October 21, 2012: I have decided to log my writing this year on my website — I will post the work here as PDFs. The chart above will show green on days I log my goal, and red on days I don’t quite make it. If you click on the calendar, it should take you to my NaNo page where the actual count I enter will be logged.
The purpose of NaNoWriMo is NOT to push out a perfect, finished novel in a single month. Rather, the idea is to write (and write, and write, and write) about 1700 words each day on average, without wasting too much time in self-editing or proofreading. The daily word count will include typos, mis-statements and “out-write” errors. Not because the writers don’t know better, but because the creative process is messy, recursive and spontaneous.
So the first draft, not even a rough draft really, is the brainstorm, the vomita fabrica of the creative mind. If you know Latin, feel free to offer suggestions on how else to express the idea of creativity explosively emerging from the mind!
When I teach, when I am talking about generating ideas with students, I start by explaining that we can’t know if an idea is “good” or “bad” at first, and that sometimes the most useful ideas come around because we think about and around ideas that are less useful. When we limit ourselves too quickly, we lose the opportunity to explore alternatives. What appears at first glance to be useless might, in another application or from a different perspective, become essential.
Thus, consider this my acknowledgement that the writing that will appear in this corner of my online life will be rough, raw, confusing, amateurish, and possibly just plain rotten. Hopefully, it will also be interesting and have potential.
Right now, I have several ideas floating around in my head. I don’t know which one I will settle down with, but hopefully it will be fun!
- November 1: I taught all day, no writing.
- November 2: Six hours writing!2012 November 2 Chapter One, 2012 November 2 Chapter Two 4,238 words
- November 3: I wrote a partial chapter at the end of yesterday and finished it early this morning. 2012 November 2-3 Chapter Three And then I wrote the beginning of another chapter, for a total of about three hours writing. 2012 November 3 Chapter Four
- November 4: I finished Chapter Four in about half an hour. 2012 November 3-4 Chapter Four and then a few more hours (I have a virus today, not working very fast) later, 2012 November 4 Chapter Five and then… 2012 November 4 Chapter Six
- November 5: A chapter an hour, about 800 words per chapter. If I do two chapters a day… 2012 November 5 Chapter Seven, and 2012 November 5 Chapter Eight, and another… 2012 November 5 Chapter Nine
- November 6
- November 7
- November 8
- November 9
- November 10
- November 11
- Novembe 12: After learning of my friend’s death, I was unable to write. Back in the saddle now! 2012 November 12 Chapter Ten
- November 13
- November 14: A day of work, followed by a day of writing. If I were a little more disciplined, I would get a lot more done on days I don’t earn money… 2012 November 14 Chapter Eleven
- November 15
- November 16(three day conference!)
- November 17
- November 18
- November 19: 2012 November 19 Chapter Twelve and 2012 November 19 Chapter Thirteen
- November 20
- November 21
- November 22
- November 23
- November 24
- November 25
- November 26
- November 27
- November 28
- November 29
- November 30
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