NaNoWriMo* 2011
Another month of literary mayhem.
*National Novel Writing Month
(See NaNoBraSto for pre-NaNo brainstorming.)
Date: October 31, 2011
Categories: Fiction, poetry, and fanfiction
Monday, 29 April 2024
Life, the universe, pies, hot-pink bunnies, world domination, and everything
Another month of literary mayhem.
*National Novel Writing Month
(See NaNoBraSto for pre-NaNo brainstorming.)
Date: October 31, 2011
Categories: Fiction, poetry, and fanfiction
An hour and thirty-eight minutes! Squack!!
Me too. ButIhavenoplotandnotimeanditstomorrowandhowamIgoingtogetthisdoneaggghh!
660!
Good luck everyone! See y’all in December!
*distributes abundant quantities of pies and squid to all MuBloWriMos*
*for good measure, adds equally abundant quantities of choklit or chocolate, according to personal preference*
Yay! Thanks very much, Lady B!
1100, by the way.
Hello, MuseBlog-at-five-AM! I’m up so ridiculously early because I wanted to write some stuff before school. So far, 827. Good luck to all you fellow NaNo-ers!
I wasn’t allowed to stay up, so now I’m yawning and trying to think where my plot goes after the prolouge thing.
800! Now I have to go to school! Whywhywhy!
How do I stretch out a car crash into 1667 words? Maybe I’m overplanning…
Changing my gravatar for Nano…
Hm… Out-of-body experience?
The problem is, my main character isn’t the one that’s dying- he survives without harm, but the whole basis of the plot is the person he kills (who is his doppelganger). I would use that, though, if i could.
I started to advise that you temporarily switch POVs although if you didn’t want to do that, you could just ramble pedantically, and I was trying my best to ramble pedantically as an example, but I still wasn’t done at 9 lines, so I stopped. I don’t know how you people manage to sit there expanding things like that for hours and hours…
You could go overboard on describing things from the characters perspective? As someone who’s been in a car accident, time somehow slows down/is messed up and you start to notice irrelevant things, like the way the glass on your lap from the broken windshield doesn’t look all sparkly like in the movies. Or he could have a meltdown about killing a person, then go home and feel guilty about it- or alternately ignore it completely until he starts to have flashbacks and feels a little guilty. I mean, if I ran over someone with my car I wouldn’t just move on the next day and feel all happy-shiny. Or use the chance to introduce a BF who cheers your character up. Describing how other characters react to your characters accident is an easy way to add dimension to them while furthering the story.
Yep, the thing is my character doesn’t have emotions. This isn’t a writing flaw, this is something he was born with. All the psychologists and psychiatrists argue about what’s ‘wrong’ with him. I’ve moved on, but I might go back later to cram some more description in there. It’s actually quite challenging not writing in any emotions.
Bibliophile- I might actually change the POV, seeing as Jinx (the guy who dies) is a doppelganger of Melvin (the guy who’s in the car) and this is his one actual appearance in the story… (then follow a page or two of lawsuits and complications and psychiatrists/psychologists (I can never tell which is which and I should really reference the Coping thread) arguing whether or not the accident (which was CLEARLY due to another car speeding) was due to complications of his emotionlessness (which they think is peer pressure and drugs and stress and teenage imbalance) and blaming his aunt and uncle and sending him to live with his parents.
Yikes, that was really long… sorry…
Started! I finally settled on a retelling of “The Girl Without Hands” as my plot, but I don’t know where it’s going to go or how I’m going to tell it… I guess I’ll just see where it takes me. I have another idea waiting in the wings for when I finish this one, or when I get sick of this one and can’t work on it any more.
AHRGH.
I don’t know how fast to let my plot move because I don’t have a good outline and I hoped to get 5k today and I haven’t hit 1k and I have nothing.
Also I just spent the morning on TVTropes. Whoops.
1.1k. Better.
I’m aiming for 75k total this month. Can’t be that hard.
For those of you who didn’t read my post on the NaNoBraSto thread:
I’m attempting to write 80 minutes of music in November rather than 50k words.
I hope to send the GAPAs my best results for posting somewhere.
Current count: 1 piece, 2:30
I don’t even have an IDEA yet. AUUUUGH
Amended! 669 words.
First time in 5 years not at least starting one
I can’t afford it. I am already doing really poorly in organic chemistry… I cannot justify taking on a project when I really need to be spending more time studying chem. hgblefjnwdqaefgksd. *cries forever*
I started my freshman year of high school and got 20,000 words, won the next two years, senior year wrote the whole month but didn’t aim for 50k becuase I was technically grounded from NaNo for not having my college applications done, and last year i had a fantastic start (5000 words the first day, 10k by day 3) but had to stop 2 weeks in because I could see my grades slipping even then.
Sigh. I miss it a lot.
I miss it too
But anyway, if anyone wants random plot twist suggestions, I’m always happy to help
CURE FOR BREAKUP: WRITE NOVEL ABOUT IT
although it’s been a page and a half, and already it has degenerated to slash between original characters.
and I have a midterm and a project due next week.
and another midterm the week after that.
NEVERTHELESS: NANOWRIMO.
