Day 10 of NaNoWrimo and I’m checking in folks!
(Yes I know I’m publishing this on Day 11 of NaNoWriMo…but I wrote it on Day 10. Trust me!)
First, my NaNoWriMo project this year is not a story but content.
I just started doing school visits and I want to write down all I’ve learned,
the tools I use, and my best practices.
I need content around some products I’ll be launching next year as well,
so what a good time to do it!
Now, if a story tries to sneak in and get some words on it,
I’ll let it!
I’ve always been a NaNo Rebel!
(It’s not surprising that I’m a rebel in Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies framework as well!)
I want to update every ten or so days now,
and I’ll follow this same framework.
I’ll ask myself questions and answer them truthfully.
Here we go!
What day is it?
It’s Day 10!
Where should I be on this day? (You can find this at nanowrimo.org. Click on “show full novel information” from your home screen, then click over to stats. Once you’re there you’ll see your bar graph and the par line. Put your mouse over the dot on the line corresponding to the day you are on, then see what par is!)
Par for today is 16,666, or 33.3% of the way done!
Today I wrote 2571 words, so I’m at 20653 words total!
Major victories?
Two 5K days and getting ahead!
And starting a new project around NaNoWriMo (more on that later!)
Major setbacks?
I started behind and was behind until the 8th.
I knew this was coming though; there was a wedding in my family
and I had a lot of work with my book (school visits)
so I took it easy on myself for those first few days knowing I’d catch up later.
What’s working?
Many things! I’m really getting into a groove.
First, I use Scrivener to write in.
I’ve used it for years and it’s awesome.
I really like the Project Targets tool.
I set my goal for 2,000 a day and watch the Session Target bar go from red to green as I type the words out.
(If you use Scrivener, you can make this pop up by clicking on “Project” then “Show Project Targets.”)
Everything is very well organized in Scrivener and that really helps me focus.
My NaNo Tracker
At the end of October I stumbled upon a book about bullet journaling and thought I’d try it out.
I decided I’d get a book and give it a try for November and December.
If I loved it I’d get a book for 2019.
One of the things that I was most excited about are all the ways to track things.
I made a simple NaNo tracker;
It includes how many words I wrote that day, how many total I have,
what percent finished I am,
and what percent finished I should be to stay on track.
This is allowing me to see how I’m doing quickly,
and the math nerd in me loves all the stats.
Here’s a picture of it!
And a bit zoomed in:
Oh, and I added arrows so I could quickly see if I was ahead or behind.
My list
In the journal I also wrote down a list of topic ideas.
I know that may sound really obvious,
but this list really helps!
Instead of staring at the blank page
I’m staring at things that I’m really excited about writing!
It’s also great for my mind to get all of those ideas out so I have space to create more
instead of worrying that I’ll forget the ones I have.
Sprints
Sprints have always been my jam.
When I have time, I jump on the computer and go go go.
Most of the time this is during nap time,
but since we are visiting and staying at my Dad’s,
there’s a lot more room for Rosemary to run around,
so she keeps herself pretty occupied when I’m typing
(That is not the case in our tiny studio apartment! I don’t even have a desk there!)
I’m also typing while standing up at the island counter in the kitchen
so I’m high enough that she can’t mess with me.
That’s another problem at home.
Hopefully I can find a way to keep up the good work when we return!
What’s not working?
Right now, not much!
I’m in the groove and I’ve got good support here!
That will change when I’m back in CA so we’ll see!
What am I excited about?
Lots of stuff!
I’m so excited to have a bunch of content around school visits.
I can’t wait to share it and help other people just starting out on their school visit journey.
My goal is to do presentations about school visits and help authors and illustrators create dynamic presentations and tools that they can use to successfully grow that side of their business.
As an added bonus, as I write these things up,
I get better ideas about how to improve my presentations/forms/communications as well.
I’m also excited about this social media project I’ve taken up.
Do you know Gary Vee?
He has a marketing strategy called the 1.80 strategy.
You can click here to read more about it,
but it’s basically a plan to engage on social media more.
One of my favorite things is the community aspect of NaNoWriMo,
and lots of Wrimos are on Twitter.
I decided I’d make it a goal to interact with more wrimos!
My goal?
30 tweets a day interacting with wrimos.
How do I do it?
I search the #nanowrimo, #nanowrimo18 and #nanowrimo2018 hashtags.
I look at the “top” and “latest” categories and scroll through until I find something I want to interact with.
If it’s something inspirational, I usually quote retweet it to my followers.
If it’s a question, I quote retweet and answer, then ask my audience the same thing.
If it’s someone struggling or celebrating, I respond to them with encouragement.
This may sound like it takes forever,
but it really doesn’t. I try to get on a few times a day and do 5-10 interactions at a time.
I made a tracker for that as well.
I’m interested to see if my follower count goes up because of this.
That’s not the main goal, but I want to see what happens.
This is the most intriguing way to gain followers that I’ve seen,
probably because it’s the most genuine.
Cheering people on is not alien to me; I love to do it in person so it’s natural for me to do it online too.
This really works for me because interacting with other people energizes me!
And who knows?
One of these comments could really help another writer!
I hope so!
Finally, I’m looking up some great writing quotes to start sharing as well, so excited about that for sure!
How do I feel about the next ten days?
I don’t think I’m going to run out of things to write about, but I am going to be short on time for a bit.
My daughter and I fly back (across the country) on the 13th,
then I have full days of working on the 15th and 16th.
That’s one of the reasons I try to do 2,000 a day; I can build up a little bit of a buffer.
We’ll also be back in our tiny space and I’ll have to adjust to that writing space.
Overall how am I feeling?
Really excited. Really great.
Like this may be the best NaNoWriMo ever!
Do you want to play along and do an update?
Here are the questions for you to copy and paste and fill in with your own answers!
What day is it?
Where should I be on this day?
Today I wrote _______words, so I’m at ________words total!
Major victories?
Major setbacks?
What’s working?
What’s not working?
What am I excited about?
How do I feel about the next ten days?
Overall how are I feeling?
Keep up the good work and get those words out!
See you in ten more days!
Kathy Ellen
