NaNoWriMo09

Day 28: Near-the-end angst...

2009-11-28T18:07:00.001-08:00

Through all of NaNo, with all of its highs and lows (mostly lows for some reason this year), I haven't felt as apprehensive as I have about the next few days. I have to figure out how to try and wrap it up in two days. I know that I could just focus on writing 50k and worry about finishing it later, but I really want to get it completely done. I have other stuff I want to get done in December and don't want to be finishing a project that I feel like I am obligated to finish in November. Feeling obligated is never a good sign for a writing project in my experience.

And, try as I might today to get to the action, I ended up writing a thousand word flashback. And it is the flashbacks that are really making me nervous. Originally, the flashbacks were supposed to be integral to the character relationship development, but since that subplot idea sort of went bye-bye what with the way things have worked out, the flashbacks really seem to serve no purpose. So unless I can pull something out of thin air in the finale to make them pay off (actually, writing that gave me an idea... maybe this won't be so bad), I have several thousand words of flashbacks that are serving no purpose other than to be wordcount padding. *sigh*

Day 27: It's been a while, no?

2009-11-27T10:28:00.001-08:00

Wow, I haven't been here in forever, due to just checking in on my YWS blog and then scuttling off. I have entries there that would fit here, so I might add them later. For now, it is crunch time.

Omigoodness... Only three days left of NaNo and I am still not sure how I am going to wrap this up. I've already seperated my two main characters, one of whom was a POV character and one of whom was not. So I had to make the one who wasn't into a POV character to keep up with what she is doing at home, because I'm hoping that I'll somehow tie what she's doing into the finale. But the original back and forth betrayal-realization thing I had planned is simply not going to get done in three days. I wasn't even sure how that was going to work either. And last night, when I was supposed to be figuring out how to work out the ending, I was instead expanding on Salem and Cracker Jack's friendship. Gah... However, there was possibly light at the end of the tunnel, but then a character rudely barged his way into a tension-filled moment and killed it. How to revive it...

Day 9: Well, hello there...

2009-11-10T07:52:00.000-08:00

Haven't been here in forever, it feels like. I blame social life for a few days and then lack of internet connection for about a day.

Had a few slow days recently, but that is getting turned around.

Current total wordcount: 22,932. I'm behind myself at this same time last year. I need to catch up.

Day 5: Turn around...

2009-11-05T07:08:00.000-08:00

I have something of a plot now! After killing Percy, I was afraid of the future, for I knew not how my novel was to proceed. And then I made a decision and the light of inspiration shone on me.

Yeah, I introduced a new female character who will be Wilson's partner and potentially his love interest. I wasn't planning on making his partner a girl, but then I decided "what the heck" and did it anyway. Then, based on a scene I had written earlier on the spur of the moment between Wilson and Marie, this introduction of the partner could lead to conflict for Wilson between his love for her and his devotion to Marie. Oh yes, it is going to be good.
Also, I changed Percy's name. Originally, Percy Fonway was supposed to be the Persephone to Hayden's Hades (my names are so subtle, yes?). But it got changed a little now (what with Percy dying and all) and I didn't want to just let it all fall apart like that. So I'm changing Percy's last name to Williams and the new character I just introduced is Salem Fonway. I like her.

I feel good about this novel again.

Anyway, total word count as of yesterday was 15,717. I hit a groove last night after introducing Salem and ended up writing like 4900 words. Could have broke 5k, but I had to wake up early this morning and wasn't paying too much attention to wordcount then.

Day 4: Thus begins the quirky...

2009-11-04T10:46:00.000-08:00

An excerpt:

The gym was full, which was the next best thing to it being completely empty. One more sweaty guy doing manly exercises would go mostly unnoticed by the other sweaty guys doing manly exercises who were all watching the sweaty girls doing manly exercises, so Wilson would go unnoticed for a little while.

Yeah... It was like midnight or something and I had just finished my annotated bibliography I'd been stressing about for days and needed to write something quirky.

As of this morning before starting today's writing, I have a total of 10,813 words, written in 3 days. My wordcounts seem to always be a day late, since I do a bunch of writing at night when I'm off the computer for the night and don't actually start writing until the afternoon usually.

There are people on YWS who are already finished! Like, 50k in three days. They are crazy insane awesome people...

Day 3: Of character deaths...

2009-11-03T08:34:00.001-08:00

I'm at at a total of 9022 words as of last night (haven't actually written anything today... been doing homework and paper writing and whatnot). And... I killed my main viewpoint character Percy.

Yeah. I did. The character that I had sort of an idea for a plot for and everything is now dead at only two chapters in. He just wasn't doing it for me. He was whiny and incompetent and all in all not interesting to read. So I killed him. Wish me luck because I really have very little idea how I'm going from here. It did serve as an effective introduction to Wilson though, so I think he will carry Percy's burden here on in. I think. I dunno. We'll see how this all goes. It was a spur of the moment decision and I don't regret it yet, so I guess it can't be too bad.

