I took The Plunge

I've decided to take the NaNoWriMo plunge.

I went to nanowrimo.org and signed up to participate in this year's National Novel Writing Month ... even though the idea of committing myself to averaging close to 1700 words a day for the entire month of November makes me cringe!

But what's to be afraid of? All it will require is committing to stay away from Facebook, Google+ and a few other websites that suck away my free-time. From writing/publishing three novels and nearly a dozen short stories already, I know I can crank out 800-1000 words per hour -- as long as can I force myself to not backtrack to revise/edit!

Yes, that's the ticket! Just slap as many words into that textfile as fast as possible, throwing concern for quality out the window! Nah, just kidding about not wanting quality.

Pursue a balance ... that's the real ticket! What ends up as a first draft each day (or writing session) must not be garbage ... must not be sentences and paragraphs thrown together just for the sake of generating 1300 words per day.

Seems reasonable enough, right?

Now ... when's the best writing time? First thing in the morning is a possibility (since I'm usually up by 5 anyway). But for many years, that's been a great time to "browse" the web! How can I possibly resist the temptation to fire up Chrome to check out the early-morning pulse of the Intrawebz?

So ... wow about after the duties of the day have been completed? On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, that's been around noon each day. But after working hard all morning cleaning windows, won't it be hard to force myself to not fire up Chrome once again, rationalizing that I need time "to recuperate" after working so hard?

Then there's the early evening hours ... between 6 and 8? Now there's a possibility. After stoking the wordsmithing-furnace with Wifey's wonderful home-cooked dinners, I should be able to force myself to not fire up Chrome, right?

I'm beginning to notice a pattern.

If the goal of typing at least 1300 words per day, of writing a novel of at least 50K words in the month of November is going to be attained, "firing up Chrome" will have to happen a lot less-often than it happens right now.

Yes, if being a part of NaNoWriMo 2013 is a worthy goal, then I must also have a goal of not spending so much time exploring the Intrawebz.

But how to accomplish such a feat?

I've heard/read of people turning off their DSL/cable modems while they are writing. But does that actually work? I mean, how hard is it to turn the thing back on? I suppose I could actually disconnect The Beast and give it to Wifey an hour each afternoon and evening. She wouldn't mind not being able to get online during those two hours, right?

As a related thought, a few of us CIA'ers (Christian Indie Authors) have been "word-warring" to prepare for NaNoWriMo and plan to WW once November finally arrives. For a word-war to take place, at least two of us agree to write for an hour, starting and stopping at the same time, and this "war" is discussed via the Nano Word Warriors Facebook page.

So, if the plan is to shut-down/disconnect the modem during my writing times, how can I set up a word-war with any of my fellow Nano Word Warriors?

Realistically, turning off the modem is not going to happen. The only way I'm going to beat this thing is to force myself to stay focused on writing and not browsing.

After all, it's only, on the average, 2 hours a day, right?