Day 2-9

OH. MY. GOD.

I DID IT. I FREAKING DID IT.

I HIT 50,000 WORDS TONIGHT (50,016 to be exact.)

I came home, ready to power through it, and power through it I did. I can barely begin to explain the excitement coursing through my veins right now. I did what I didn't think I could. I wrote 50,000 words in 29 days. I got back into the habit of writing, so much so that it feels completely natural to me now. I even left off at a wicked awesome cliffhanger. And I can't wait to finish the story that I've only barely begun to tell.

At last, it has begun.

Words Today: 3912
Total Words: 50016

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

P.S. Since I am far from being done and this blog is after all not just about NaNoWriMo, but my quest to be published as well, I will continue updating. Not necessarily daily or even every other day. Look for closer to weekly updates, but I promise faithful readers, I won't leave you hanging!!

Days Twenty-Seven & Twenty-Eight

Day 27:

Another day where I felt as though every word I put on the page I was bleeding out. Nothing wanted to come easily to me, but I'm getting used to the fact that those are days I just need to conquer. It's getting a little bit easier to push past the tough times, but they call it tough for a reason. Still, the day was not a failure by any means, so I'll take what I can get.

Day 28:

My last write-in! Or at least the last one I was attending in person this year. I'm truly going to miss them and the company I get every weekend too. Those people have meant everything to me this November and have spurred me on when I felt lowest. To Critic, Taeth, Imp, Kalira, Teffy, Jovo, Psiber, Dimi, and more...THANK YOU! You made today a wonderful ending to a brilliant month. I can't wait to see all of you one last time for the TGIO party next weekend.
As far as word count goes, I really made progress today. I'm closing in on the magic number of 50k!!! My goal is still to win tomorrow. I think I can do it. I'm going to try really really hard for it! I have to write almost 4k words in one day which so far I've only done once. We'll see how it goes....
I AM excited about one thing. I finally finished up writing a patch of the story that was just a bit slower, a bit less interesting to write. It was necessary though. Prepare for an awesome day (a day in the story, not in real life) full of all sorts of action, revelations, and dare I say it? Death. It's going to be a big day. Now it's time to find out if my characters are ready for it.

Words Day 27: 1814
Words Day 28: 2282
Total Words: 46104

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

Days Twenty-Four -- Twenty-Six

Day 24:

Today was alright. I was very excited to have a virtual write-in with not only my fellow local wrimos, but also the ones of another region. Unfortunately I was not impressed with some people in the new region, several of us weren't actually, and I retreated back into the virtual arms of the people I know. And got more work done there than I would have done otherwise. I actually got a rather impressive amount of work done! And yes, I did order my winner's shirt. I'm close enough that I know I can, and will, win.

Day 25:

Thanksgiving! That means I didn't write. I spent my time with my husband and my parents instead and at last enjoyed the new Harry Potter movie. I thought it was exceptionally well done and I look forward to the 8th and final installment next summer.

Day 26:

Crunch time. There's only 5 days left of Nano. WOW. Time has flown! I can barely believe that I've written as much as I have. I can barely believe that I've done this for 26 days (well 24 if you count the two I missed). It's starting to feel like normal life to me. And I can barely believe that my story is really just beginning. I've written thousands of words, more than I've ever dedicated to any story, and the real story has yet to take off. If only my characters knew what was in store for them. If only I knew what was in store for them. All I know is that it will be exciting. And I'm excited to write it. I had another virtual write-in tonight and despite not feeling well I was quite pleased once again with the amount of work I got done. I want to finish on the 29th so I can not stress on the 30th. Do you think I can do it? Good, because I do too.

Day 24: 3265
Day 25: 0
Day 26: 2217
Total Words: 42008

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

Day Twenty-Three

Today I wasn't up to my peachy-keen best, but I wasn't about to let a second day go by with no writing getting done. It wasn't an excessively productive day, but I'm determined to finish NaNoWriMo with my 50k goal. I'm too close not to. In fact...I'm going to order my winner's shirt tomorrow so that I have to finish. That will put the pressure on myself not to give up. But for now, I knocked out another thousand words. So close. I'm so, so close.

