Gritty Word Counts: Day 3!

Cheating has become a bit more common place about NaNoWriMo; this is not a bad thing. A good writing buddy is taking this stance because she's such a rebel. If building on a current manuscript is getting you going, if you had to start in October because you could not stand to wait anymore, or you're just trying to finish up a 100,000+ project with that last 50K, good for you!

This year, I decided to go back to being "organic" with the process. I have a brand new and characters that I barely know. They are surprising creations that seem to be moving in directions I had not anticipated. This is the joy of writing without an outline. Despite some of James Patterson's advice for the kickoff, this writer operates by the seat of her pants. (I am, however, quite adept at lying to myself.)

As I am writing this, Day 3 is nearing hour 7 in Kansas and I have been plugging at my manuscript from about an hour already this morning. I am about 900 words from today's goal and feeling fairly confident about my success this month. I was flagging last month

I also need to complete a project for my accounting class that I have been procrastinating on because this weekend has been an odd mix of stress, partying, and writing for sanity. I hope the rest of the Zombie Warhols are doing well on their word counts.

Some gritty tips for increasing your word counts early on:

• Use Chapter Titles - They help mentally set the scene and  give you a boost in the word count department. 
• Use absolutely no contractions - You get two words for the price of one. Even if it seems too formal for your character now, you can always go back and change it during the editing process. 
• Use action verbs as much as possible -  Not only will your sentences pack a punch, you may be more likely to offer better description, which leads to my next tip.
• Adjectives and adverbs are your friend - Ignore rules from high school or early college composition classes. Be as flowery as humanly possible and introduce characters with as many details as come to mind when you envision them. You likely will edit a great deal of that out later, but in the meantime, it gives you a better idea of how that person looks.
• Kick your inner editor to the curb - Never allow yourself to think that something sounds silly or ridiculous. Just write it. The editing can happen in January. (You can try to be nice and send him/her on vacation, but that rarely works.)
• Schroedinger is your saving grace - Not sure how something should happen? Write the two most likely scenarios and move on. You can decide later on how things should actually progress.

 Have a great November everyone! Feel free to post about your current projects in the comments section. I look forward to hearing from all of you.