Nov 02 2009
How to Write Mo’ during NaNoWriMo
1 day of writing down and 29 to go…I managed to get 5k of words down, which gave me a nice start, I think. Even on the first day it was a little difficult, once I had jumped the first hurdle: finding some free time away from the husband, Miss A & Lil’ G, I discovered old habits are hard to break and I had the urge to check in on my favorite websites, do a little on-line holiday shopping..that sort of thing. I resisted this technical temptation, and got to it – but found my enthusiasm was taking a dip (perhaps it was the exhaustion…staying up and writing from midnite til 2am is hard on the brain cells.). Then I discovered my secret weapon – my writing tool that helps me stay on track. As with anything I find difficult to get through – whether it is running or laundry – I find that music makes me enjoy it more: it’s my spoonful of sugar that pushes me through that last mile, helps me finish that last load.
So I was delighted to discover an on-line source for my “sugar.” Ok, I confess, I didn’t discover it…props to the Queen of Hearts for telling me about it (Thanks Sharon!). I’m talking about Pandora, an on-line personalized radio station. At first I was skeptical, there had to be some kind of annoying or expensive catch…but nope – from what I can tell so far, it is as easy as pie to use and even tastier.
They created a station for me (just type in a fav song or artist), and I left the site running in the background as I typed away. It was awesome! It really was like someone had peeked in my mind and put together a radio station just for me. I heard many favorites, and many songs I love but forgot about, havent’ heard in forever, and songs I had never heard before that grew on me right away.
I had typed in Tori Amos, and got stuff from her but also songs from Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann, Cowboy Junkies, Sarah Mclachlan and others – it was a truly great mix (for me anyway, the husband would have been gagging).
There was a Faith Hill perfume commercial that popped on every 5th song or so, but there was an option to mute it out, so that was hardly a problem.
I am totally sold on Pandora, so if you’ll excuse me, I need to get my spoonful of it and start writing. I gotta crank out 500 words before Lil’ G wakes up.
ETA: They also make cool little widgets, check mine out in the sidebar under Groovin’ Mama.
3 Responses to “How to Write Mo’ during NaNoWriMo”
I’ve just been listening to my iPod shuffle but thanks for reminding me of more options. I have an app on my phone for Slacker Radio which I can listen to online too. Same concept as Pandora, but Slacker works better on the Blackberry.
Allison´s last blog ..Crazy November
Great idea to get some tunes crankin! And BTW I visited the Engrish site and laughed so hard I couldn’t see!
Jenn DesAutels´s last blog ..Fall laundry
@ Allison…ahem, well…some of us are not so cool as to have Blackberries and phones with apps and such
@Jenn: Hi there! Glad to see you, I know, there is some really great stuff on there, people catch the craziest word blunders!