Anyone wanna do a word war sometime?
Yes! Me! I do!
Reached my first 1.6K! I’m a bit ahead on my plot, but I’m not too worried. Yet. *muahahaha* I’m going to have a hard time juggling homework and such… I hope I can keep up…
“Don’t you have to write a rough draft first?” -My sister
“November used to be my favorite time of the year, then AL went all crazy.” -Also my sister.
So…4,157. I’ve been having word wars with my friend A TON, so that helped a lot. Also I wrote like a thousand words in school, during study hall and such.
And I validated a friend who wasn’t validated, so it’s all good. Unfortunately, this means I have unlimited access to his profile.
On the first day of NaNo, NaNo gave to me, 4157 words and some candy… ♥
The post-Halloween start up is quite fortuitous.
Indeed! *munches smarties*
I don’t think I can officially do NaNoWriMo this year.
After a week or two working on a novel idea for Swalot’s birthday, I’ve over 10,000 words, and I think I’d better finish that one so that I don’t lose the ideas I’ve come up for on it. So if I work really really hard on it, maybe it’ll get done before December!
I wish I could go back to how things were two Novembers ago, when I could sit and type type type for hours upon hours a day and actually end up winning. But I’m just too crammed with work these days, with school and art classes and all sorts of contests and helping other people by tutoring them/critiqueing their essays and such and such and such AHHHHH
Good luck to everyone who is actually working on NaNoWriMo! And see you all in December (although, of course, many of us will surely be lurking around.)
Okay, about kid who teleports randomly when stepps into fire
cant talk properly must writeiad ed JVlkjae
…Floo powder?
Good luck, everybody! I’d be among you if I had the time! (But I never do, alas.)
Daang Mika, you’re super far already! I still have 300 to go on today’s quota. D:
I just hit 1K.
Good writing? Never heard of it.
2.5k today so far. Good.
That’s the mimum per day if I want to live up to my goal. I spent a lot of today distracted. Hopefully I can change that tomorrow.
Also I need an outline. Because I really don’t have one yet and it’s driving me mad.
Because I know the next step but I don’t want to go there yet because I have 75K to get through and that is a LOT.
Also should I have one of the realities that the NaNo takes place in be steampunk themed?
2023
There’s no way I can do it this year, but good luck everyone! for sustenance.
I wanted to try this year, but it seems I won’t have enough time, and I really wanted to try to sketch more, so I’m doing that instead, less stress for me. (If my caking art teacher will give me my sketch book back!)
Good luck!
I have decided that my NaNoWriMo soundtrack this year is going to be entirely made up of the score to Lord of the Rings, because wow, that music is gorgeous. (Into the West tears forever oh my god.)
In other news, I sort of have a plot? Which is not really a plot at all? But I have a main character and a few things I want to stick into it and a soundtrack, so I may not know where I’m going, but I think I’ll have a good time getting there.
3.1k.
Given that I’ve got six hundred in about twenty minutes overall, this is good.
0.
I CAN HAZ PLOT?
Apparently not, says my brain.
There’s more to a novel than plot. Try describing a scene or a character or even just an ordinary event that might happen to someone in the story. You’re more likely to come upon a plot idea if you’re actually writing than if you’re waiting. You could think of it as making some sketches while you’re deciding how you want to compose a painting.
And it all goes to word count.
P.S. I’m following my own advice.
For some reason, the only things that come to my mind are descriptions. Ordinary descriptions, of things that I’ve noticed when walking around. And a few plot outlines, but outlines is all they are. That’s it. Somehow I’ll connect this together…
Try writing something from the point of view of an inanimate object or plant. My JulNoWriMo 2010’s main character was a tree. Well, not at the beginning, but…
For me, thinking without writing doesn’t get me very far. (At least with prose; poetry is a different animal). If anything, I’m likely to think myself right out of doing any writing at all. Almost all of my breakthroughs come from the act of writing or from taking a break after a session.
Right now I’m 8000 words in and still no plot. In fact, at present my NaNo is not much like a novel at all, more like a journal about the novel.
This is really helpful to read. I think since I write more poetry than I do long fiction of any kind my mindset is completely different and I’m having a hard time adjusting to the…pacing? Do you have any advice about that? D:
I have about 2500 words right now and I dunno…
I’m considering doing a series of short stories instead, actually. I think I may have bitten off way more than I can chew with this story since I want it to be a kind of ~sprawling thing that needs more world-building than I’ve yet put into it…
I followed your advice too. It worked, right now I’m ahead in word count (3.6K) and behind in plot.
Uggh 7:46 PM and 1310 to go.
I know it’s ridiculously pretentious that every time I come on MB, especially within the last few months, it’s just been to talk about myself, BUT….
2,703 words. Just saying.
I’m going to do this!!!! Please hold me to that, MBers. This is my first year doing NaNoWriMo, and I’m exciting, scared, terrified, and thrilled. I really, really want to win and am really committed to this.
Admittedly, my novel probably sucks/will suck, but like so many people have pointed out: I want to spend the other eleven months of the year to edit, shape, and form this into something I’m at least a little bit proud of. But for now, I’m enjoying watching it turn into something that I actual have an idea for.
