nano

30 Days of Nano – Day 13

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Writing Playlist

My Top Fifteen Writing Playlist; what’s yours?

1. Henry V Soundtrack

2. Non-Stop from the Hamilton Soundtrack

3. Wrote My Way Out from the Hamilton Mix Tape

4. White Blank Page – Mumford & Sons

5. Smash (album) – Offspring

6. Capercaillie – Ailein Duinn

7. Hedwig’s Theme from the Harry Potter soundtrack

8. Carry On – fun

9. Blow Me Away – Breaking Benjamin

10. Flogging Molly (any album)

11. English Curse – Frank Turner

12. Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) – Green Day

13. Mr. Brightside – The Killers

14. One Day More – Le Miserable soundtrack

15. Beidh Aonach Amarach – Gaelic Storm

30 Days of Nano – Day 12

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This or That?

1. Ice                           or      no?

2. Straws                   or      Sipper Lids?

3. Sweet                    or      Savory?

4. Neflix & Chill        or      Netflix & Write?

5. Solitaire                 or      Mah Jong?

6. Distraction           or      Procrastination?

7. Scented candle   or      Unscented?

8. Sweater                 or      Afghan?

9. Morning News    or      Evening?

10. Music                   or      Quiet?

30 Days of Nano – Day 11

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Treat Yourself!

Coffee, Tea, Soda, Beer? What’s your go-to drink for your writing time?

My Favorites:

Coffee – I don’t drink coffee.

Tea – Adagio Teas The Walking Dead Daryl Tea and Twinings Prince of Wales Tea

Soda – Diet Coke, usually caffeine free

Beer – I don’t really drink beer, but I do love cider. My choice is Strongbow or Redd’s.

Add yours in the comments!

30 Days of Nano – Day 10

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Incentives

I’m going to presume that you’ve kept some of your Halloween candy from last week. We have a lot of the mini ones, so they’re pretty tiny.

Why don’t you reward every 2500 words with a mini candy bar? Or add a quarter to a jar, and see where you are at the end of November. Choose a word count and take a walk about the neighborhood or get an extra coffee.

My incentive is getting to read another chapter in my Neil Gaiman book, The View from the Cheap Seats.

What are some of the incentive you use when you want to write but need that extra push?

30 Days of Nano – Day 9

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Easy Meals

1. Crock-pot Lasagna – this is amazing and easy. My family loves it!

2. Quiche – another quick and easy, delicious family meal.

3.  Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (in the blue box)

4. Casserole made from leftovers – mix the leftovers, add a sauce (pasta, Worcestershire, gravy, HP sauce), if you have rice put it on the bottom, if you have mashed potatoes, spread it on top, add shredded cheese, and bake for thirty minutes at 350°.

5. Pour a can of Chunky soup over cooked rice. You can add cheese, sour cream, crackers, croutons, onion or tortilla strips.

Now, that dinner is finished, get back to writing!

30 Days of Nano – Day 8

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Morning Routine

Whatever office hours you decided on yesterday, whether you have a day job that is not Nanowrimo or a family to take care of, not to mention getting ready for Thanksgiving, visiting your relatives, planning the rest of the year for you and your family all while trying to write the Great American Novel, you will still need a morning routine to get you started everyday.

Take a minute to figure out what should be part of your morning routine.

Will it be coffee? Tea?

Breakfast?

Read a chapter of a book?

Read an inspirational quotation from a favorite author?

Prayer?

Rosary?

Hygiene – shower, brushing teeth, shaving?

Share some of your suggestions.

30 Days of Nano – Day 7

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Office Hours

Give yourself office hours. 

Don’t answer the phone or the door (emergencies excepted). Don’t turn on the television (the Kindle counts). Turn off the WiFi. Get yourself in office mode. I make a cup of tea. On occasion, I’ll light a scented candle, but it’s not particularly my go-to; it’s just a sometimes go-to.

My husband works at home, and he’s always interrupting me, so I will need to remind him that I’m working even if all I’m doing is staring into space, chewing on a pencil eraser.

My kids are also home by 3, so my hours need to end by then during the school week.

I also try to attend mass three times during the week, so my hours are worked around those times.

My basic hours are 10-3, although I will write at other times; I make my writing portable enough that I can jot things down anywhere.

Work around your life, but be diligent. Any and all writing is good writing during Nanowrimo. Edits are for December.

30 Days of Nano – Day 5

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One of the tenets of Nanowrimo and all stream of consciousness writing is just write. Let it flow. Don’t make corrections, just get it out. Edits are for December.

How I do this is if I have a word that I know I don’t want to use, but need it to get the thought across, I will add [th] after I type or write it (I do this regardless of long writing or typing) so I can search for all of my [th]s and then look the words up in a thesaurus. That way, I can keep the writing flowing and get it out, and that works for me. I also keep a list of words to look up, words I find in my travels, words that I want to use, and want to know more about their definitions.

Whatever works for you, come December you’ll need to edit. My go-to resources are Dictionary and Thesaurus. I also use ThinkExist for quotations.

30 Days of Nano – Day 4

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While you were at Barnes & Noble yesterday picking up your copy  of the recent The Writer magazine, I hope you stopped off in their cafe/coffee shop. It’s a great place to sit and have a quick drink, maybe a snack and get some writing done. Or at a minimum, jot some ideas and notes down.

If you didn’t have time for that, try out Coffitivity, a sound website that gives you the feeling of being in a coffee shop or other places that are conducive to getting creative and getting some writing done.