Oddly relieved

Ok, so I guess I am back to my old ways...of not posting that often. But I must say, I am oddly relieved to be away from the stress of Nanowrimo and NaBloPoMo. I have taken a real break from my computer (except for work) and I think it has been good for me. I am getting more sleep - yay!

I have not done anything on my novel except print it out to be read. I am old school and need to see it in printed format where I can make changes in red. It will be interesting to see if the efficiency-loving part of my personality can overcome this to do my editing on my computer. I feel like I need to go back to the Nanowrimo website and figure out what to do next...

I know that some funny things were said this weekend but I cannot, for the life of me, remember what they were. :) I guess I am not getting quite enough sleep.

Days 29 & 30: Nanowrimo

Nanowrimo

Words written so far: 51,617

Impressions: Well, I am happy to say that I am done! Hooray! I passed the magical 50K number. The silly thing is...the book isn't over. I am not going to write anymore today and I may not even write anything tomorrow but I would like to spend a little more time writing before I put it away and let it ferment.

I like this story. I like the characters (and hate others, which is the way it should be). It doesn't make a whole lot of sense taken as a whole. It is disjointed in places but I still love it.

I have absolutely no idea what to do next. Well that is not exactly true. Here is my list of what I am going to do in the immediate future:

• Clean out mail closet
• Set up a new home page
• Figure out a new theme for this blog (if needed)
• Finish any Christmas shopping
• Mail gifts.

But as for the book, other than finishing it and letting it ferment, I don't know what to do after that. What do I do next with 50,000 plus words? I suspect I will be (along with every other Nanowrimo winner) going to the library to search for books on editing. I believe I have a long road ahead of me but the journey looks interesting. Thanks for hanging in here with me.

Likelihood of Finishing Nanowrimo: 100%. I am done! Yay!

Day 26: Nanowrimo

Nanowrimo

Words written so far: 43,669

Impressions: According to Wikipedia, a novel is between 50,000 and 75,000 words so if I can make it past 50,000, I should be fine. I am nearing the end but am already starting to think about what I will do with my time after Nanowrimo is finished. There are things I have been procrastinating that will need to get done in early December. I am ready for a change of pace.

Tonight's writing was a little bland but told an interesting story. The problem is, I don't feel like the entire story is related - I feel like I have snippets of small stories. I realized today that even though I said I was writing a cyberpunk novel, the main character doesn't support that. I would need to change her or fit it into a different genre. Weird!

Likelihood of Finishing Nanowrimo: 100%. Only 6,331 words to go.

Days 24 and 25: Nanowrimo

Nanowrimo

Words written so far: 41,822

Impressions: I swear, after Nanowrimo is finished (only 5 more writing days) I will only mention my novel in passing! (At least until Nanoedmo - National Novel Editing Month).

Yesterday, thanks to John and Babs, I took a well deserved day off of writing. We had a lovely dinner (see previous post about green beans) and I just didn't feel like writing when they left. I caught up during my kid's nap time today and then busted out more words tonight. I feel that I am getting closer to the end of my story. I am starting to tie up loose ends. I worry that it doesn't all fit togther but I am ok with that for now.

I realized today that there is virtually no description - of people or characters, in my novel. It is just about what is happening in the story. Is that ok? I have no idea. I guess we shall have to see if editing this unweildy thing bears more description.

I have heard that 50,000 words is not "technically" a novel, that it is more like a novella. Hmmm...I need to understand more about that.

Likelihood of Finishing Nanowrimo: 100%. Only 8,178 words to go.

NaPoBloMo update: Even though I missed on day, (see previos post about getting locked out of the house), I have blogged every other day in the month of November - some days even more than once. I still consider myself a winner on the blogging front. And I am coming up on my 1 year blog anniversary!

Days 22 and 23: Nanowrimo

Nanowrimo

Words written so far: 39,225

Impressions: I did write very much yesterday and I did not want to write tonight. I wasn't feeling particularly inspired. But I sat down and decided to try to write something fun or exciting. I ended up writing a scene where a good gal and a bad guy break a woman in a coma, a little girl and a spirit out of confinement. It ended up being a really cool writing session. In total I wrote 3,173 words today which is my personal record for Nanowrimo. (I did have to catch up from not finishing my writing yesterday but today's word count still puts me ahead of my daily goal.)

Likelihood of Finishing Nanowrimo: 100%. Only 10,775 words to go! Wahoo!

Day 21: Nanowrimo

Nanowrimo

Words written so far: 35,032

Impressions: I think I am starting to get "Nanowrimo wrists". This is something like "tennis elbow" or "Wii shoulder". Both wrists are really hurting. I am hoping that I am just having a bad random day today and that it is not something that will trouble me for the next 9 days. If I feel this bad tomorrow, I may have to take a day off.

