Firstly, I want to thank every single one of you who commented on my post yesterday. You encouraged me no end, and I hope I can help you in return. The blogging community does wonders for motivation.
How is your writing coming along? Are you on target, way below target or dragging your sorry writing muscles along and just about making it work?
No matter how you are doing here are some things to remember –
NaNoWriMo is MEANT to be hard. That’s why its such a big thing
Nothing worth having comes easy. Writing fiction won’t feel like a walk in the park, it’s hard and wonderful all at once.
If you write even a little when you don’t feel like doing it, you are winning Camp NaNoWriMo.
Keep going in the hard bits as on the other side it gets easier (or so I’m hoping!)
Best of luck fellow Campers – we can do this!
Blissful Scribbles 
The best way to break the wall is to write through it. I know it’s difficult at times. And some days it can feel like a slog. Some of the ways that help me are:
– using a list of random words that I incorporate during my session, these act like sign posts in a wild wood (if you’re a pantser these can be good)
– fire a gun — i.e. make something terrible happen to one of your characters, give them a disaster to contend with, conflict drives action
– write a scene at the end and then work towards it later, this takes you out of having to work out what next, what next constantly
– write to yourself, write about your story, ask yourself what’s happening, deepen your understanding, ask yourself ‘what if?’ this allows you to mind map and explore ideas.
Lastly, it helps to know that the first draft doesn’t have to be good. To paraphrase Hemingway: the first draft of anything is a bit pants. Think of it as exploratory work for subsequent redrafts — the pencil sketch beneath the layers of paint you will embellish over it later. Good luck, Amy.
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Thank you, I love the Hemingway paraphrase there. I think my main problem is distraction, there are just many things I’d rather be doing! 😂
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That will always be there. Sometimes there is no substitute for discipline. That’s the problem of writing on computers I guess. So much is at hand, the smallest side thought and I’m off to Google, YouTube etc. and before I know it I’ve not only lost my train of thought, I’ve jumped on board several others in the meantime! Instrumental music, and full screen, distraction free software help me somewhat. Have you tried those?
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Thank you, I’ll look into those 🙂
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I’d just like to weigh in on the distraction suggestions. I don’t know what software you use, but Scrivener has a full screen mode so you can block out distractions. I’ve just started using it and learning more about it and this is just one of the many features that make novel writing so much easier. Good luck, Amy, and keep writing!
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Thank you so much Susan, I did previously use Scrivener, but now I have a chrome book rather than a laptop so Scrivener won’t work. I will have to have a look and see if there are any apps on the google store that do the same 🙂
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I just stopped in to encourage you to keep going. Yes, the middle is hard. It called the middle slump for a season. Consider doing the first big reveal, a death, the first sex scene, a fight scene or the invasion. Depending on what you write of course. You can also borrow from soap operas: the twin (Identical?) appears, losing the baby, secret baby, the missing heir revealed.
I don’t do the summer camp Nano but with my second grandchild going to be here this October (and I’m going to be helping) I think I’m might opt out of the November Nano and maybe do the summer camp next year. I’ve been winning the Nano for eleven years. I love how I have a finished manuscript to revise after it is over. I’ve published several of them.
Good luck and keep writing.
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That is super encouraging, thank you. Wow eleven years!! That’s impressive 😊 congratulations on your grandchild. I hope you treasure every minute when they arrive 🙂
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I’m very much behind but I hope to catch up soon enough!!
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We can do it 🙂 keep going. It’s so good to know that others are also struggling
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