I don’t want to go into the plot too much, but it’s a bit of a mix between fiction/dystopian/maybe a tad bit of fantasy, kind of all thrown into one. I’ve got a list of about five possible endings, and a sort of ish plot line to hold me ’til then, but I’m trying to not keep myself to it too much – I basically just want to let things flow as well as keeping to my pre-organized ideas. If I hadn’t prepared something beforehand I know I wouldn’t have started – although I admire those that can just completely wing it and succeed.
Anyway, good luck to all of my fellow NaNoWriMo-ers! MB was the first place I heard of NaNoWriMo for, and for that I am forever grateful (or forever hateful…ask me that again after Week 2.)
It’s not pretentious at all. We want to hear about you. It’s fine!
I just hit seven thousand! Yay for first week avalanches of writing. Soon my wordcount will slow to a trickle and the only thing saving me will be these extra words…at least that’s how it played out last year. Cookies for all you fellow Wrimos!
My friend and I are going to have a NaNoOff this weekend. Which means that we’re going to sit and type for hours and hours and hours. And have word wars. And take tea breaks.
And Starr, it’s not pretentious at all. Everyone enjoys hearing how you are doing. High five for doing NaNo! Your version of planning sounds like a really good idea, especially the multiple endings part. (I should do something like that next year; mental note.) Good luck to you as well!
I have a feeling that Mikazuki is going to be this year’s TMFA.
In other news, I’m going on for an unnecessarily long time about the Muses shopping at Flurban Floutfitters.
Even as I am typing, my brain is coming up with a huge number of ways to increase the wordcount of this comment. Is there no escape?!
Hahaha! I wish…
Closing in on 5k, my goal for tonight. Two hundred more and I’ve written myself into a corner.
Also I’m pretty sure that none of what I’ve got so far is worth rereading. And I don’t have much of a plot beyond this.
Bit worried. The first year this is more or less what happened. And I ended up with a pathetic book.
I guess that was mostly because the characters were… Yeah…
I’ll probably just keep throwing obstacles in their path and letting them resolve them until I have a story. Yeah, that’ll work.
…. The incoherency of this post speaks poorly for the writing in my novel.
The second sentence contains two unrelated thoughts.
Anyway, aiming for 7.5k today and I’m still 1.5k short. TThis is tough. I remember this. It happened last year.
But I really can’t afford to fall behind the third day so I’ll keep working. Come on, brain! Cooperate!
Off to find word wars. See you later.
4k! I’m somewhat behind, but not as much as I seem, since I’m doing 1400 on weekdays (although I think I might stop doing that). I was really tired this morning so I procrastinated on my 6:05-6:20 write, but then I wrote ~479 during social studies and orchestra (I counted the words, but I’m sure I made a mistake someplace). I think I need to write more during school, but then I’ll have to spend time typing it up, and I’m sort of shy about writing in front of other people. Argh.
Almost 8K. I enjoy having a bit of a buffer, it means that I have time to actually finish up my plot if it doesn’t stop right at 50,000 words.
The two or three days before NaNo started, I was panicking so badly, because I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to write the plot idea which I’ve had since December or do something completely new and unresearched and unplanned (which I was suddenly having multiple ideas for). So on November 1st, I started an unresearched and unplanned novel, got 1,042 words into it, and decided that I actually wanted to go with my original idea after all. With that on top of being scared that my battery wouldn’t last until the power came back on (New England snowstorm, anyone?), NaNo is off to a somewhat… stressful start for me.
I gotta plotline
* ohhooo*
Just over 8k. Need 10k tonight if I’m to stay on track.
Also I just spent the afternoon reading The Lost Hero. Whoops.
It may have given me the idea for the next character, though. So I can’t say it’s all bad.
Wait, that last sentance sounded wrong. I meant the fact that I read it instead of writing isn’t all bad. The book itself doesn’t have anything bad about it.
8374
10k!
PRobably enough for tonight.
I’m not sure what’s happening to me this NaNo. I’m getting lots of words, but I don’t feel very connected to my story. I almost feel like I’m just… Drifting through. Sliding through my story with no plan and mostly getting by on extinsive internal monologues.
Altohugh that last part isn’t that bad if it helps me develop decent characterasation skills.
considering starting over with a different story that doesn’t require as much planning/outlining (ie is not vaguely fantasy)
i think my problem is that i am so EMBARRASSED about writing that i just freeze up and stare at the screen. does anyone else experience that? D: i guess if i just remember that i will in all likelihood NEVER show it to anyone then i’ll feel less like an idiot, but idk
just have to think of it as practice more than anything else
I feel this way too. I can’t write with other people in the room because I’m always afraid that they’re looking at my NaNo.
I’m working on a part where I’m going to write from the POV of at least a few different main characters. I’m two paragraphs into Aeiou’s section and I’ve already developed her character more and invented a new subplot. Excellent.
New wordcount strategy: To ensure fairness in court, all characers must pass under an archway where random thoughts are poured into their brain for ten seconds somewhat scrambling their thoughts but leaving them mostly unharmed except with the temporary inability to lie.
This gives me excuses to write whatever sentence pops into my head not involvin NaNo into a big block of italicized text.