I feel like the Main Character of the book has bounced around a bit. In the beginning it was one person and then it changed to be that person's mother. In a way, I feel like I have abandoned my other characters to follow the path of the mother. I am not sure if this is good or bad. I am looking forward to December 1, 2007 when I can read the entire thing in one sitting. I have not done this. The only thing I read is when I sit down to write I read the last paragraph of the previous day's writing.

Interesting writing tonight. Some surprising things happened. For me, writing is like reading a book, I never know what will happen!

Likelihood of Finishing Nanowrimo: 100%. I added a counter to the top of this page to count down to 0 more words to go to get to 50,000.

Day 20: Nanowrimo

Nanowrimo

Words written so far: 33.466 total.

Impressions: I am sorry if I am boring everyone by focusing on Nanowrimo. I thought that Nanowrimo would be a good excuse to get me blogging more. I am trying to mix it up a little though. And hey, November is almost done so I won't have Nanowrimo to keep writing about. Thank you for bearing with me. (That last line sounds really strange and I have no idea what it means or if I have even spelled it right. I mean, is it like we are bearing children together? If anyone out there knows, tell me!)

Story tonight was tempered by an excellent Margarita at a local Mexican restaurant called Autentica. Yummy.

Likelihood of finishing NaNoWriMo: 100%. Only 16,534 words to go...

Day 19: Nanowrimo

Nanowrimo

Words written so far: 31,747 total.

Impressions: One thing I don't like about Nanowrimo is there is no incubation time. When you are writing to a deadline every single day, there is no time to let ideas take root, grow or even ferment. But that isn't really the point of Nanowrimo is it? I think the points are to a) set an awesome goal and do it and b) get into the habit of writing every day. Now, I don't think that I can keep this pace up indefinitely. In fact, I may only be able to keep this up for say another 10 days or so. I am writing 1.5 - 2 hours a day (this includes working on the novel, writing these posts plus posting on the Nanowrimo website). This is precious, precious time. I do like my novel and I am thinking it may even be something worth publishing. But when this challenge is over, I am going to add some incubation time into my writing schedule. And when I am done with writing, it will be time for editing. I think I will wait till after the holidays for that!

Oh, and last night was terrible! I was so tired that I am not even sure I made sense. I am not letting myself re-read anything because I don't want to go down an editing hole. I can only hope it is worth keeping.

Likelihood of finishing NaNoWriMo: 100%. Only 18,353 words to go...

Days 17 & 18: Nanowrimo

Nanowrimo

Words written so far: 30,508 total. You know that silly dance that may or may not be called "churning butter"? I am doing that one in my head right now!

Impressions: The interesting ideas of the 16th have paid off. I had a really fun day of writing today. Actually, truth be told, I was on FIRE. I read two different Nanowrimo pep talks today and they did help. They helped me realize that if I could just get to 30K, everything would fall into place. They reminded me to keep writing and more importantly, as I have written here before, to write things I am interested in. Today I wrote about all sorts of crazy stuff some of which you can read here.

Likelihood of finishing NaNoWriMo: 100%. They say after 35K, it is a downhill slide (in a good way). I feel good about this and where the story is going. It is not dead ending like I keep thinking it will and is keeping my interest.

Day 15: Nanowrimo

Nanowrimo

Words written so far: 25,238 total.

Impressions: Hooray! I passed the 25K mark. Only 25K more to go. Gulp. I am still enjoying my story. I have definitely been using the tips of other writers. One that I am using is the idea that if you are not enjoying what you are writing, start writing about something else. Instead of trying to write my way out of a corner, I go to a new room. It is keeping things fresh for me. I have slowed down my creation of new characters which is good (less people and spirits to keep track of). A big rescue is in the planning stages by my characters but I don't think they will get to it for a couple of days (meaning I won't write about it for a couple of days).

I told W about one of the scenes in the book and he was horrified. He was all like, "The bad guys are doing that to the good guys? You know I only like books with happy endings." Don't worry, I don't think I could write something that didn't have a happy ending (or at least a satisfying conclusion).

Stumbled across a short story by Charles de Lint that I had never read before. He is extremely inspiring.

Likelihood of finishing NaNoWriMo: I am only halfway done which is both amazing and sobering. I have had a good run of writing and my plan is to keep it up.

Days 12, 13, 14: Nanowrimo

I haven't charted my progress in a few days but I am still in the Nanowrimo game. Sadly, I am no longer in the NaBloPoMo game but that is another story.

Nanowrimo

Words written so far: 23,506 total. OK - I am color coding this orange because I am ahead of my goal but behind on my super goal.

Impressions: On Tuesday, I took the day off and didn't write at all. Because I was ahead, missing a day didn't impact my progress. I had my best ever session of writing last night. I wrote 2,802 words and they weren't all crap! In fact, I posted a new excerpt on my profile on Nanowrimo. You can see it here. The writing is not great. Basically, I am just trying to get my story on paper and then after I finish, I will go back and make it great. That is the plan, anyway.

