The Week // NaNoWriMo 2016 Begins

Happy Friday!

I hope you all had a wonderful week. My week was pretty much consumed by one thing: NaNoWriMo. Except for yesterday, when I worked on a few other things. A few other things that are not the pile of laundry that needs to be folded and put away. That’s what weekends are for, right? 😉

That’s right! I’m doing NaNoWriMo again this year. I might regret saying that publicly if, you know, I end up failing miserably. I’ve been Snapchatting about it, though, (follow me for more regular updates: dreamsetcblog) so if you follow me there you already know.

One thing I’m trying out with NaNoWriMo is developing a writing routine, so some sort of routine that leads into the actual writing. When I took the Silencing Your Inner Critic class last weekend the teacher led us through a guided meditation, and while that isn’t really my thing, I thought I should do some sort of activity that will help me relax before I start writing and take away any restlessness before I start writing. My plan was to do 15 – 20 minutes of yoga before writing; I have some relaxing yoga workouts that I could pop in and it doesn’t require a ton of space so I knew I’d easily be able to do it in my room by my writing desk (once I take care of Mount Laundry).

I read the NaNo pep talk from Daniel José Older when I announced my novel and he also talked about what to do leading into writing. He talked about listening to a song before he started writing and I liked the sound of that too, so I decided to try that out as well.

So the first day of trying out my new writing routine I grabbed my stack of workout DVDs to pull out a yoga one and… I decided to do a Tracy Anderson Mat Method DVD instead. Relaxing yoga or intense toning: practically the same thing, right? After I was done I hobbled to my desk and listened to a song, then started writing. The next day I started later than I had been planning to, so I listened to the song, but didn’t do the activity and after these two days I definitely think that 15 – 20 minutes of physical activity key. I’ll keep working on my writing routine and report back.

Who else is doing NaNoWriMo this year? Do you have a writing routine?

PS – If you’re doing NaNo, we should be NaNo buddies!

Reflections on the first week of #NaNoWriMo2016 and developing a writing routine. #amwriting

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8 Comments

Trish
November 4, 2016 at 10:12 am
How neat that you are doing NaNoWriMo! That is on my bucket list to tackle (maybe next year!). I like the idea of doing physical activity before writing. I think it would help with relaxation enough to sit down and just be creative!
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- Crystal // Dreams, etc.
  November 8, 2016 at 9:04 am
  You should definitely give it a shot soon! 🙂 I’m liking the physical activity thing more and more. I don’t know why this hasn’t crossed my mind before, especially since doing something like that is also thought to help stimulate activity from what I’ve heard.
  Reply
Amelia
November 4, 2016 at 10:20 am
Hey, Crystal! 🙂 I made the last minute decision to do NaNoWriMo this year. My process has been slow so far because I had to outline my book and create characters before I could start writing. Luckily, I’m writing the prequel book to another book I’ve recently finished writing, but I still had to create a few of characters. I’m a huge believer in outlining and I observe the three act structure and a few other elements involve in the crime + thriller genres. I usually write a basic story synopsis, create characters, outline book, create a story timeline, then import all of this into Scrivener, then the writing begins. xx
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- Crystal // Dreams, etc.
  November 8, 2016 at 9:01 am
  That’s so cool! Sometimes the last minute decisions to join are the best. 🙂 It sounds like you have a great process in place for planning. I’ve always been more of a pantser at the start (although I do have the general story arc in mind), but then about halfway through I like to create a more detailed outline to finish it out. If I was writing a thriller, I’d definitely want an outline from the beginning. Good luck with NaNo!
  Reply
Laura
November 6, 2016 at 9:45 pm
I think it’s awesome that you are doing this! My sister did it a few years ago, and it’s so impressive to me! Good luck!
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- Crystal // Dreams, etc.
  November 8, 2016 at 8:52 am
  Thank you! I have done it before, but have only accomplished writing 50,000 words once and that was in October. 🙂 I did a “warm up” for NaNo and wrote the first book (which I had started already) in October. I was going to write the sequel in November, but that was an optimistic thought because I was in school and had a lot of papers/a poetry chapbook due in November.
  Reply
chelsea jacobs
November 7, 2016 at 7:13 pm
Ooh I love the idea of having physical activity before the creative activity! Smart!
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- Crystal // Dreams, etc.
  November 8, 2016 at 8:46 am
  I’ve definitely noticed a difference in how I feel and how my writing sessions go when I get some physical activity in before! 🙂 Hope NaNo is going well for you. 🙂
  Reply