9039 words so far.
Just over 5K, so I’m behind, but I’m planning on utilizing this weekend to the fullest – I got most of my homework out of the way yesterday (Yay for being surprisingly productive, right?!) so that I could really focus this weekend.
Unfortunately, most of today is already gone since I spent the majority of i tat a cross country tournament, but now it’s time to write. GO GO GO
So 3k already today, after taking the morning off. I think I’ll aim for 5k today, just to see if I can.
I have discovered that challenging myself to write 1k in one hour works really well. It’s not a hard goal, but it keeps me focused and I end up writting at the pace I’m most comfortable with, instead of rushing everything.
And I usually have ten minutes or so at the end, which gives me time to stretch my legs.
Got 5k! That puts me at 15k total!
This being ahead thing is totally awesome.
In other news, plot is picking up. Moderately happy with new character. Her characterisation needs work, but the idea is pretty sound.
Being incredibly sick has killed my NaNo. I’m three thousand words behind. *sneezes miserably*
NaNoNights are awesome. Vanille came over and we wrote until three in the morning. (It was only two in the morning because of DST, so ha!) We had a ton of word wars and we watched AVPM and Sherlock and AVPS while writing and just had so. much. fun. She’s at 20k or so, and I’m at 18k. So it was a really good night for improving our wordcounts as well.
So it’s probably a good thing that I got ahead yesterday because I didn’t touch my NaNo today. Oops.
Think I’ll wake up early and see if I can partly caught up. I should be able to get at least a thousand words in before school, even if I don’t wake up that early.
And actually, it wouldn’t be that painful to get up even earlier…
Passed 10K.
12K. I love how my novel has blossomed into a real story. I feel like it’s speaking to me through the words that pop in my head.
And… it’s currently yelling at me not to kill off one of my main characters at the end. It also has some vague ideas about minotaurs and sporks.
Almost 14K, and feeling slightly disappointed because I had more of a lead at this time last year. My plot is just about to begin its real inception — tomorrow, I think.
Hey, 14K is good! she says having just passed the mark a few minutes ago. That’s exactly where I planned to be by today but didn’t expect it after losing some ground this weekend to other demands on my time.
Almost 9K. Look at all of you speedy, speedy people. I’m just taking my sweet, sweet, time. You are all wonderful inspirations, in a totally kicking my butt sort of way.
I think that one of the biggest problems with my novel – and my pace, which I recognize does indeed need to seriously pick up – is that I don’t particularly love any of my characters. I like them, certainly – one slightly more then the other, I think – but I’m not exactly burning with a fiery passion for either of them. It might be a good idea to bring a new character into the mix when it’s still relatively fresh who I can absolutely love so I’m more excited to write about him/her. (Then again, one of my main characters has been drugged unknowingly for the majority of the novel thus far, although I think she’s starting to realize that she’s been drugged and it’s wearing off anyhow, so who knows, I might like her more in her normal state. Hm. And the drug thing was totally on the spot. Some of the ideas I come up with when I’m writing spontaneously are so laughable I just have to put them in. It’s NaNoWriMo, yo.)
Ugh. I did nothing yesterday. Today I got up early, got 1k without much trouble, and spent the rest of the day dilligently avoiding my NaNo. Which I’m doing even now.
And I need to go to bed in twenty minutes.
Well, off to try a ten-minute sprint and possibly start a fire.
Today I continued to improve on my ‘avoiding NaNo’ skills. Soon I’ll be a master.
I mean seriously. I’m over here reading about writing, playing word games, flipping through all my tabs a thousand times, messing around on my home screen while thinking ‘What should I do today?” and totally ignoring what I really should be doing.
And now I have like two hours and this is TOTALLY DOABLE if I concentrate but I can’t. I’m sitting here, completely, totally against the idea of touching it.
If I go get started I’ll realise that this isn’t bad and I know I will and yet I’m still sitting here! Hemingway isn’t even helping from his place on my wrist!*
In an unrelated sidenote, as of today I suddenly understand the concept of skipping ahead. Huh.
*I wrote an Earnest Hemingway quote on my arm, to inspire me. It says “Those who say they want to be writers, and aren’t writing, don’t.” I find it hilarious and possibly inspiring, except it totally hasn’t worked yet.
Try telling yourself you’ll write for fifteen minutes and then you can stop. It often helps if you make it a challenge, like writing as fast as you can to help with the concentration. Or pick one particular scene or character description. If it’s going well, add another fifteen. But if not at least you’ve done that much, which will make the next attempt a little easier than if you hadn’t written at all.
Yeah… I keep meaning ot do that. ANd then I manage to not yet.
I did get like four hundred words, so I’m at 17.5 now. And I’m getting very close to just skimming through the rest of my planned plot, writing the interesting scenes and a few loose bridges. I’m not sure about that, it seems so irrisponsible, but then again a major problem with my first NaNo was that it took way to long to get through way too little plot.
I think I need to know what’s happening next. That might help.
Anyway, thanks!
Haven’t been writing. Sigh.
Need. To. Get. This. Done.
*goes off doing something else instead*
Does anybody else use Write or Die? I find it really helpful because often I open up my novel and then stare at the screen for twenty minutes, or constantly change tabs and get distracted.