Likelihood of finishing NaNoWriMo: Before last night I was feeling unsure about my ability to finish. After my session last night, I am feeling optimistic. I will finish. I want to know what happens in the story!

Likelihood of finishing NaBloPoMo: I already lost. See above. I will no longer be including this statistic.

Day 11: Nanowrimo (and NaBloPoMo)

Nanowrimo

Words written so far: 19,198 total. Ok - I am color coding this orange because I am ahead of my goal but not quite at my super goal. But I am tired and am going to sleep.

Impressions: I really liked the writing advice in the Nanowrimo pep talk of the week by Naomi Novik. Here is my favorite part of the pep talk and the one I have been using the past two days, "If you're finding a scene boring to write, cut it and skip to the good part. Set something on fire. Have zombies attack." Now I haven't set anything on fire or had zombies attach but I have definitely been skipping to the good parts.

I may be thinking far too much about my story (or perhaps not enough) because I keep trying to find ways to bring it back around. What I suspect is that I have created far too many non-essential characters that I now have to a) deal with and b) figure out something for them all to do. I remember doing this the last time I did Nanowrimo in 2004. At the end of my 50K words, I had like 40 characters which is far too many to keep track of (by me or the readers). I need to be very intentional about adding characters.

My story is very "good guys vs. bad guys". The problem is, the bad guys are generally faceless and nameless (big corporations). This is a problem because you want to get to know your bad guy for them to be realistic. However, this, of course, goes against my point above about creating too many characters. Another quandary to work my way out of.

Likelihood of finishing NaNoWriMo: I am still going strong but I am finding it harder and harder to stay with my story. I need to let my characters take me where they want to go and not worry so much (for this draft anyway) about tying things together. 100%.

Likelihood of finishing NaBloPoMo: I am still in the game.

Day 10: Nanowrimo (and NaBloPoMo)

NaNoWriMo - Progress report for yesterday, November 10, 2007

My words written so far: 17,901 total.

Impressions: I don't like doing the progress report for yesterday, today. It is disconcerting and I can't really remember what my impressions are! I think I am going back to the old way of doing it. It really doesn't save me any time either way. Yesterday's writing was ok. It was mostly done in a coffee shop but a little was also done while trying to direct a gluing project for two 4 year olds. Needless to say, I couldn't concentrate very well!

Likelihood of finishing NaNoWriMo: 100%. But I have to say drinking two beers before trying to write is probably not a good thing to do all the time.

Likelihood of finishing NaBloPoMo: 100%.

Day 9: Nanowrimo (and NaBloPoMo)

NaNoWriMo - Progress report for yesterday, November 9, 2007

My words written so far: 16,378 total. I am back on track with my Super Goal of finishing two days early.

Impressions: Dogs barking at each other freak me out. I say this because I am in a "dog-friendly" coffee shop right now and there are a lot of dogs here. They keep having little tiffs and it is freaking me out. I don't have a dog so I think they are going to hurt each other. It is a little unsettling.

Back to my impressions of NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo...I got back on track writing last night. I was so tired I didn't think it was going to happen but it did. I actually got into a really nice groove and felt good enough about the story to post an excerpt on my NaNoWriMo page. Check it out and tell me if you don't just hate the characters! (You are supposed to!)

So I feel good; even in this dog heavy coffee shop. And I am just getting ready to start Chapter 6. Last night I was able to weave the story back around and now I am going to do more of that. I am going to visit back with some of my original characters. The question is, if an Augmentor dies, does the part that split off from him or her, the spirit part, die, too? If you have a thought, let me know. I think it is one of those crucial pivots to the story that I just don't have an instinct for.

Likelihood of finishing NaNoWriMo: 100%. Can you tell I got a decent night's sleep?

Likelihood of finishing NaBloPoMo: 100%.

Now, back to writing. If you are reading this, let me know!!!

Taking Challenges Seriously

While I realize that NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo are voluntary challenges, I still had to make a commitment to fulfilling the challenges. I take these challenges very seriously. NaNoWriMo is more forgiving than NaBloPoMo. If I miss a day, I just have to make it up another day as long as at the end of 30 days, I have written 50,000 words. NaBloPoMo is a different sort of challenge. It challenges you to write a blog post every day. I fear that I won't be able to meet this challenge. I fear I will fall asleep with my sick son and miss posting. I fear I will fall prey to Blogger's silly pre-post dating. I fear that I won't fulfill the challenge.

What I don't understand, is why I can't take other challenges as seriously. For example, I have an excellent reason to lose some weight right now. I am going to be filmed in 10 days. Why am I not pulling out all the stops to a) not eat and b) exercise more? I don't know. That challenge is much harder than NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo combined. How weird is that?