Words Today: 1062
Total Words: 36526

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

Day Twenty-Two

Alas, I am a bit ashamed to say that on day twenty-two....I did nothing. 21 days of straight writing, then nothing. It wasn't for lack of creativity or writer's block, but because it was Thanksgiving shopping day for my mom as well as stock up our pantry day for me and my husband (it was getting low) and I was at WalMart with my mom for a good almost 3 hours. At least we had fun going out to eat and shopping, even if we were both moving exceedingly slow. (She has a broken foot, I have a bad knee.) By the time I got home I had just enough energy to thoroughly clean out the freezer (our ice machine had gone a bit crazy for awhile) and restock it, then it was time for bath and bed. I'm crossing my fingers for making tonight a productive one! There's only 8 days of Nano left and I'm less than 15k from winning. It may come down to not sleeping, but I refuse to not win!

Days Eighteen -- Twenty-One

I know. I'm really really behind with blogging. Lately by the time I stop writing at night my fingers hurt too much to sit and type anything else that does not count towards my story. Besides, there hasn't been much to tell anyway.

Day 18 -- A very slow day. I wrote down just a tiny bit at work, then it was my nephew's birthday and I spent the evening with family. I came home and typed only what I'd handwritten earlier and called it a day. I was beyond exhausted. I needed sleep.

Day 19 -- Woke up feeling much more rested! Sleep was definitely a good option. Had an excellent night virtually attending the write-in and wrote a total I was extremely pleased with. I did some serious catching up for the amount of words I was falling behind on again. Plus write-ins are something I have come to love and treasure. I have no idea what I'm going to do when they go away.

Day 20 -- NONE of us felt like writing. I spent many many hours in the chat room talking about Nano and countless other things, but we definitely weren't writing. We ran a few 10- and 15-minute sprints at odd intervals throughout the day and that's the only time I got my word count in. I was impressed with the day's work considering I spent so little time on it. Hey, I think I'm finally starting to get used to writing. Sometimes it still really hurts my mind to think, it definitely is starting to hurt my hands to type, but even when I get stuck I still feel ready to sit down and try to sort it out. Even on the bad days when I can hardly crank out 400 words, I'm excited about it. Those words took me somewhere. Somewhere that hadn't existed yet until I wrote them. And the next day will continue the journey. Oh my goodness, what will it bring?! I'm only on the first leg of this very long, guaranteed to be very-trying journey, but I'm finally beginning to feel like a traveler and not a weekend-vacationer. Nano has already provided me what I wanted and more. And I still have 10 more days (officially) to go.

Day 21 -- Went to the write-in at the library today and shared countless rounds of excellent laughs that brought us to near tears. I really do love these people. All of them. They have made my life so much fun and brought so much excitement, enlightenment, and encouragement that I can never thank them for it all. We're almost to the end of Nano. I can see it! I can feel it! I can do it!


Words Day 18: 482
Words Day 19: 3226
Words Day 20: 3263
Words Day 21: 1426
Total Words: 35464

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

Days Sixteen & Seventeen

Combo post! I was too tired to do it last night and far too busy at work this morning to do it then, so we're just going to combine two days into one post.

Day 16 = NONE of us wanted to do anything. We all sat in chat all night trying to motivate ourselves, randomly issuing sprints and BoDs. It helped a little, but the creativity just wasn't there. I guess after having as incredible of a night as I did (and a lot of us did) on Monday, Tuesday was just due to be a bit of a bum. It happens.

Day 17 = Bum night number 2! At least on Day 16 I met my daily goal. Tonight I just felt utterly burnt out. I suppose it happens and writing really does come in waves. However I sense an exciting weekend ahead and I think I'll be able to write a lot. Personal goal? Hit 35k by Sunday night. (That's also where I should be to be on track.)

Words Day 16: 1695
Words Day 17: 348
Total Words: 27067

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

Day Fifteen

I'm just going to say that right now I am totally rocking the words. Work kept me just busy enough yesterday that I was never truly busy, but I never had the time to pick up my spiral and write either. Kind of an in-between day. Still, for a Monday it was quite pleasant and I've had Mondays that were much much worse!