I’m writing in Scrivener which will expand to a full page and block out all those pesky tabs. Haven’t tried Write or Die yet, though. If I get really stuck, I may check it out.
I find that using “Kamikaze mode” and the “Evil” setting really helps. The fear that it inspires when the screen starts to turn pink is pretty motivational.
Hey, there’s an iPad version of WoD! Also the online version hasn’t told me it won’t work yet!
That could be helpful… Yeah, I’m trying this.
Have you seen Written? Kitten! The creators describe it as “a bit like writeordie but cuter and fuzzier.” A new kitten photo pops up at 100 word intervals. Made me think of MBers handing out virtual kittens.
I love it. <3 I wasn't expecting it to have the effectiveness of wod, but it is because I want to see the next kitten!
I would like to thank the following people for giving me a prayer of finishing my wordcount today: Rebecca, Pseudonym, Lindsey Grant, that guy who programed Write or Die, and whoever added the idea to the YWP’s dare machine.
IN other news, hit 19k. Might add a bit more, not sure yet.
Yay! You’re welcome. And thank you in turn: writing advice to you shamed me into typing some more myself.
It’s like a vicious circle, only everybody wins instead!
A virtuous circle?
…I cannot concentrate on my writing at all. Even worse, the research I do for my writing is more interesting than the writing itself. Aaand my word count is so low I’m embarrassed to even say it. NaNoWriMo this year looks to be as successful as last year’s.
What I need is an antagonist.
Or maybe a dramatic change of direction?
Or maybe just to finish this one so I can move on already.
Darn. I’ve never abandoned a novel in the middle of NaNo. I don’t want to start. But I don’t know what to do with it.
Right. Off to speed up plot.
Hit 21k. Enough for the night.
Need to change something.
Maybe tomorrow I’ll get something done bbefore seven in the evening.
…Huh. I used Write or Die to write a paper due tomorrow, and whaddaya know, it went by quicker than I can ever remember it. Suggestons on the NaNo thread helping me out in my daily life. (Thoguh my word count is still abysmal.)
So as you may have noticed from my ever-more frantic posts, I am not doing so well on my NaNo right now. IT could be that I could push through and find soemthing wonderful, and maybe I should. But it’s been almost a week now since I made any real progress without forcing myself, and I can’t find anything to excite me.
So I’ve spent some time thinking about it, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to move on. I hate giving up in the middle of NaNo, but I’d hate even more to lose the rest of the month because I can’t focus on my world any more. So I’m going to set this one aside. I’m going to go write something light and funny and action packed, with a cliché villian and heroes that are either rediculously underpowered or rediculously overpowered, either one. It’ll be fun and it’ll be exciting and I feel like such a cheater.
I said some days ago that I felt like I was drifting. I think I’ve drifted to a stop, and it’s time to roll in a new direction.
Woops, wrong email address. That face is oddly apropriate, though.
Hi! I have been away from the blog for a while, but that is because I am working on my NaNo. It is called I Hate This Forest and has Sasquatches, tree octopi, and carnivorous plants. I’m one-third of the way complete.
[Reference to off-the-blog contact snipped. –Admin.]
Squeeeee!!!!! I just reached the goal for today! Joy!
stuck doing English essay instead
why
So. I need advice and I could really go on the NaNo forums for this (outside reference? If so, sorry GAPAs) but I’d rather take advice from people I know well.
There’s this character- her name’s Jade and she was originally more of a supporting character but she evolved into a co-MC so that I could write from her perspective instead of Melvin’s occasionally (Melvin has no emotions, which makes him hard to narrate)- and basically I’m supposed to kill her at the end. At the end, she dies to save Melvin.
I’m not so sure I want to kill her anymore. I really like her and I’m not sure I should kill her anymore: would it just kill the whole plot like the director cutting off the song in the middle of a phrase? I could bring her back. It could be a near-death experience instead, I suppose. But do I want to do a near-death experience? I just… can’t bring this upon mysef.
Jade’s death brings back Melvin’s emotions. That’s the whole point of the story. But now that I’ve started narrating Jade, I don’t want to kill her. I can’t commit murder.
It would be an interesting plot twist to bring back his emotions while she’s dead and he’s crying and all overwhelmed when suddenly she opens her eyes and she’s Alive and all his emotions go away again. But I don’t know if I’ve set my novel up to have a huge twist at the end, dripping in irony. Would that just wreck it?
Now why can’t I write this much in my actual novel?
Do his emotions have to go away when Jade comes back to life? He won’t be overwhelmed by sudden joy instead? /random wondering
I’ve thought of that; I’m just not sure if it would be too shallow or not. It’s a very YA-lit sort of thing to do, have Jade not actually die.
*muses* Oh well, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. I’ve got lots of procrastination to do before that point comes. Thank you for listening to my pedantic randing.
Seeing what happens as you go along might be a good idea. Good luck.
