Writing Pains

Last year when I took on the NaNo Challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days or less and have a complete story told, I learned quite a few things about my writing self. 1. I can type 2,000 to 2,500 words in 30 minutes or less if I stop thinking about what I am saying. Hence the Nano qualifier of "it doesn't have to be good." 2. If I have a plot thought out, I am more interested in writing my characters' story. Even on the days that I didn't feel like writing, I had to, because I needed the word count and I knew where I was going. 3. Plotting doesn't have to be painful. On the forum boards I found a plotting method called The Snowflake Method as described by Randy Ingermanson. I've been using his method to plot out my last endeavor. I'm on step 7 of 10, 10 being the first draft. His idea revolves around starting with the simple design and adding the complexities and details one level at a time. The steps for doing this are posted at his sight. Since he explains it much better than I do, I suggest you visit his page entitled The Snowflake Method. The part that I am on now involves those email quizzes that I requested. Yes, Kelli, I'm getting to it. I might even have it done in two weeks, if I can keep up the rate I'm going at now. The thing about writing is it takes time. Just like this blog takes time. And my family. And my job. I've been told by a wise woman that you can only focus on three major things at any given point in time. I'm juggling four. I just need to figure out how to split myself in halves or thirds so I can juggle all of the important things in my life.