Then there were a few errands to run and a project at home to complete. I didn't even sit down at my computer and open my word document until 8:30. At that point I was just hoping to hit 1 of my 3 goals which were:

1) My minimum daily wordcount for a total of 22691 words
2) Passing the ML's halfway point challenge (doubling my daily average words) for a total of 23828 words
3) Catching up to being on track for a total of 25000 words

The first box of doom we started (thank goodness for write-ins, even ones I attend virtually) brought me almost to my first goal. It also gave me a new personal record for box of doom, 1103/1069 words in 30 minutes. It ended just in time because I ran into a point that was very important. I was about to explain things that would effect the entire outcome of the story, and I had no idea how it all worked. The character who was supposed to be explaining it to my main character was being very tight-lipped about it even to me. This was a problem and I had less than 30 minutes to figure it out before the next box of doom began.

So I sat and thought. I tried explaining it out loud in her voice. I tried envisioning the amulet's spell. I tried to place myself in the position of the gods. (Just for reference's sake, that one is very difficult to do.) And finally, just in time, it all came to me. And I do mean just in time. We were drawing word counts for the next BoD.

The second BoD went by in yet another flurry of activity, still furiously working on the same pivotal scene. I saw my first goal and I passed it successfully, my brain running at full steam. I started to get the joyful feeling that nothing was going to stop me tonight as I wrote more than 1000 more words, exceeding my BoD requirement of 950. We all took another break and I ran off to take a shower and put on my pj's. I'd already sat at one computer all day in work clothes, I wasn't about to sit at another all night doing the same. Once again, I returned just as they were getting ready to draw for our third and final BoD. 750 words this time. My reaction to that was "That's all?" I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've ever felt that way about writing 750 words in 30 minutes.

Time was called and off I went again, wrapping up one and charging into another very pivotal scene. Last night was all about getting this story rolling, explaining to the characters the direness of the situation that was brewing, and preparing to embark on the adventure that is looming ever closer in their future. It's exciting, let me tell you. Have you ever read a book, a real page turner where you felt like you couldn't read fast enough? That was last night, only I was limited by how fast I could write. It was a whirlwind and after the rash of insanity I experienced during it I have come to one conclusion: Having a week of bum days and stress of not meeting word counts and worry about not knowing where your story is going is entirely worth one single night of that pure joy of excitement and love of characters and plot. Completely worth it.

The third BoD took me up to and past my second goal of the night and I finished just over 24k words. Oh this wouldn't do at all. My eyes were starting to feel heavy and I knew I needed to sleep soon, but I had powered through 1k extra words the night before when I was unhappy stopping at 20k, right? Then again, I had only barely written my 1667 wordcount at that point. Still, I refused to settle for 24k. If I'd gotten stuck at 23k I probably would have called it a night, but the precious 25k halfway point that I was supposed to be at wasn't even 1000 words away! I could finally stop being behind! And with that I powered through, even with no BoD, even as all of my writing guild signed off of chat one by one. My support system was gone and it was just me and my charcters. I could do this. (And since I set not one, but two people on fire, it was quite enjoyable.) I could do this, right?

Words Today: 4000
Total Words: 25024

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

Day Fourteen

Again I'm blogging this the morning after, but I was just too tired last night to blog then. Boy was it a day, but boy was it a good one. I even managed to not completely ignore my husband! I keep telling him I feel bad neglecting him so much since it seems like I'm either working or trying to write (with occasional moments of "I should really clean up a bit around here..."), but he reminds me every day that this is my dream and that if I give up now I probably won't go back. I have to write. I can't even begin to describe how amazing and also how incredibly essential having the support of someone like that is in this endeavor. I couldn't do it without him. I would never push myself far enough. He told me yesterday that the majority of Wrimos don't win NaNoWriMo and that a big majority of the winners aren't first timers. He reminded me that if I fall behind and don't hit the 50k by November 30th, that I was still chasing my dream and that was what was important. There was no shame in not winning NaNoWriMo. It just made me want to win even more.

So I went to the write-in yesterday excited to actually get something done. I knew I would write at least something there and hopefully it would be enough that when I came home I could go over my 1667 words so I can try to play catchup, as I feel I'm always doing now. I was at a spot where I sort of knew what was coming up, but once again just wasn't feeling the transition. My crazy guild of writers came to the rescue once again. They fed me homemade cookies, made me laugh until I almost cried, made my hopes and dreams soar even more, got me out of a very awkward spot in my novel and did so with the perfect explanations so that my writing still flowed, and forced me into the box of doom twice which I successfully emerged from both times. I was handwriting so they decided that since I write fairly small, 2 pages was a good challenge for me. They'd been watching me write and knew I'd have to write almost nonstop for 30 minutes to successfully achieve that. I wrote just a tiny bit more than 2 both times, then add that up with the other sporadic writing I did and it knocked me over 20k! But was I happy with that? Absolutely not. 20k was exciting and I bought the NaNoWriMo shirt I've been wanting to celebrate it, but I'm supposed to be at 25k tonight if I'm going to get back on track. So 20k wasn't good enough. No. I pushed until I hit 21k. What a rush! Oh my goodness, I'm feeling the story run through me right now like the blood in my veins and I hope it doesn't stop. I can't wait to start writing tonight.

