed in to class, to do a bit more creative word count, not to mention get caught up on my reading for my classes so I'll be ready for the next round of course papers when that hits in a few weeks.
Ah, yes, pseudoNaNoWriMo is definitely the way to go for the student. Chances are, if I wasn't doing this, I'd be getting even less creative writing done, and this way, I'll soon be getting creative work done as well as more academic work done too...
Ooh, does that count for me, too? Because I have fourteen tabloid-sized pages of text to churn out, plus freelance writing.
G-
Sounds good Deb... any advice about the dieing people? They are starting to get annoying. And my basement is getting full.
-Gordon
If your basement is filling up, it's time to start digging. And lime is your friend.
G-
I say, come on in, the pseudoNaNoWriMo water's fine (and not limited to students by any means). ;)
In my mind, it reduces guilt and actually gives you oomph and reminds one that all writing moves one forward. Plus, that elixir of NaNoWriMo energy mixed with the oomph of external deadlines is a heady one, I tell you...it will get you through that deadlined work and back into the novel-writing world in no time flat (and when you're back there, I predict you'll produce the more novel pages for the change of writing pace).
It's a clever and interesting concept... you should actually pitch it to the NaNoWriMo people. They seem open to ideas.
G-
That last comment was for G, by the way.
Gordon: as for the dying people, the way to deal with them is clearly to give whatever novel plot you're working on into either a mystery or a tragedian twist. Then you can stow them all within the imaginary world's closets and crawl spaces, to be revealed at the appropriate moments in the plot. Duh! ;)
G: Yeah, maybe I should chat with them about it. I think with lowering the word count, allowing myself to include all genres, and also privileging revised pages and submissions, I might actually have myself a sustainable system that I can keep up every month, not just once per year. And I'm all about creating systems that keep me motivated but are flexible enough to be sustainable down the road.
So am I counting academic writing or not, because I just crapped out 12 page term paper today. Sure it wasn't great, but it'll get me a pass. And honestly who asks there nurse if they write academically sound papers on family diversity while he's running an IV on them before their heart stops? My instructor, thats who.
-Gordon, manly nurse
Gordon: I say you count the words, but keep them off to one side. Then at the very least you can look at them as a reminder of the kind of word counts you can churn out in a short time...
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