Friday, November 21, 2014

In the Home Stretch

Okay, seriously guys, where did November go? Didn't it JUST START? But here we are, it's November 20. Yet again, I've failed to post anything on the blog other than Music Monday and... yup... you guessed it, today I'm doing a NaNoWriMo check-in.

Don't worry friends who don't care about NaNoWriMo- there's only a week left! You can stop rolling your eyes at me and ignoring my posts after that. Just come back for Music Monday and December.

But here we are Wrimo friends. The end of week three. I'm not going to lie - it's been a rough road this week. I started my new job which is really exciting, but I've still been working my other two jobs and have had to do 40 hours of virtual training for the new one. All week I've been married to my laptop and not for NaNoWriMo reasons - for work reasons. It's been one crazy week.

Yet, somehow, I'm caught up. I've taken some time in the mornings to write and last night I was having issues (again) with different details of my training. So, while I was all "OMG" over How to Get Away With Murder, I also was able to pound out a few thousand words and get caught up with the days goal.

Taken from my Instagram.

Some of you though, are doing amazing! One of my friends who has done NaNoWriMo a few times in the past, but hasn't been able to get to the 50k has broken 30k! She's never been able to do that before and it's really exciting! Kirstie, it's her first year and and she's already broken 40k! Kirstina Horner, one of my favorite YouTubers, I'm pretty sure has already won. Then, Amber, a blogger I follow, I'm not sure what her word count is at the moment, but she's been doing some great NaNoWriMo posts on her blog and it's been so cool seeing her writing process. There are a ton of other people too, but I don't have time to mention all of them. But everyone is doing a great job! It's really fun to see people doing well in NaNoWriMo.

Even when I'm behind and slightly jealous.

But I'm sure I'm not alone! We can still do this! We can catch up (maybe get ahead if we're ambitious) and win! Here are some tips for the final week of NaNoWriMo:

- Don't give up. Even if you only have 1,000 words - don't give up! You only fail if you quit.

- Get some sprints in. It can be alone, on Twitter, with some writing buddies, etc. If the NaNoWriMo Word Sprints Twitter account isn't hosting any, make some yourself. Use #NaNoWordSprints and #NaNoWriMo and usually you'll find a couple people up for doing some sprints with you. Or, if you are doing it alone, set up a timer for yourself and get it done. Or, you can write out your times for a sprint. My friend Jess showed how she did it on Instagram.

- Sprints don't work for you? Sometimes they don't for me either. Most times, if I do a writing sprint I do it a little longer. Like a 30min1k. I sit down for a half hour and write. My goal is 1,000 words. Then I take a break. Sometimes you just need a little bit of a longer time to sit and write.

- Switch things up. Sometimes, your story just gets boring- and that's okay! Do something really ridiculous to make it fun again. You can always delete and edit it later. Or who knows, maybe it's just what your story needs.

- Use the weekend. If your schedule allows it, the weekend is a great time to catch up. Take advantage of it! It's still before any major holidays and you'll have next week to get ready for those. Use this weekend as a way to catch up and get ahead.

- Join in on 10k Tuesday! One of my other favorite YouTubers, KatyTastic, who has been doing NaNoWriMo for years now has been hosting 10k Tuesday the last week of NaNoWriMo the last few years. Yeah, 10,000 words is a lot for one day. But all day she hosts writing sprints and is cheering people on. It's a great motivator - even if you don't get all 10,000 words.  Katy's Twitter is here, and her channel where she's been doing NaNoWriMo videos is here.

Okay - are you ready? Because it's time to get back to writing.

Also- Vlogmas is coming up! Have you signed up yet? Click here.

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