My characters are now truly becoming people in their own right. I got not one, but two surprises from characters yesterday. One got surprisingly darker, and not in magic but mood. I wasn't really expecting it, but looking back I'm so very very glad that he did. It added a whole knew element to the story and made some of the upcoming scenes more plausible. Another character got a bit more harsh in her ways, but it was a necessary character aspect that needed to develop. She's carrying quite the weight of responsibility on her shoulders and she needs to be a take-action sort of character. But my poor main character? He's still finding himself. No longer wondering aloud all the time about it, but still doing it just in his actions. Maybe that is a theme of the story, one that is developing that I never intended to be there? I could see it fitting though. Something I look forward to playing with in my second draft (under the hope that I ever get there).

Do I think I can hit 25k tonight? No. Not saying I won't try, but I do have a few things at home that I must take care of that can no longer wait and must be done today. It will cut into my writing time by probably at least a couple of hours. I want to hit 23k. If I can do that, I will be tolerably content with myself. 23.5k is the real goal though, because that will allow me to play enough catchup that I will be able to officially catchup by tomorrow or Wednesday. That is, if I can keep up this speed.

Words Today: 2743
Total Words: 21024

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

Day Thirteen

Just a quick note since I didn't write yesterday. I wrote a very measly 274 words in about 15 minutes when I had the time to sit down in between cleaning and getting a slew of other chores done. Alas, I didn't write more later and I didn't finish the chores either. But I had a good reason! My 'brother' (a friend, but we're more like siblings than friends) just came home from Afghanistan and my family was spending time with him. It was an excellent night of good food, fun games, and great company, but a terrible terrible night for my word count. I'm now even farther behind than ever! Still, while panic is rising I'm not giving myself into it just yet. I'm 2 hours away from going to a write-in today, one that will hopefully significantly boost my word count. Wish me luck!!

Words Today: 274
Total Words: 18281

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

Day Twelve

NaNoWriMo is becoming a ridiculous roller coaster of ups and downs. Some moments I'm begging the teenager at the switchboard to turn it off, but he's chewing gum and his ear phones are blaring and he doesn't even notice me. Other moments I'm screaming "FASTER FASTER!" as the roller coaster gets ever more exciting and breathtaking. Sometimes it makes my head spin.

I attended a write-in virtually again tonight, and boy I don't think I could have written much tonight if I hadn't. I failed miserably on my first box of doom challenge, barely writing one third of what I was supposed to achieve. (I wrote 579/1400 words in 30 minutes.) But the second box of doom challenge I surpassed, creating a new personal record! (1068/900 words in 30 minutes.) GO ME!

Anyway I once again achieved my goal of 1667 today and went over it as well, which means I caught up just a tiny bit more for the days earlier this week that cost me dearly. As one of our beloved MLs told us tonight, "Novel-writing is not for wusses." She's absolutely right about it too. Novel writing is definitely not for wusses.

Words Today: 1941
Total Words: 18007

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

Day Eleven

Oh my...the double digits! I suppose yesterday began the double digits, but I was too wrapped up in character drama to notice.

Today seemed much easier. I suppose I got over my Week Twos halfway through the week and just in time. I'm still behind where I need to be, but every day that I can write more than my required 1667 gets me just a little bit closer to making up for the words I haven't written yet. Oh my...lots of catchup to do! But I didn't want to waste it all today so I purposely stopped at a point where a lot can happen. It will make me excited to pick it up tomorrow and give me some time to think over exactly where the story is going next. At last, I'm excited again!

Words Today: 1839
Total Words: 16066

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

Day Ten

Today began in much the same mood of the last two. It's week two and I'm feeling dismal, my inner editor raging at me for the awful work I'm sure I'm producing. Somehow it didn't seem worth it. I'm falling behind every day. Is this really what I wanted this journey to be?