Thank you!
typing marathon right now
type 25 minutes, rest 5
since I wrote everything down on paper first that’s over 1000 words every half hour
okay, I can do this
^false optimism
Well, it turns out that Geronimo Stilton audiobooks are the enemy of word count. Also, my Pandora playlist is playing the musical equivalent of chick lit which isn’t helping because I’m supposed to be listening to fantasy (John Williams, Howard Shore) and it’s a John Williams playlist anyway. But what is this- guitar. Lyrics. Female voice singing about life and relationships and FEELINGS. Odd.
Behind on my word count.
But I read a couple of archived pep talks on the site and now I have a new respect for Lemony Snicket.
Oh, the Imperial March. Here we go.
I’ll be back.
So I put up shiny things on my ceiling instead of writing my English essay or novel.
Why am I so bored.
I’m not sure how to move my novel onwards now. Rather shockingly to me, I seem to be approaching the climax although I am only at around 20000 words.
I wonder how to move everyone to their positions and finish it all up regardless of wordcount…
Yeah, I should get working.
So I have become the MASTER at evading my NaNo. You don’t want to know how many games I’ve acquired for free since my motivation died. Even restarting didn’t help much, which depressed me badly.
But I’m actually getting something in right now, thanks to my dad. I mean, before I started writing this post.
You’re the Master? *taptaptaptap*
I hit 50k… yesterday? I was at 10k on Thursday, but then I had a couple of 20k days, and now I’m at 60k. I’m doing pretty well, but I accidentally challenged someone else in my region who was way further than I thought they were, and then several people promised me cookies/pretty things/ponies if I could beat that person, so I have many more 20k + days ahead of me. (And yes, someone did actually promise me a pony. :P)
Off to write again, now. I’d like to get 10k more done tonight, which I can do if I write for 2.5 hours without getting distracted. That’s the hard part, really. Not getting distracted. Thank goodness for WoD!
You amaze me.
But anyways, yay ponies! And cookies! And pretty things! Good luck!
O.o
Congratulations!
24K. Have abandoned plot outline as well as any hopes of sanity.
PLOT OUTLINE? WHAT’S THAT?
Sanity? This is NaNo. We have no sanity here.
The despair clouds from our undone other work will blot out the sun!
Then we will write in the shade.
HALFWAY MARK~
I am pretty much going to make myself write until I get to my 42nd sheet of binder paper today.
Sadly I am stuck on my plot :'(
Ignore your plot, then. Describe one or more of your location. Or a scene that happens later. Or just let a couple of characters hang out for awhile over dinner or argue over something or take a detour and get lost. Anything except stare your plot in the face.
I should do that. Thank you.
28,333, by the way.
23.5k. But writing again. Alive and writing again.
21.5K . I meant to catch up over the weekend, but that didn’t end up happening. I think I can get close to 25K today, though.
By the way, does anyone know when the Night of Writing Dangerously is?
The official one in San Francisco is November 20, but regional groups can set up their own.
Thanks!
26k. Hit 25k sometime this morning. Makes for 2.5k total today.
I’ll try to get another couple thousand in by bedtime. I’m getting pretty good at turning out large amounts of words once I sit down to write.
Also, I haven’t abandoned my goal of 75k. Even if it may be unrealistic. Let’s see, 50k divided by 15… 3200. Or so.
Totally doable, right?
Oh my goodness, writer’s block and homework are my archenemies. I’m at 31k but I haven’t written anything in a while. I had a 4k spurt a couple of nights ago but I seem to be sputtering out. Not so much that I’m not sure where to go but that I don’t want to write. There are so many distractions and annoyances and I’m not even feeling any competitive juices. My procrastination attempts got taken to a whole new level when I decided to make a graph of Muse reader’s ages by entering the ages of the readers featured in the magazines into a numbers file…
On the bright side, I built a writing fort in my room. It’s really small and terribly cozy. I’ve been writing on my school laptop recently and emailing my novel to my desktop. Does anyone else write on a desktop? I feel like it’s a lot more uncomfortable than a laptop because it becomes very monotonous to sit in the same place for hours on end for thirty days. Anyway, the laptop arrangement is working out quite nicely.
My resolution is to get a lot of writing done this weekend. Oh dear I am scared.
Well, I’m behind, but I’ve no school tomorrow, so I’m hoping to get caught back up then.
The thing is… well, I figured out something important about my novel today and I’m excited but I’m terrified because it’ll mean so much will have to change and the rewriting and I’m not even sure if the new idea is worth it.
Sigh.
I’m so excited.
I’m. Almost. Done.
With my story. I know I won’t drag the story on to 50,000 words, but goodness, I’m finishing my story, as I hoped I would for NaNoWriMo.
My story for Swalot. Almost. Done.
This will be the first time I finish a novel. I am so excited. And I like the extra month to do editting before I send it off to him for his birthday/Christmas.
Good luck, everyone. I’ll be off working again soon.
Finished writing my novel!
First. Complete. Novel.
Done.
Just need to finish typing it up this weekend. And done. Done. Done.
I feel like I finished something, for once. No one remind me that it still needs a lot of editing. Time to relax now!
Wouldn’t dream of ruining the moment, *Cskia. It’s a fantastic feeling. Enjoy!
Yay! *showers of kittens*
Yay! Congratulations!
