NaNoRetRo: Write-ins (AKA BICHOK)

For those of you who don't know, I have a very active region for NaNoWriMo.  Very active -- every day but Thanksgiving had a planned event, and probably half of the days had more than one planned event.  Most of those events were write-ins.

I gather that the way my region does write-ins is different than many others.  We have a regimen that varies in details but is generally the same every time.  A number of writing sprints are performed during the write-in, during which everyone is supposed to be actively writing, and not talking or disturbing others.  These are broken by 5-20 minute breaks, followed by another sprint.  These sprints are usually between 15 and 30 minutes long and often have a word count goal for people to shoot for, though of course there's no recriminations for missing the goal, nor extra rewards for making it.

They also provide a live-stream for nearly all of the write-ins, with a chat window available for people to virtually discuss during the breaks, and we all write (and report back our word counts) even if we aren't there in person.

When I write on my own, I tend to sit in front of the computer and get distracted for a few minutes (read: couple hours) by Facebook, email, Twitter, and various other easily-found shiny things.  I don't tend to set time limits, nor goals, nor do I have the peer pressure keeping me writing.

How does it compare?  For approximately the same amounts of time allocated for writing, the weeknight write-ins that I attended virtually had me producing an average of 1730 words, while writing by myself I averaged about 1060.  That's 60% more words for the write-in days, and mostly (IMO) due to one main cause, and the acronym I used: BICHOK.

Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard.

That seems to be the secret to the success.  By actually having my hands ready to write, and using peer pressure to keep me from being distracted, I wrote many more words than I would otherwise.  It's a secret I've known for a while, though this year was the first I thought to quantify it.

Also interesting to note: the second-most productive time for me (or maybe first, since it was shorter time periods)? Writing in the car while my wife drove us somewhere.  Apparently having no wifi and also knowing that she could tell when I was typing and when I wasn't also kept me productively engaged.

So there you have it, one of the biggest secrets to writing success (or so I've heard).  Actually writing.  Who would have thunk, indeed.

Writing When It's Hard

So, a confession that most experienced NaNos will maybe relate to: sometimes the writing is hard.  Sometimes, you sit down to get your daily words written, and it's just a grind to get them all done.

But sometimes, you can let yourself get psyched out about it also.

Today was a case in point for that.  Yesterday was tough.  Today I wasn't feeling it; I was sure it was going to be a slog just to get the bare minimum of words in.  I wasn't sure how I was going to face tomorrow and the ISU write-in, other than by hoping that, somewhere in those 6 hours of writing, I'd manage to get a couple thousand words.

BUT, I sat down tonight to write anyway.  I hooked into the UStream link for a virtual presence at the write-in, and I made myself write.  And do you know what?

I did my two highest word-count sprints so far this month.

Not only that, but I also figured out what happens next, other than what I had planned, which just won't cut it anymore because now I know something worse to do to my protagonist.  (That's the beauty of having your protagonist think "I have to avoid this because there's no recovering from it."  Then you know what they think the worst that could happen is, and you can do it to them.)



So, what's the moral of the story?  I admit that some days are still a bit of a slog, but don't just give up because you think it's going to be rough.  Actually sit down and type.  You never know when good things might happen.

NaNoWriMo Prep Forthcoming

I've decided to do an experiment and publish my NaNoWriMo prep here.  This will hopefully provide a few benefits, among them forcing me to get to my preparation work that I've been putting off.  As well, there's a chance that I would get some feedback that may help me as I go, and another chance that someone else may find the process useful for their own work.

Some concerns that play through my head, put out as if my subconscious is questioning my conscious:

• Are you worried that somebody will take your work?
  
  Somewhat, but overall I don't think that this is a reasonable fear.  This is only preparatory work; there is still a lot of effort to be done to turn it into a story.  In addition to this, each writer is going to be interested in and emphasize different parts of the prep work, so the resulting story should turn out quite different even if people work from the same source material.
  
• Are you worried that you'll flood your readers?
  
  You mean flood them with regularly blog posts instead of the occasional one when I remember?  Not entirely.  Google's new auto-publish means I can't just select the best to share and save the rest, but I trust my readers (if I have any) have made it to the level where they can skim past a published link to a blog if it doesn't interest them.
  
• Aren't you worried that you'll fail in public?
  
  Definitely.  However, I don't actually expect to.  One reason is that I've done prep for and tried NaNoWriMo multiple times, and am pretty confident in my ability to finish NaNoWriMo successfully, which is the definition of successful prep work as well, IMO.  Another is that I've always experimented with my prep work, trying to find new things, so if it fails, it might be kind of fun anyway.  Finally, I attribute the remaining fear to just the usual cause of author fright, and move on.
  
• What's the prep this year?
  
  I've decided to do a combination of Story Engineering and Million Dollar Outlines.  More specifically, I'm going to try and develop the prep work according to Story Engineering, and use Million Dollar Outlines to inform the process.
  
  This means a reader can look forward to rumination on concepts, characters, themes, and outlines, potentially all mixed together for the benefit of all... or at least the benefit of me.
  
• Does having your subconscious present as a separate entity worry you at all?
  
  Should it?  Hmm.... I may have to think this one over a bit more.

So there it is.  I'll try to label it all and hopefully not spam too much.