My throat is hurting and I am tired. I am not sure I will write for NaNoWriMo tonight. But that is OK because I am still ahead. I will definitely not post my progress tonight. I will give myself a break and do that tomorrow.

Day 7: Nanowrimo (and NaBloPoMo)

Nanowrimo

Total words written: 12,691 total words

Impressions: Another day of strange writing. Today I was writing a scene in which the two main characters couldn't hear each other. They had to make lots of gestures and try to read each other's lips. How do I write myself into these crazy corners? The story is still flowing but I am less optimistic about it than I was the first few days. I keep trying to convince myself that it will get better with editing (which I don't have time to do). Having never written a published book before, I am curious about the process. I mean, how good does your first draft have to be? My novel from Nanowrimo 2004 was crap with a few interesting ideas in it. It was not worth any editing (even though I did attempt it). This story seems to be worthy. I guess we shall see if I can tie everything up in the end. I am introducing characters like crazy which is making me nervous. I had to create a "character descriptions" file to keep track of everyone! I am happy that I just popped over the 12,500 word bar. Yay!

Likelihood of finishing Nanowrimo: 100%. I am still motivated.

Likelihood of finishing NaBloPoMo: 100%. Although I may change the way I post about Nanowrimo and leave those posts till mornings (thus allowing me to go to sleep earlier).

Super goal: End up with a decent first draft that is worth all the work of editing.

Day 4: Nanowrimo (and NaBloPoMo)

Nanowrimo


Daily goal / alternate "finish early" goal: 1,667 / 1,786 words


Today's goal / alternate "finish early" goal: 6,666 / 7,143 words total


My total words written: 7,753 words total (What do you think of the color coding?)


Impressions: I like this story. It isn't particularly a new story...but what story is? I think I have figured out a plot although I am not sure how the prologue I wrote fits in to the current storyline. Either I am going to have to come up with a link or I am going to have to write it off (pun intended) as a warm up exercise.

I am having serious issues which I am not addressing right now. They are in the areas of consistency of voice and dialogue. I am not a regular writer so to some extent, I don't know how to a) choose a voice and b) do non sucky dialogue. Will writing a lot help? Or do I need to focus on learning how to do these things? Since I have no time to learn (only time to write and blog) I will have to hope it is the former and not the latter. I will leave these problems until NaNoEdMo (or perhaps sooner) unless anyone has any great ideas they want to share.

Is there anything anyone out there would like to know about this experience? Just post a comment and I will reply to your post.

Likelihood of finishing Nanowrimo: 100%.


Likelihood of finishing NaBloPomo: I am still going strong (can you say that if you are just on day 4 of 30 days?).


Super Goal: Help our whole family get healthy!!!

Day 3: Nanowrimo (and NaBloPoMo)

Nanowrimo

Daily Goal: 1,667 words

Today's goal: 5,000 words total

My total words written: 5,651 words total

Impressions: Carving out time to write on a weekend when I knew I was going out was difficult. I managed to get 1,400 words written before we went out. I was definitely getting stuck with my plot today. There was a big show down in my story and I am stuck on the explanation. Is it all because of greed? Is it because someone wants to save the world? (Save the world, save the cheerleader). I have to make some decisions in the next few paragraphs as to where this book is going. How trippy is that?

Likelihood of finishing Nanowrimo: 100%. Still going strong and I am interested in my words. I think that is a good sign.

Likelihood of finishing NaBloPomo: I figure it is either 0% or 100%. If I miss just one day, I automatically go to 0%. I had a scare tonight because I thought I would be out too late to make a post. (No J&D - that is not why we left earlier than you - we really were tired!) I think I have to plan better.

Super Goal: No super goals to report today.

Day 2: Nanowrimo

Nanowrimo

Daily Goal: 1,667 words

Today's goal: 3,333 words total

My total words written: 3,923 words total

Impressions: W and I are both on target today. I wrote a little this afternoon and finished up this evening. I am hoping that I won't experience "Nanowrimo insomnia" again today. I realize that I have a lot of energy and feel very creative. I am loving it. I'd like to get the small Nanowrimo logo for these posts but I haven't found the time yet. Imagine that!

Likelihood of finishing: 100%. I am on target and still optimistic. I am sure there will be a dark night(s) of the soul but that won't be for a few weeks.

Super Goal: I have surpassed my super goal of 3,571 words today. I want to bank enough words so that I can take a day off here or there.

Super secret admission: I am a glutton for punishment. I joined NaBloPoMo today. Hey - I was going to do it anyway to track my progress!

Nanowrimo Insomnia

I forgot about one danger of writing just before bed; nanowrimo induced insomnia. Instead of falling into an effortless sleep, I am thinking about how my story is unfolding. Thinking things like this, "taser / sword combo" and "observers can "chat" mind to mind offline". I may have to write earlier in the day to give my brain a chance to calm down.