Sitting at the first of December

November is officially behind me, and I can hardly believe that the month flew by like it did. And yet, here it is. A 45 degree weather December 1 that doesn’t feel like November at all. And yet, I have this to say:

I DID IT! I FREAKING DID IT! That’s right, folks. Despite doldrums, stress, and several instances during the month through which I heavily considered throwing in the towel and calling it another failed attempt at Nano, I chugged on through and came out at the other end with over 50,000 words.

50,000 words. That’s more words than a lot of people will write in their lifetimes, and I wrote it in one month.  It sparked in me a desire to continue writing. It reinvented the passion that had never really gone away, but simply hid away, dormant for awhile while other things got pushed to the forefront.

NaNoWriMo, in an essence, saved me. It saved the writer in me. It showed me that my dream is not dead, but that it also won’t be easy. I discovered that the world of possibilities ahead of me are endless, and that I can do whatever the hell I want if I just put my mind and willpower to it and, well, actually do it. That, my friends, is an extremely valuable thing.

But this novel – my NaNo novel has three things – a beginning, a middle, and an end. There are a few holes here and there, things that will be fixed up when I edit in the months ahead. There will be added plot, things dropped, and revision like revision may very well have never been done before. And yet, I am proud of what I have. There are real characters. They might have a few personality discrepancies that need to be worked out, but they are there and they are real.  And the plot has an arc. A potential that is really quite…plausible, for the most part. My first completed NaNo novel.

There may be stressors in my life right now, but I can honestly say that I stand on the brink of December with a feeling of pride that is absolutely fulfilling. I DID IT! The next step? Well, I order myself an author mug and a winners t-shirt from the NaNo store and get planning for next year!

And hey, maybe I won’t be able to wait that long, after all. I am a writer. I write. It is what I do.

This month has been a crazy ride, and it claims a part of my soul. I loved every day.

Days 11-18

Why not day 19? Well, because it’s only just begun (okay, it’s over halfway through, but my writing for the day has only started), and I can’t properly reflect on it until after the day is over.

The past week has been crazy. I’m officially over halfway done with NaNoWriMo, and though it will be amazing to finally cross that 50k line, I will be sad to see the month go. This month has given me a renewed passion for writing. I never stopped loving it, but I let it fall to the side for a time, and now it has garnered its proper position as front and center in my life.

Though I know my writing will lessen once November is over, I will try and continue these brilliant ideas that are floating around in my mind, and once December begins, editing will as well. This story that I’ve created, one that didn’t exist prior to 19 days ago, is interesting, and no one else could tell it. There is so much beauty and power in that that I have to be proud, even if some of it is crappy writing.

A few writer’s blocks set me back a little, but I’m right on track again, thanks to my characters. My schoolwork may not be its best, but I think less than 100% for a month is not going to kill me.

I must say, though, that the fortunes seem to be smiling up0n me this month, because my workload has been reasonable, and my muses have been generally kind, save a few confusing matters. The writing has been smooth, though 2,000 words a day doesn’t always come easy, especially when I’m struggling to thread the pieces of the story together while maintaining dynamic characters and not letting it all fall flat. I hope I’ve been as successful as I feel I have been.

I crossed the 30k line last night, and I’m over 3/5 of the way done. Talk about a strange feeling.

Well, that’s all for now. There will certainly be more later. Happy Day 19, fellow NaNoWriMos

Days Nine and Ten

Day nine. Oooh, day nine. I should have expected it from a Monday. Sometimes, I forget how busy and packed my Mondays are. As a result, I fell behind on word count. *hides from flying rotten tomatoes* I know, ugh, believe me, I KNOW. I wanted so badly to hit 20,000 by Sunday, but that didn’t happen so I shifted my goal to Monday. Then Monday came along, and all of a sudden I was sitting at a late night with very little opportunity to write. I did make it upwards of 17,000 by Monday night. I still failed, I know. Epic, epic failure.

However, last night I sat down and wrote. I wrote like I’ve never written before. Okay, not entirely true. But I did crank out a good 3k in about two hours solid writing time sprinkled throughout the day.