But then I realized something. The middle of the journey is the hardest. It is easy to set off to achieve your goal. It is easy to rejoice when the goal has been reached. But when the days are longer, the excitement has worn down, and the goal seems farther away than when you began...that's when the true adventurer emerges. Or doesn't. Am I a true adventurer? I want to be, so I persevere on.

It was an exceptionally difficult day of writing, but not just due to my word count. This was my first day of emotionally difficult writing, and I know there are more to come in the future.

Today I cried. I apologized out loud to one of my characters as he held the spirit of his dead sister. "I'm so sorry," I said. "I wish I could fix it. I wish I could help you. But I can't and you know that. I want to reach out and touch you. I want to assure you it will be alright. But I can't and you know that too. Still, she can, if you let her. I'm sorry, Chalem. I'm sorry for what must happen. Please forgive me."

Then I cried some more.

Words Today: 1050
Total Words: 14227

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

Day Nine

Woke up with a headache which turned into the worst migraine I think I've ever had today. Still, made myself write just a little tonight. Tomorrow I think I'm going to lock myself away from the world once I get home from work and try to do some serious catch up! Wish me luck...

Words Today: 530
Total Words: 13177

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

Day Eight

Tonight was not the best of nights, but still I had to write at least a little, and write a very little I did.


Words Today: 641
Total Words: 12647

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

Day Seven

Today was a truly beautiful day of ups and downs and ultimate triumph.

It started off with a trip to my first official write-in. I got there around 1:30 and no one was really working. We all talked about how the first week had treated us, what goals we wanted to reach, what our characters were doing behind our backs...even about the one insane person in our region that has already 'won' Nano by hitting over 50k words. (And he's still writing.) In fact, we did very little in the way of writing until around 3:00 when it was time for a box of doom challenge. I drew 800 words this time, something I probably could have achieved had I not been handwriting everything. There was no way. I did make 539 words in that sprint though, so I was quite proud for the circumstances. Then at 4:00 it was time for another one, but this time I took a dare rather than a word count challenge since my hand was trying to cramp up. I don't think it's adjusted to the writing lifestyle yet.

I got home around 5:30 after getting hamburgers for my hubby and I. Then it was back to the writing block for me. Now the funny thing was I'm at an extremely important scene. At the write-in I wrote the beginning of the scene during the first BoD. Then I wrote the end of the scene during the second BoD when the dare I drew worked perfectly for that part of the scene and not where I'd left off. So I came home thinking, "Great! I've already written the beginning and I've already written the end. This is going to be easy!" It totally was not easy. In fact, I panicked a little trying to figure out the massive load of logistics that go into the art of dueling in my world.

Here comes the guild to the rescue! (The guild is what I've decided to informally call my regional writing group. I feel like we're a bunch of online entities that only meet up once and awhile but still talk to each other all the time....which then makes me think of my husband and some of his World of Warcraft friends. Just go with it.) They seriously saved the day. They asked what my problem was, what was going on, and then began throwing out tons of suggestions from worlds they'd already encountered in film, tv, and books. Then they altered their suggestions and began creating their own based on my comments I gave. And they helped me right up until I understood just how to write it all. Hooray! It was a bit of a struggle still, but I knew just how to get there at last.

Now, don't even get me started on the discussion we had about each of our weird writing tics. Mine are...special.

My two favorite quotes of the day from the write-in:
1) "I believe it is essential for children to have low self-esteem."
2) "Do people in comas count as an inanimate object?"

Now while you ponder those two things, good night my friends. Tomorrow is another day.

Words Today: 1915
Total Words: 12006

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

Day Six

Writing is hard work!! I'm pretty sure that was my mantra today. I got to my word count goal for the day, but the words just didn't seem to come very easily.

I'd like to take a moment right now and give all of my currently-introduced main characters a talking to.

Kevan: What are you doing? No really, what are you doing? You're confusing even me and I'm the one writing you. If only you would have told me all of this when we started this journey, I could have made your path here a lot easier. Get it together already.
Rekani: You just weren't satisfied with your current role, were you? I do agree with you however. I think you fit better into the role you've assumed now. But please, don't get too overpowered. Keep the personality, but don't become a master of your skills. I quite like you the way you are and I think readers will too. I don't want to have to start cutting your scenes just because you want to be too important.
Chalem: You're only just showing up, but I think you're being an even better dark hero than I'd imagined you as. Good work! You're the only character not behaving badly so far, but I'm sure your time will come.

