Getting S*** Done, NaNoWriMo-Style.

Right about this time there are a metric ton's worth of tips about NaNoWriMo success floating about in the interwebs.

A lot of those tips share similar themes, such as banking wordcount, telling all your friends and family you'll be participating so they lower their expectations, etc.

There's certainly nothing wrong with those tips, if they work for you. But, most of the tips out and about don't really apply to me nor my writerly sensibilities.

This year will be my 5th NaNo, and I've won every year with the exception of the first, when I got to 38k and floundered. I may lose this year--who knows? November is actually the best month this could happen for me, school-wise, and there are a few reasons why.

But enough preamble. Let's kick this in the pants:

1. Get Shit Done. This one is especially true if you're in school, like me. I have a few things due in November, and I've worked my ass off getting them done before the 1st. Now, not only do I have a sense of relief that I'll have more time to write, but I'm just glad to have one less thing on my plate in general.

2. Outward Reflects Inward. Maybe not for you, but certainly does for me. I absolutely cannot abide being unclean, undressed, the house messy--nothing. I've never understood the whole "I'm a writer and I don't take showers on deadline" kind of thing--can you really not take 5 minutes to clean yourself in the morning? I'm always hoping that's a bit of hyperbole. But it's a psychological fact that when you feel good about yourself, your mind works better...and hopefully that means creativity will flow freely.

3. Eat Well, Be Well. Anyone who knows me knows that nutrition and exercise are two of my soapboxes, so I'll attempt not to stand on them for too long, but... Sitting on your ass in front of a computer is the last time you should be hand-over-fisting leftover Halloween candy into your hole. I hate to break it to you, but typing doesn't really burn calories. I mean hell, running 1 mile only burns about 100 calories, so think about that... Healthy snacks are easy. And you won't feel like the Queen of Bloat from all the sodium and water retention from junk food. Which brings me to my next point...

4. Drink Some Water. Period. Actually, between 2-3 liters a day. You can count your herbal tea, but not your coffee, okay?

5. Don't Psych Yourself Out. The truth is, with practice, you can write 1,667 words in about 90 minutes. Sometimes far, far less. So don't think that NaNo writing time has to swamp all day, every day. Set aside specific time to (1. Get Shit Done), and give yourself a few hours whenever they best suit you. There's 24 hours in a day, man. Resist Twitter and Facebook. If you need to procrastinate, go to the NaNoWriMo site. Chances are, you'll feel inspired to get back to it.

6. Let Go. This one is easier said than done. But my most memorable and most fun NaNo was 2 years ago, when I let the story go crazy. My main character ended up shifting into a dragon-panther (it was sci-fi, okay?) and it was wild. I loved it. But you have to get yourself there. Stick a bigass Post-It note to your monitor that says anything that reminds of that. "It's just a draft" or "Write or Die" or whatever.

7. When Writer's Block Strikes... go for a walk. Take a shower. Do some push-ups. Wash the dishes. Then come back to it, and whether or not you've broken through, write something. You can always change it later, remember?

8. Just Do It. You signed up for it. It's fun. Just do it.



Oh, and...

9. Have Fun! 

You Say Halloween, I Say Pre-Christmas

Lots of stuff has happened, bloggy friends, like I ran my first half-marathon and I'm 2/3 done with this semester and I started my first IV and all sorts of other ooey-gooey things that I'm too busy and/or tired to take the time to type.

Right now I'm frantically trying to finish a bunch of stuff ahead of time so I'll feel like I can indulge in NaNoWriMo without also indulging in a brain attack (<---that's what they're calling strokes these days).

We all have our coping mechanisms. Right now, mine is listening to Christmas music.

Hey, if it's good enough for multi-bestseller Laurell K. Hamilton when she's having a bad writing day, it's good enough for me.

Also, I love Christmas music.

Also, it's frakking 50 degrees in October, which is basically December weather, so let's pretend!

This is an intervention message given to me via Facebook:

I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of my holiday Pandora station.

