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By Tgreen, November 5, 2009 1:48 am

So as I move deeper into this crazy plan of writing 50,000 words in 30 days, today I hit the big hurdle that could totally dump the whole thing into the toilet. No, it’s not lack of talent, though I’ve got truckloads of that lying around. I’m talking about my job.

Tonight I got stuck for an hour longer than I wanted to, mostly because we were delivering too many projects in one night, but also in part because when one of those projects was called off until tomorrow, nobody told me. I had to find out by accident about 15 minutes after that call had been made. This happens more often than you’d think, and definitely more often than I’d like it to. And frankly, staying only an hour late is not so bad when you consider some of the 10, 11, and 14 (yes, that’s 14) hour days I’ve worked these last 2 years. So yeah, horrendous work schedule + 2000 words per day writing schedule = Tgreen’s headache. It wouldn’t be easy to write at work, but I may have to figure out a way to do it.

In better news, the book’s up to about 9,400 words, and the story’s still flowing. Yee hah!

Coming soon, an honest-to-god excerpt. I promise.

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By Tgreen, November 4, 2009 1:49 am

Okay, so I’ve survived Day 3 and I’ve got 6,749 words written so far. I’m well ahead of schedule, which is a surprise considering I’ve thought about quitting pretty much since I first started writing on Sunday night. But I figure, I think about quitting my regular job at least once a day, so this is completely normal.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t really want to quit. I’m just already feeling the lack of sleep and lack of down time that comes from working a full day, commuting, and then banging out 2,000+ words every night. The television calls to me, that bastard, but so far I’m fighting the urge to give in. I even sacrificed a hockey game tonight for my 2,000 words, but I just checked the score and it looks like I didn’t sacrifice all that much after all.

What’s keeping me going is the one thing I least expected to see so early. I’ve actually got a story already. I figured that since I came into this on Sunday with exactly no preconceived notion of what I might write, I’d spend a couple of days screwing around with a character or two in hopes of coming up with something. And yet before I even reached 2,000 words the first night I had my story idea. And it’s the desire to see what happens next that’s going to help me ignore the TV when it calls. It’s going to make the sleep deprivation worth it. It will, I believe it.

I expect it’s only another couple of days before I’m feeling beat and I’ve got nothing to write and I’ll be on here complaining about that, but for right now, for tonight, it’s working and this was the best idea I could’ve had for the month of November. 6,749 words in 3 days. How cool is that?

Excerpt coming soon, I promise.

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By Tgreen, November 2, 2009 1:48 am

So there’s this thing that goes on every November called NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. The idea is simple — spend 30 days writing 50,000 words and at the end of the month you’ll have a completed novel on your hands. It might not be anything you’d ever want to show anyone else, but at least you can say you’ve written a novel, which is more than most people will ever say. So even as you read this, writers the world over are furiously banging out words in an effort to actually pull off this feat. And I’m one of them.

Yes, once again I’m attempting to start November with zero words and zero ideas, and end it with 50,000+ words and at least one idea. This isn’t my first time, either (that’s what she said). In 2004 I started my novel, worked on it for maybe 10 days or so, and then gave up, hoping to never speak of it again. In 2005, I tried again and this time I blew way past 50,000 words by the end of the month, and ended up finishing my novel on December 6th or so, with more than 80,000 words. The next year I also had more than 50,000 words by the end of the month, though I never actually finished that one. In 2007, I made a feeble attempt several days into the month, then gave up almost immediately before taking a job that would suck up most of my free time for the next two years. in 2008 I don’t think I even considered it for a moment.

And yet here I am, back for another try in 2009. I like the idea of this challenge because even though there’s no prize and you’re not competing against anyone else, it’s a good way to jolt the creative part of the brain into action. It comes down to a fight against yourself, the worst opponent of all, and what better feeling is there than to be able to face down all your self-doubt and fear and accomplish something that on first glance may seem simple, but on second glance actually seems pretty much impossible? Plus, even though writing is such a solitary thing, it’s nice to know that there are thousands of other idiots out there just like you who are kicking their brains into overdrive to get to their daily word count. It’s like I’m alone in this room fighting the good fight, but I’m not actually alone.

I don’t know how much my job, or my love of bad television, is going to try to screw up this plan. But I’m going to do what I can to write 2,000 or so words a day to win this thing. “Win”, of course, does not mean there’s any kind of prize at the end of this. Doesn’t matter. I want to win anyway. I’ll be posting regular updates in this blog, and maybe even excerpts. This may mean that Happy Friday takes a rest until I’m done. We’ll see how things go. I hope that somehow my updates can entertain you (at least in that regard Happy Friday sets the bar pretty low). Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some writing to do.