THIRTY THOUSAND! /exultant
I wrote my ending today – I haven’t actually gotten that far yet, but I wrote it and I’m quite pleased with it!
30k. I’m keeping up, barely, with the wordcount. Have been for about a week now. I like my story, but I keep lacking in focus. Not sure why.
I don’t have anything planned for tomorrow, though. I’m hoping for a really good writing day.
Also I feel so guilty for starting over, and I’m sad because I should be in the middle of fascinating plot twists and building towards a climax now. Instead I’m still setting everything up. I’m almost tempted to go back to my last story, except just thinking about it is almost enough to make me run screaming from the room.
Darn it, NaNo is supposed to be fun.
It comes and goes. Don’t waste time feeling guilty. Just work with the decision you made. Sounds like you’re far enough along that you’ll soon be back to the fun part. I have found that the breakthroughs often follow those painful plodding phases.
Today I thought I’d make only a token showing. With help from the kittens I managed to eke out a few passes of 2-300 words at a time. Sooooo tedious. Yet I added nearly 3000 words for the day and made headway on some particularly troublesome plot holes.
Yeeeah WoD and W?K!
Goal: 40, 000.
PREMATURE CLIMAX WHAT IS THIS
Ada Lovelace? What are you doing in my Sherlock Holmes novel?
It’s especially odd considering that Holmes, had he been a real person, would have been born a couple of years after Ada Lovelace died. But don’t let that slow you down — keep writing!
I know! That’s why it’s so aggravating!
Ada, you’ve been dead nineteen years! LEAVE ME ALONE! I’ll write a novel for you later if you get out of this one! Please!
So you’re writing about Sherlock Holmes when he was about 17 years old?
ohcake no sorry! twenty-nine, how did I even do that
NaNo ate my math skills, I guess?
Finally when I get over writer’s block and want to write, my arm falls asleep all day and my dad says I have a minor case of tendonitis and thus should stop writing for a little while. *cries*
Great Odin’s Beard. I seem to be make a lot of these sort of mistakes lately; apologies, MuseBlog. Switch out ‘case’ with ‘form’ in that sentence and everything will be okay.
I really don’t think I’m going to finish this year. And I had such high hopes. But I’ve been too busy, and the rest of the time I’ve been really not interested in writing. Like, I’m not even going to add anything else to this post because it takes to much effort.
40,000!
33000 and so behind. I will have to sprint on Thanksgiving and WHERE DOES MY PLOT GO AFTER THE CLIMAX
For that matter, where does the plot go, period?
36k.
Bleh.
I can’t focus on writing, I keep playing solitare instead. I wanted to get lots and lots done over these days but it just isn’t happening. I force myself to get almost enoguh before crashing in bed at night so I can get up and do the same thing the next day.
Why isn’t this working as well as the last two years?
Although now that I think about it I’m not totally certain it worked really well those years. Maybe that was just in retrospect…
YES I AM SO HAPPY
NOVEL COMPLETED
AGAIN SO HAPPY
MY STORY IS DONE TOO
IT SOMEHOW MANAGED TO BE THE PERFECT LENGTH
JOY
JOIN ME, LET US DANCE AROUND A COFFEE TABLE AND SCATTER CONFETTI EVERYWHERE
ANYWAYS CONGRATS!
I am at 120k at the moment. Much less than where I’d like to be. Unfortunately, my life for the past week or so has consisted of getting up at six, going to school, going to work, getting home at eight and doing homework for three or four hours. I have some catching up to do. But that’s what four and a half day weekends are for!
120k?
You mean 12k, right?
Or else…wow, that’s amazing!
No, 120k. I’m actually at 130k right now.
I write a lot. xD
Was going to wordsprint today but I got really into this book that I am supposed to hate and accidentily read for thirty minutes instead of existing so now my mom is furious at me for no reason and I am banned from the computer for life (more or less) and now everythhing is my fault and the Sun could go supernova right now and it would still be my fault. So I am still insanely behind and I can’t count on getting anything done and climaxes are hard enough as it is.
CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU MIKAZUKI!!!!!
Never mind, I’m kind of caught up now and have managed to work in very sneaky references to Star Wars and Doctor Who.
Thank you! Congratulations to you too on getting caught up and all!
You’re welcome! *is now procrastinating from very emotional scene in which one of two main characters dies*
I wrote just over 4k today, and only need about five hundred words to be on track. This is a wonderful feeling.
My plot just twisted dramatically, and I’m so excited! It feels like it’s really taking on a life of its own. I didn’t know how I was going to make this part work, and, although some of the details are fuzzy, I think I’m a lot closer. This is the last part of the book, and so it’s getting close to the climax. My problem now is pacing myself, so I don’t reach it too quickly… I don’t want to have 150k of build up and then a 5k conclusion. xD (When I go back and edit, it’ll be shorter, but still. Proportions are important…)
0.o
WAHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I won! Yay! (I am so bursting with joy I have to shout it somewhere, but everybody else in my house is asleep.)
Congratulations!