NaNoWriMo Roll Call!

It's almost that time again, folks!

Who's doing it?
Who's on the fence about doing it?
Who already knows everything about what they're going to write?
Who's considering opening a blank doc on November 1 and figuring it out as they go? (this girl)


My username is: summerbp

Friend me!

Doing All The Things (and a little something on IT Band pain)

My first half-marathon is in 3 weeks. I've been steadily training all summer, and especially hard these past 9 weeks. I've had some major ups and downs, but the biggest hurdle came about 5 weeks ago, when in the middle of a 7-mile long run, I suddenly got terrible lateral knee pain.

Turns out I'm one of many runners suffering from issues with my iliotibial band, a thick bundle of connective tissue that runs the lateral side of your legs, from hip to knee. A lot of things can contribute to IT Band pain, especially weak hip/glute muscles, weak quadricep/hamstring ratio strength (running gives you massive hams), and weak core strength. So, you know, pretty much everything I have.

It's been a problem, for sure. Mostly, I've run through the pain when I can, including a very weird shuffle-run during the last 5 miles of my 10-miler last week. As soon as I stop running, the pain stops. Pretty simple. Unfortunately, there's no way in hell I'm stopping running just 3 weeks from my goal.

So, I've been stretching and doing leg-strengthening exercises. I ran 6 miles yesterday without pain for the first time in weeks. And this morning, I woke up kinda stiff and sore and decided to throw in one of my yoga dvds. This particular dvd has a different focus for each morning of the week--including one called "hip opening."

I did it. And holy cow, do I recommend any yoga series on hip flexors. It was basically many variations of cobbler's pose, wide angle pose, staff pose, half fish lord pose, and some crazy forward bends over stretched and angled legs. I have super tight legs anyway, so this would have helped even without the ITB stuff.

I'd love to say I'm going to start doing this yoga workout every day or so until the race, but let's be honest. Doing all the things? Not happening. I'm already running three times a week, sometimes over 2 hours for one run. I cross-train twice a week. I do strength training on cross-training days.

Oh, and of course there's the whole nursing school thing, which... let's just....*eye twitch*

And have I ever mentioned what a sleepy person I am? I'm not one who can stay up until midnight every night. Hells no. Last night I went to bed at 8:45pm. Yep. Granted, I was recovering from a sleep-deprived weekend and Monday, but still...

After the half, I'm planning to cut my runs down to 5-6 miles three times a week. So maybe then I'll have time for the yoga and strength training I want to do, instead of what I need to do.

Right now, everything is what I need to do.

I'm flirting with the idea of trying NaNoWriMo again this year, just because I haven't missed it yet, but I know I'm not going to be able to do it. I get the whole week of Thanksgiving off, and I only have a test on the 7th of November, but I dunno. Most of my big stuff is out of the way before November. Should I?

Or am I still trying to do all the things?

Hmm.

Knowing When

How often do you listen to your gut/instinct? I mean really listen. Not just in a "hey, maybe you shouldn't eat that fifth donut" kind of way, but more like "hey, something's telling me not to take Calvary Church Road and go the long way around on 985 instead" kind of way.

I do. Or, at least, I try to. I mindfully listen to myself. This may sound kinda hippy-dippy or whatever, but I've always thought that if there's any smidgen of "supernatural" ability out there, it's precognition/prescience. I think I've written about the deja vu phenomenon before, as well as jamais vu. I find it all personally fascinating. I'm not saying I can sense when a truck has run off the road and traffic is blocked for an hour, and I've not been one of those stories yet where the person says they told their so-and-so not to go to some place, and it ends up getting bombed or a gunman comes or whatever, but I don't discount any of my gut instincts.

Our bodies and minds are amazing and intricate, and I'm not just saying that because I've been eyeball-deep in studying about the genitourinary system for the past two days. (It might have more to do with the fact that I've started watching Fringe. Love it.)

So whether it's good sense or gut instinct, knowing when to say/do/feel/think anything is a skill worth cultivating. Chuck Wendig wrote something about it today. You should read it.