I realized that this NaNo, I am actually using contractions. I think if I wasn't using contractions, I'd have at least five hundred more words. I have been spelling out numbers though. Maybe I should start using contractions. Last NaNo I didn't.

Day 2: Already feeling the grind...

2009-11-02T12:21:00.001-08:00

So my total wordcount for yesterday was 6294. Not as great as I wanted it to be, but whatever.

Actually, I'm still worried. I don't feel incredibly excited about this. Gah. This isn't boding well.

I was pretty excited though, because I now have full names for all four of my main-ish characters:

Marie Swailer
Percival Fonway
Hayden Claymore
Wilson Corvette

Yeah, I normally never have full names, so this is a pretty big deal.

Just broke 7k, but have other stuff to do on the computer, so I might not get back to writing until later tonight. I've rigged up my keyboard so I can actually type from my bed on my desktop. It's pretty cool.

I feel very disoriented right now. For all of my hype about NaNo coming up and counting down and whatnot, it actually snuck up on me fairly well. I feel very unprepared and rather unenthusiastic. *sigh*

Day 1: Trailers and tribulation...

2009-11-01T18:54:00.000-08:00

Look! I has book trailer for Dirt Queen, made by the lovely screw.

*whoot* 1 day and over 4k so far! And I'm not done yet today!

A little worried though. I don't feel as excited about this year's novel as I did last year's. Already, I'm beginning to have misgivings. Hopefully once I actually get into the action it will be better, but as is I don't really like what I have so far. Ugh, beginnings suck.

Well, you can read all my novel so far here. Peace out. I must write more.

2 days until NaNo...

2009-10-29T18:53:00.001-07:00

O.O

It's coming.

Also, was working on the first installment of my vlog (which was basically done as audio with pictures put over it) and will hopefully have it done in time for November 1 (getting it done now because I plan on getting as much writing as possible done on the 1st and thus will have no time for such trifling things as vlogs...). We'll see how it all plays out.

5 days until NaNo...

2009-10-26T18:30:00.000-07:00

Remember in the beginning when I said I wasn't going to be putting much in here? Yeah...

Having some insecure thoughts about my main character (which is why I usually don't let myself think about things too hard before I start a new project... I might scare myself away). I have a main POV character, Percy, but he is not my main character per se. Instead, I have (or hope to have) my main main character be Marie, the titular character of my novel. The novel is going to work a bit like To Kill a Mockingbird, where Scout is the narrator, but Jem is the actual protagonist.

At least, that's the plan. Problem is, when I start thinking too hard about it, I'm worried that I won't be able to do it.

But you know? Screw it. I'm going for it anyway.

Also: NaNo icons are seriously addicting.

7 days until NaNo...

2009-10-24T18:18:00.000-07:00

Getting more and more impatient and more and more excited as the days pass by.

Am teaching myself the Dvorak keyboard layout (what made me decide to try that right before NaNo?) and while I probably won't be using it for actually NaNoing (my wpm rate right now is like ten to fifteen words a minute if even that much at all) I might use it to occasionally type up any longhand I might scribble out.

10 days until NaNo...

2009-10-21T16:52:00.000-07:00

The worst part of NaNo is the period before it; the few days of waiting, where you are burning to "just friggin' start already!" and you just can't.

11 days until NaNo...

2009-10-20T08:20:00.000-07:00

Yoha_ahoy from YWS (and NaNo) made me a beautiful cover for my novel! *snugs* I was going to try a couple of my own as well, but now I'm almost tempted not to.

13 days until NaNo...

2009-10-18T19:35:00.000-07:00

So I'm considering doing a three-video series documenting my NaNo trials and tribulations. I'm thinking about doing them on the 1st, 15th and 30th of the month. We'll see how it goes...

16 days until NaNo09...

2009-10-15T07:25:00.000-07:00

So, a little introduction perhaps?

I'm a freshman in college this year, been writing since I was a wee babe and don't plan to stop any time soon. I'm also a girl. I like eating and sleeping. And writing. I love writing. And reading.

And I write. Did I mention that I write?

Anyway, this be my second year participating in NaNo. I won last year with Scorpion and Sandman , pounding out over 69k in a scant 30 days. This year, I am writing a soft sci-fi/cyberpunk story entitled Dirt Queen. We'll see how it all plays out.

So what will you be finding here?

Probably not much until November. Maybe some musings about plot or preparation or whatnot, but not a great deal. I do have a life, you know.

But all that changes come November. I am hoping for a daily word count update, some ranting, some whining, some cheering and maybe some excerpts. We'll see.

Yup, it's going to be a fun month.