A few posts ago, I discussed the amount of actual time it might take to write a book in 30 days, which is what all the WriMos started doing yesterday, presumably with a stack of candy (it WAS just after Halloween, after all). In that posting, I suggested that if you forgo ALL personal time (or, more accurately, squeeze ALL personal time into 5 hours/day, including eating), you still have 5 hours a day to devote to writing your book if you work 8 hours a day and sleep 6 hours a day. If you actually spent 100% of those 5 hours each day for 30 days doing nothing but writing constantly and consistently, you would only need to type 7 words a minute to write 50,000 in 30 days.
But no one writes that way. You’ll need to take some breaks to recharge. It’s a good thing you type faster than 7 words a minute, isn’t it? So what can you do for relaxation that doesn’t take you TOO far from the laptop (just in case inspiration strikes)?
You can watch movies about writing and writers. There are a lot of them. Not surprisingly, many movies are about screenwriters (hmm, I wonder why), but there are also quite a few movies (some better than others) about book writers, poets, playwrights, etc. So, in no particular order (well, except for the first one, which seems appropriate since we’re all about to artistically “suffer” writing 50,000 words in 30 days, AND since NaNoWriMo kicked-off on Halloween at midnight), are 25 movies about writers that you can watch when your fingers need a break during National Novel Writing Month. Add them to your NetFlix queue today.
1. Misery
2. Chinese Coffee
3. House by the River
4. Prick Up Your Ears
5. The Player
6. Barton Fink
7. Midnight in Paris
8. Deconstructing Harry
9. Wonder Boys
10. Another Woman
11. The Squid and the Whale
12. Capote
13. Numb
14. Starting Out in the Evening
15. Shadows in the Sun
16. The Ghost Writer
17. Beautiful Kate
18. The World According to Garp
19. Zorba the Greek
20. Listen Up Philip
21. The Tenants
22. Stuck in Love
23. Finding Forester
24. Sideways
25. Adaptation
Okay, okay…. you didn’t think I was going to forget one more, did you? The Shining
I’m sure there are many others, but as they say, “All work, and no play, makes Jack a dull boy.” So have fun while you’re writing! Who knows? Some of the movies above may just inspire you (or at least explain why some writers are cra-azy!)
DAILY STATS UPDATE for November 1, 2014
Yesterday was fun! It was the first time I got to actually work on the book I’ve been blogging about for nearly a month, and the first time I got to put some words to paper, and then enter my word count into the NaNoWriMo site. Contrary to my own advice, I didn’t quite reach 3000 words the first day out, but that’s okay. And, it’s even BETTER for the WriMo’s I’m mentoring because it offers up an opportunity: I challenge you to stay AHEAD of me. Each day I will post my previous daily stats on this blog and as long as you write MORE words than I do, you’ll be pacing yourself well (assuming, of course, that I will be pacing myself well, so the pressure is on!).
| Average Per Day | 2192 |
| Words Written Today | 2192 |
| Target Word Count | 50,000 |
| Target ~ Words/Day | 1,667 |
| Total Words Written | 2192 |
| Words Remaining | 47,808 |
| Current Day | 1 |
| Days Remaining | 30 |
| At this rate, you’ll finish | Nov 23 |
| Words/Day to finish on time | 1,594 |
I’m assuming the “Days Remaining” stat still says 30 because I updated my word count at noon, mountain time, on November 1. That last stat is the benefit to writing MORE words than the required 1666 per day. Every time you write MORE than the required average, your NEW required daily average decreases. Talk about a psychological boost!
President of Outskirts Press 