Exhausted but Organized

I am simply falling over from exhaustion. My eyes are half-closed as I type and they fully close every time I stop to think of what to say. {zzzz} Oops, sorry!

I love NaNoWriMo, and I love the book I’m writing, and I love my friends, and I love my husband, and I love sleeping, and eating, and showering… but there doesn’t seem to be time to keep up with it all. After I post this blog, my next act will be either eating or sleeping; I’m not sure which I want more.

But it’s worth it. Today I set the alarm for 30 minutes three times, in between other things. Each time, I wrote for about 40 minutes. In the end, I had 3043 new words! Yesterday I was 5000 words behind the goal; today only 4000. Hurray! Being tired and hungry is worth seeing this story come to life.

Earlier this week I was having a difficult time figuring out which scene to write next. I told you about the huge pieces of paper that I used to write all my initial thoughts and ideas on in October. They were great for brainstorming, but less useful for keeping my thoughts organized once I began writing.

So after a particularly tough 30-minute session on Monday (or was it Tuesday? I’m too tired to remember!), I set my AlphaSmart aside and sat down on the living room floor with a pack of index cards. I wrote down a one-sentence description of every scene I had imagined, envisioned, or already written. I spread them out all around me and set to the task of trying to organize them. I think it was a couple hours before I had them in a stack on the desk, the index card for the next scene on top.

This morning when I woke up after too little sleep (awesome fun meeting last night with the Romance Writers of Australia group I’m now a part of!), I sat down with my AlphaSmart and the index cards and started typing! Voila! Beautiful!

I wrote two consecutive scenes in two 40-minute sessions during the morning and early afternoon. By the time I got to the third session, I was too tired to be peppy and witty, so I thumbed through the cards looking for something I little more in line with my mood. I found a card, pulled it out, and started typing.

To make sure I don’t get lost, I put a little check mark on the index cards that I’ve written into scenes, but I make sure to keep them in what I believe to be the correct order for the book. I am so happy! I’ve done this before, but the time in between the first few pages of one book and the first few pages of the next includes too many months during which I forget what works well for me.

Ah, the feel of organization. It’s a beautiful thing.

I hope this helps some of you get your thoughts down, keep the momentum up, and stay as organized as you can be during this crazy stage of writing.

One other bit of advice that might help you. Yesterday’s NaNo pep talk came by email and of course I read it before I started writing. But as soon as I read the first words, “Lynda wrote her pep talk with a pen. You can see a PDF of it in all it’s handwritten glory here,” I had to see it in it’s original form. I think you should read it in the original form, too. It might give you a creative boost! Click here to go to the NaNo page, then read that first line and click on the word “here” to open the pdf. Very powerful message! I wrote like she suggests last week, and while it does take longer, it really does feel different, better. This week I’m typing so I can catch up in my word count, but maybe next week… Well, read the pep talk.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got for encouragement today. Hope you’re all feeling good about the writing you accomplished today. Even if it was 100 words. Rejoice! There is much to be grateful for!