I've made some big life decisions for myself in the past week. One of them was the decision that now isn't the time to query my novel. I still think it's ready. I still think it's worthy. I was just starting to get really bad feelings about it, especially in relation to my other stuff, so after seeking some confirmation on what my gut was telling me (and I was trying not to hear), I went with it.

It was incredibly freeing. I've been creatively blocked for a year or more now, it seems, but two nights ago, less than a week after eschewing myself from the terrible self-imposed burden of OMGPUBLISHING, I started writing something new and strange and wonderful. I have no clue where it's going, what it's about. I don't even know the narrator's name. As a tried-and-true plotter of novels, it's definitely a change of pace. Maybe that's what I needed. Maybe that's what my gut was telling me.

Forget that song's advice about listening to your heart. All that lump of muscle wants is oxygen, anyway. Go with your gut. It outranks you, anyway, if you consider your colony of bacteria to have a voting factor...

long before the sunrise

My alarm went off at 3:45am today. I didn't even hit snooze. 

So now it's 4:30am, and I'm just finishing up my Multi-Grain Cheerios. Eating so early really sucks. I'm still full from dinner last night, but I know I'll be starved by lunch if I don't eat now. And let's be serious--I'll be starved anyway. 

Today's my first clinical day on my psychiatric rotation. I have to drive into downtown Atlanta for this one, hence the early rising. Meeting my carpool at 5am, but at least the commute-in traffic won't be too bad. 

I'll admit, I'm apprehensive about this. There's such a stigma on psych patients in our society, and it's hard to break away from your thoughts/beliefs without really knowing what it is that you think/believe. They really stress in school that to be a good nurse, especially psych nurse, you have to be 100% aware of your beliefs and schemas. Still working on that, I suppose. 

So, try not to judge, right? I'll be trying not to, too. 

Thunderstruck

So ever since I got so wrapped up in the world of my urban fantasy MS (All That Remains), all other creative input kinda got blocked.

Once I finished revising and revising that book and ventured out into Query World (I'd say right now I'm level 10), I was ready for a new idea. Sure, nursing school is uber brain-suck, but a writer needs to write, you know? Even if just a few hundred words a week.

But when I turned to the idea bucket in my brain--shock. It was empty.

That's a pretty devastating feeling. I moped around for a few weeks, desperately trying to come up with a new idea. Sure, I have some drawer novels that I could revise, but nothing tickling my fancy right now. I flirted with the idea that I should break out of my interest zone and write something totally different, like a romance or YA contemporary.

Idea bucket = still empty.

Until last night.

Anyone who's heard my philosophies on writing knows that I feel like writing comes from the writer, not voices in my head or muses or any of that ridiculous shite. So I have to hang my head a little to admit that last night, in the final REM cycle of my sleep, I had a really awesome dream. 

When I woke up, I put on my glasses and went straight to the computer, where I wrote down as much as I could remember about that dream. Then, all morning, I percolated on it. Running track intervals? Thinking about it. Taking a shower? Thinking about it. Eating oatmeal? Thinking about it.

It's there, guys. It's been a long time since an idea has hit me so hard and been so vibrant so fast. I told hubby about it on his lunch break, and he even gave the thumbs-up on the idea.

Idea bucket = full.

Turns out, I'm best sticking to my comfort zone. So I'll be heading into space soon, ready to start on my new (YA -ish) sci-fi WIP, jokingly titled TANGO TANGO for now.

Oh, and I've started making a playlist for it. On the drive back from the track this morning, I heard the Jesus Jones song "Right Here Right Now," and felt really nostalgic. So most of the songs on the playlist thusfar are from the years '91-'96. Then I realized that meant some were 20 years old and I felt weird.

I'd love to say I'm off to worldbuild on TANGO, but in reality I have my first exam next week in Med-Surg, so I'm really off to study heart failure! Don't be jealous.

And don't give up on your idea bucket.

-s