But on that note...I think I've left off at quite the exciting scene just in time for tomorrow's write-in!

Words Today: 1752
Total Words: 10091

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

Day Five

The day five entry is coming the morning of day six. Sorry about that! But I stayed up until just before midnight last night working on writing and didn't feel like anything except going to bed when I was done.

Day four was not the best of writing days, but I knew it would probably happen at least once. (In all honesty, it will probably happen a lot more than that.) I'm just proud of myself for getting something down on the page that day.

Day five started out very hectic at work, which may have worked to my advantage on the Nano front. I was so wrapped up all day in work that I didn't think about my novel at all. Then I came home and had dinner to make and at the rate the day was going I wasn't sure if I was going to get much of anything done. Hubby came home and after dinner he played FableIII for me. I'm awful at games but love watching them, so he's agreed to only play that one when I'm around. Means I have to give a little of my time to him there or he'd never finish! (haha) But right about 9 o'clock I decided I should at least try writing. After all, I only had 3 hours left in the day to make any sort of word count and I would have been very upset with myself today if I didn't have at least a couple of hundred words added.

Last night was the first of the Friday night write-ins my regional group is holding. I don't feel comfortable enough with my driving skills to drive out to the location it's being held out and it's at night no less, and my night vision really isn't the best so I don't like being around unfamiliar areas if I'm driving in the dark. But our wonderful MLs created a chat room that all the regional Wrimos can log into at any time during November, and last night I used it to virtually attend the write-in. I showed up just as they were getting ready to start a Box of Doom challenge too!

A moment here to explain. The Box of Doom is supposed to be a device to get writer's who are stuck back to writing. You draw a number and the number you draw is the number of words you are supposed to write in the time limit given. The point is not to think long and hard about what you're writing, but simply to bang out your word count. This often can result in utter crap, but this is November and that doesn't matter. Your word count does. You can fix or delete the crap in December.

Now I had never done a BoD challenge before. I was a little nervous, especially since I'd come from a 369-word day just the day before. I just knew I'd get something silly like 500 words and I'd panic and fail miserably. (Time limits aren't always my friend.) But as it turns out I have quite the competitive Nano spirit and the BoD was the best possible thing to get me writing. I had just opened my manuscript when one of the MLs drew my number. 950 words in 30 minutes. I had about 10 seconds of "You just asked me to create HOW MANY WORDS RIGHT NOW???" and then suddenly a burst of "950 words? Oh you're so mine..." just like I was hunting some elusive creature and knew I'd catch it in the end. And it turns out that I did! 961 words in 30 minutes. Talk about being proud of myself. Not only did it boost my word count, but it got me in the mood and I was able to finish ahead of schedule last night so that I caught up with my cumulative total and made up for day four.

Now it's day six and finally the weekend, but with the weekend comes so many chores I have neglected all week. Tune back in later tonight to see what I manage to create today! And maybe, if I start getting some comments or more followers, I might post a few little excerpts every so often. :)

Words Today: 1903
Total Words: 8339

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

Day Four

Today was the worst day so far. It was not a successful day; not even close to one. I don't think my brain has hurt so much in a long time. No, it isn't a headache, but an actual full feeling in my brain of this pressure that seems to be stopping all but its life-giving functions. My imagination is still feeding me the story, but my brain has the words on lockdown and absolutely refuses to give them up. I know. I've tried. So I've decided to let it sleep. I was a little ahead and am now a little behind, but I'm not worried about catching up. I figure I'll try to write at least a normal day tomorrow, then hit it hard on Saturday and Sunday. It's only day four, right? I'm not worried yet. Besides, I still wrote at least a little which is what really matters.


Words Today: 369
Total Words: 6433

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

Day Three

Today I realized two things:

1) I'm beginning to remember how much I love writing. Even the parts where I just want to bang my head into a wall because it all feels pointless. Yes my friend, even those.

2) I've developed a terrible habit of being brilliant at work, full of words brimming to the edge of the teacup and spilling into the saucer which then overflows onto my desk and soaks the insurance applications and my checklists and drowns my computer before sweeping up my chair and carrying me off on a sea of text. But at work I'm supposed to...you know...work. So little if any writing gets done, and what does happen is only a few lines jotted down here and there. Then I get home and......nothing. Thus this has developed into a situation I am not fond of.

