When the world interferes with your work

November is always a busy time for me, writing-wise, which is why I always think long and hard about whether I should be doing NaNo.

This yeqar is no different. No sooner had I got stuck into things than other work came in.

Galleys for my upcoming book. Paid freelancing work. A pitch offer from a book packager. A revision request from an agent.
Suddenly, writing time was filled with all sorts of things and not my book. Agh!

But it doesn't matter. NaNo is all about the writing despite what's going on and thanks to the unexpected blessing/curse of no internet for four days, I manged to at least get over the 10k mark. Still way short of my goal, but hey, what can you do?

Whether you create your own distractions and procrastinations or whether they come at you from the outside, it's how you deal with them that matters. it's up to you to make time around life. There will never be the perfect novel-writing time.

So instead of fretting, I'll get my work out of the way and write when I can. After all, who can complain about living the life they chose? I wouldn't trade it for anything.

What's your biggest time killer? What good habits can you train yourself into during NaNo to minimise wasted time that could be used for writing? Do you want to? Or are you a happy little procrastinator and will gladly take teh lower word count?

Writing forward

It's day two of NaNo, and by now, everyone has made a start, right? Right?

Okay, so maybe you haven't hit your groove yet. Your writing muscles are sore and getting those words out is like pulling teeth.

Hang in there! It'll get better soon.

Writing, like anyother muscle, needs to be exercised. Just like you can't just rock up to your first day at teh gym and expect to run a mile on the treadmill, followed by bench pressing your own body weight and then some refreshing advanced yoga, you won't be putting out 3k of pure brilliance a day if you haven't written much over the last few months.

Which is why I think having daily word counts that stay constant throughout the month are setting you up for frustration and failure. Instead, why not build slowly and gain momentum as you get more writing fit?

For me, I'm going to up my daily word count from 1.5k at the start to 4k by the end with a  gradual increase every week.  It's a number that works for me because I know I can write 1k a day even when it's all pulling teeth and painful dragging-out of words.

do you know your comfort word count? What's the most you've ever written in a single day? Do you have word goals every day? Week? Or just that shiny end-of-month crown?

The care and feeding of writers

Have you got your meals frozen in the fridge? Got bottles of your beverage of choice stashed away?

During NaNo, many people work very hard at becoming hermits, holing themselves away, cranking out those words until all hours.
We forego exercise, sleep and a lot of common sense.
But that's neither sustainable nor the way to great fiction. So with NaNo less than a week away, here are some tips on taking care of you while writing hard.

• Eat your meals. It may be tempting to skip meals to write that one extra scene, those extra 200 words. But don't. Your body needs fuel, and if it's not getting any, it'll start eating itself, literally! Especially keep your blood sugar up. Your brain runs on sugar. But...
• Don't pig out on the junk. I love chocolate as much as the next writer, but if you've got your bowl of sugar-coated choc morsels next to your keyboard, you may as well be inhaling lard. Those little sugar bombs are perfectly designed to be eaten mindlessly and with only minimal enjoyment. If you're a keyboard muncher, opt for something that will fuel you, like a trail mix (pure brain food!), chopped up vegie sticks (if you get cravings for crunchy), rice crackers or even some raisins for that sweetness
• Drink enough. And I mean drink something that hydrates your body. Caffeine drinks dehydrate the body, so if you're thirsty, having a cuppa won't help you. If you can't stomach teh thought of having water by itself (because that's where fish... you know), have some cordial (you could have a different flavour every day of NaNo, just for fun!), herbal tea (if you say you don't like herbal tea, you haven't been trying hard enough) or sparkling water to make you feel that extra bit Euro.
• Take a break. I mean it. Step away from the keyboard every hour at least for some 10 minutes of walking, stretching and focusing your eyes elsewhere. Look out the window. Walk around the block. Clear your head, relax your eyes and give your muse (or whoever creates your scenes inside your head) a chance to jump around, too.
• Reward, don't punish. Oh noes, you didn't make your word goal today! You're such a bad writer! Baloney. You're a great writer, because you've put words on paper (virtually or literally, doesn't matter). Reward yourself. Do something nice and relaxing to teach yourself that working hard will bring rewards. maybe don't reward yourself with chocolate, but why not have a sliding scale of rewards? Every day you write, you get to do something fun. Every day you make word count, you accumulate points towards a treat at the end of the month. The more points you get, the bigger your treat will be. If you win NaNo, have a mini vacation. If you can't afford to go anywhere for even the weekend, have a picnic in the park as your vacation. You deserve it.

How will you be taking care of yourself during NaNo? And what are your watch-out vices you need to keep in check?

For me, I'm stocking up on snack vegies and sunscreen (I'll be doing most of my writing outside, away from online distractions). I'm having a holiday during NaNo (and intend to write at night in my hotel room).

I'm going to be watching out for sacrificing sleep in order to make word count. And you?

Beyond the usual

When you ask most people who's 'hot', they'll tell you Brad Pitt. Johnny Depp. Hugh Jackman. David Beckham.
Notice what they all have in common? no, not that they're hot, that's a given.
They're all white.
What's up with that?

So let me expand your hottie horizons with some eye candy you might not have oggled before.

A lot of my heroes are Asian, and I find that there aren't a lot of Asian heroes out there in romance land. I'm not quite sure why. It's a topic that is brought up occasionally in the blogosphere. I really like this post about what romance really is. Another great post is by author Camy Tang, who was apparently told to write her heritage. Found here.
What does this all mean?
Actually, nothing much. It's just some filler text around the hunky men at the end of the day.

So, what kinds of heroes do it for you? Are there certain things about a handsome hunk that just make you swoon? How important are his eyes, his hair, his skin? What body type do you find yourself going for?
And most importantly, are those the heroes you write and read?

Spaces

Where do you write?
I don't just mean physically, but where does your writing flow from, too?

Do you need an empty, clean office with absolute silence? Do you need a bustling cafe with lots of characters, errh, patrons around you?
Do you have a ritual you need to go through before really getting in the zone?

As we're all gearing up for NaNo, cracking necks and sharpening pens, cleaning crumbs off the keyboard and taking notes or daydreaming (or both!), one thing is perfectly clear: all writers need a space.
A space to write. Space to dream and think. A space to jot down ideas safely from prying eyes and destructive hands, claws, feet.
But above all, a head space where story ideas are allowed to bloom and become actualised.

Me, I can't write at home. i get distracted with everything there is to do and with things that are fun or are clamoring for attention. I'm easily distracted. Which makes it ironic that I write best where there are the most distractions. Outside. in cafes. In food courts.
I work best when I feel like part of a crowd. Blending in. Drifting through. Absorbing the stories around me.

Where will you be spending most of your time in November?
Me, I'll be in the two big food courts in the Melbourne CBD, as well as Singapore and Saigon.

Welcome Our New Contributors

We have four new members to our blogging team for this challenge. Thought it was time to bring in some new blood. It is always good to get new views and as these women are all new to the National Novel Writing Month, it will be interesting to get their point of view over the month.


Our new contributors are Anita Mack, Kiki Opdenberg, Monique Wood and Natalie Hatch. I hope you all will welcome these delightful ladies to the crew. See what happens when RC goes on holidays, Diane and I run wild, who knows what we will come up with next. LOL.


Chat to you all soon.

Sandie.