JOIN OUR VIRTUAL DANCE
CONGRATS
LET US JOIN HANDS AND DANCE IN A CIRCLE WHILE WE CELEBRATE OUR TRIUMPH
CONGRATULATIONS SAMRAMHAM
MIKA THAT IS A GREAT IDEA
LET’S HAVE A CAMPFIRE AND MAKE S’MORES TOO
HOPEFULLY MORE PEOPLE WILL BE JOINING US SOON
My novel is utter rubbish, even if Ada Lovelace did go away, but I’m trying not to pay any attention. FORGING BRAVELY ON.
Think you’re fine about the “rubbish” part. EDITING IS FOR DECEMBER, GO ZNZ
So my novel’s done, Jade’s dead, and I am stuck at 41K snail-crawling on by going back and adding detail to scenes. What do I write as an epilogue?
SFTDP. Why do I do this a lot on these threads? I brought a character back to life and am now at… *checks* 44,650 words.
AL, you are getting very close now, GO GO GO YOU CAN DO IT (I hope the plot works out very well for you!)
Thanks! 48K and slowly climbing…
Irene Adler is pregnant, apparently. Did not foresee this, but okay.
I just finished today, at exactly 50,073 words. Only got in about half the plot that I wanted to get in, because other bits of plot got in the way, but I tried to stick everything that I absolutely really wanted to mention in at the end, and it kind of semi-worked. Now I can get on with the rest of my life instead of having all my free time taken up by writing — I am rather happy.
‘MADA YOU CAN COME DANCE WITH US NOW
*hands over virtual s’mores made with choklit*
CONGRATULATIONS
Congratulations!
CONGRATULATIONS!
JOIN IN OUR CELEBRATION
*JOINS IN CELEBRATION* *DANCES*
FIFTY THOUSAND AND NINE
I HAVE CONQUERED NANOWRIMO
*joins campfire*
*roasts marshmallow*
YAY! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*shower of kittens and chocolate and pie over all*
YESSSSSSSS CONGRATS
LET US DANCE DANCE DAAAAAAAANCE
*JOINS DANCE*
Of course i would be struck by sudden inspiration for my NaNo after writing practically nothing all month. And of course it would be at the same time I have to write a lab report, providing the perfect distraction to said report. At least it killed some plot bunnies…
Congratulations to all winners!
I wish I could say the same. I got basically nothing done over thanksgiving break (like, maybe 5k total? Way too little, considering I was already behind.) and I only got started again yesterday, and even so I got way too little, and now I’m sick and I don’t know how much I can get.
I’m going to win this. I’m going to catch up.
But it’s hard right now.
I’m at 41K. I caught up a LOT over Thanksgiving break, and things just seem so much brighter now that I’ve passed the 40K mark. Yes, I might actually win this thing!
Go, starr! You can do it! *encouraging confetti*
THIS WAS A TRIUMPH
I FINISHED MY NOVEL
HUGE SUCCESS
IT’S HARD TO OVERSTATE MY SATISFACTION
I’VE DONE NANOWRIMO
I’VE WRITTEN A BOOK BECAUSE I CAN
FIFTY THOUSAND WORDS THIS MONTH
EXCEPT THE ONES WHO HAVE FAILED
BUT THERE’S NO SENSE CRYING OVER SPELLING MISTAKES
NOW IT’S TIME TO EDIT THIS WILL BE A HEADACHE
THOUGH THE NOVEL DRAFT IS DONE
DON’T WANT TO READ IT
WON’T BE FUN
BUT AT LEAST I’M STILL ALIVE
I’M SO HAPPY FOR YOU
I’M BEING SO SINCERE RIGHT NOW
EVEN THOUGH I HAVE NO MORE EMOTIONS
AND DIDN’T ATTEMPT TO
WRITE FIFTY THOUSAND WORDS THIS MONTH
AS I TYPE IT HURTS BECAUSE
I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU
NOW THESE WORDS ALIGN TO MAKE A BEAUTIFUL PLOT
AND YOU’RE OUT OF TIME SO JUST CRASH ON YOUR COT
SO I’M GLAD I DIDN’T TRY
THINK OF ALL THE TEARS YOU’LL CRY
AND THE FACT THAT YOU ARE STILL ALIVE
(I didn’t write that, by the way; it’s by Errol Elumir, who is clever and also can sing.)
(Oh, really? Because I was going to say that is pretty epic. I wrote my part in, like, 2 minutes. :lol:)
… didn’t Errol Elumir do NaNoToons? (I do like NaNoToons and usually use the daily edition as a bribe to reach by daily quota.)
Yeah, he did. I love those.
CONGRATS ZNZ, CONGRATS
FORGET EDIT STUFF FOR NOW
JOIN OUR DANCE, P*EASE?
*joins dance*
47k, and some spare hundreds in change.
I think my novel just turned into a character-development based short story that actually will wrap itself up in the next three thousand words. This is leaving me reeling. Just slightly.
Go, Errata, go! *lots of support pies and choklit*
You can do it!
Oh, I forgot to mention — official count: 52,338.
Rebecca, please join our campfire. *hands s’mores*
Why, thank you! Don’t mind if I do.
I won around ten last night!
And ever since, I have beel relaxing in the glow of not being behind.
Yay, Errata, congrats!
Once you finish relaxing… hmmm, then you can join our happy dance around the campfire, hmmm?