So for the third day in a row this has been my trend.

But new trends are also beginning. Such as my lead character developing a whole new personality. Had I met this guy 7 years ago when I first had this idea I wouldn't have recognized him. My Kevan, have you changed! Mostly for the better. Though right now he's in some random "searching for myself" mode that I don't quite understand but he insists on being in. Here's hoping he snaps out of that soon. And Rekani? She's a spunky little thing, but I don't think she's really decided how she wants to approach the situation. Then again, what 15-year-old girl have you ever met that knew what she wanted?

But I'm sticking it out. Working hard. Hardly working sometimes too. (Like now, whenever I update my blog.) My word goal for tonight was to reach a cumulative total of 5,000. It was a personal goal, but also the minimum "requirement" goal from Nano's website if you go by their daily counter. But tonight I tried a different approach. I run on Word 2007 and it likes to give me a convenient (and constant) reminder of how many words I currently have in my document. And because it is on the screen at all times, I am checking it every three seconds. Not very conducive to good work. So tonight I covered it up and just wrote until I was tired for the night. To my pleasant surprise I once again both met and exceeded my goal. Good night everyone. =)

Words Today: 2430
Total Words: 6064

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

Day Two

I began my day by reading the first NaNo pep talk. I giggled and read it aloud in a grand voice.  Just because I could.
"As a writer, I am the master of my domain. I'm the boss; the most magical genie; the lord and ruler of every character, creature, and event in the world of my creation. It's a pretty awesome feeling, having all that power." --Lindsey (She's the NaNoWriMo program director.)

I like the idea of this power, but then I'm just not sure what to do with it. I guess November is also an exercise in how to be a ruler, both of yourself and of that which you create. Still, the best piece of Lindsey's advice is this: "Don't forsake your kingdom if it starts to seem silly or pointless, or you have no idea what your next order ought to be." Right now that's exactly where I'm at.

While I was at work and not comfortably seated at my writing computer today I kept having random words come to me. So I jotted them down as I found the time in between projects. Just a few here and there. This was a good thing, because where I left off last night I was quite stuck. It meant I'd slept off my writer's block. Then I got home, typed up what I'd handwritten, and quickly finished up that scene. Excellent, tonight might be easier than last night.

WRONG.

I'm staring at my computer blankly again, wondering what the heck to do. So I started writing this. I will be back when I finish staring at my screen to wrap up this post....Please put on some intermission music in the meantime.

Finally...I met my quota (even exceeded it a little!) for the night. Someone told me on Sunday that if you get stuck and need your word count, start a lively conversation. To whoever told me that, thank you for that brilliant advice. :)

Words Today: 1956
Total Words: 3634

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C

Day One

So today didn't really start off in the best possible way. I couldn't sleep last night, then when I did my dreams were full of nightmares. I woke up late and didn't have time for breakfast. Then I still made it to work late because I lost my keys. Work was alright, nothing spectacular, yet nothing spectacular was expected so no disappointments there. Then came a mass of errands: drop off rented movies, take back books to the library, recycle, go to the store (staples such as bread and milk are good to have), etc. It's a wonder I made it home with any sanity left. Not to mention I am significantly preoccupied with the mess of my home and trying to catch up, something I have yet to do and something that is definitely not easy to do during November. Oh dear. What have I gotten myself into?

But then I did get home and I had to start writing. I banged out 590 words like it was nothing. Hooray! Great start! 30 minutes in front of the keyboard and I'm 1% of the way there. Feeling strong! But now what? I can't rightfully introduce most of the other characters yet (my story is told in first person and everyone is still fairly scattered about), but something has to happen.

Can I just say the internet is a horrible horrible invention when it comes to distractions? I start researching what kind of trees grow near ocean climates, only to end up reading fellow Wrimos' blogs. Then I decided I don't need to know what kind of trees grow near ocean climates yet. I only need to say "tree" and move on. Editing is for December, right? At least that's what they keep telling me.

I think the beginning is the hardest. I have so many of these fantastic scenes in my head, but they're all at random points throughout the story and none of them are at the beginning. How do you begin anyway? Readers are so judgmental these days. If you don't grab them right away, you've lost them for good. Oh my. Let's get this story rolling.

Words Today: 1678
Total Words: 1678

Yours Truly,
Mrs. C