Even more exciting?! PLOT TWIST! Totally showed up all on its own. I guess this is what happens when I trust my characters. It’s like they have their own story to tell, and I’m just along for the ride, I’m just the agent they’re using to tell that story. I love it, I really do.

I’m having trouble, however, as the month wears on, turning off my inner editor. I know it’s important to write and just write. Get it all out before I go back and nitpick and lose  touch with the ideas I originally had. That I can pick the perfect word later. But it’s still hard sometimes.

Such is the challenge of Nano, I suppose (well, that and getting 50,000 on the page before the end of November).

And this is day eleven, which I can’t write about until later. But I can say HAPPY VETERANS DAY! Thanks so much to all the men and women fighting overseas to keep us safe. You are all so very appreciated.

Day Eight

My lofty, lofty goal for this weekend proved to be a little too lofty. I can’t properly express my disappointment. I know I’m still ahead of schedule to hit 50,000, but my personal goals for myself are falling to the wayside. Schoolwork is getting in the way, and quite honestly it’s a little sad.

I would like nothing more than to hole myself up in my room for the next 22 days and write nonstop. It would be the most insane, intense experience of my life, and I honestly believe I’d come out better because of it. Unfortunately, that’s not the way life works. It’s certainly not the way life works for a college freshman with a busy as heck schedule.

I can take some solace in the fact that I am only 5,000 short of my lofty goal for the weekend, and take pride in the fact that I am 2,000 ahead of where I was when I sat down an hour and a half ago to start writing. Unfortunately, staying up past midnight is not exactly an option tonight. There may be something inside that drives me to continue writing, but I think I’ve just about hit my breaking point for the night.

I won’t make excuses (although I’d like very much to blame it on having to outline an entire speech this afternoon). I will just plow through the next couple days with an extreme vigor.

My new lofty goal? Is to hit 20,000 by the end of tomorrow. I know. Can’t take me for my word anymore.

Well, trust me. My social life will be at a dangerous low tomorrow. I will leave my room for class and not much else. The spare moments? I will be attached to this keyboard. Braden, Lillian, Parker, and whoever else pops into my story tomorrow will be sorely disappointed in me if I don’t hold true to that. And having your characers mad at you is not a good thing at all.

 New lofty goal, here I come!

Goodnight, Day Eight!

Days Six and Seven

Why both in one? Because there’s really not much to tell about Friday. I accomplished maybe 300 words, and yes, I’m pretty ashamed of it. It’s unfortunate, but I guess everyone has their days of “yeah, well, about actually accomplishing something…”. Friday was one of mine.

But last night? Last night was a good couple thousand word night. But more than that, it unveiled a little bit of plot. And it was about damn time that a little bit of tension finally weaved its way into the story. After all, smooth sailing for a few thousand words, even, seems utterly unacceptable. My only problem now? How to fit in some action. It’s all pretty slow happening right now. I need to speed it up, but have yet to figure out how. Honestly? Trusting my characters thus far has not lead me down a terrible, scary path of no return.  So I will be writing throughout the day, in between unfortunate spurts of homework and studying.

I am still aiming for my lofty, lofty goal of 20,000 by the end of the night. It might mean another past midnight today, but I think it would be worth it to see two-fifths of my novel on the page. Well, two-fifths of my 50,000 words, anyway.

Does anyone happen to have a “Pause Schoolwork until the end of the month of November” button that I could borrow for Nano? It would be much appreciated.

Well, off to church, back to the Burg, and then more furious writing. I may very well not leave my dorm today. It is entirely plausible that I will be living off of the honey roasted peanuts, andes candies mints and life cereal that make up part of my NaNoWriMo survival kit. Oh, and coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.

Day… Five, is it?

I’m starting to lose track of the days already. That can’t possibly be good. Not even the strictest of my college day schedules is keeping me on track datewise. Unfortunately, today was both stressful and busy, which meant minimum productivity. Don’t get me wrong. I’m well on my way to 12,000.

My lofty goal for the end of the weekend is 20,000. I should be spending Saturday afternoon in the Cup with nothing but the word count ticker on my mind, though, so this should do absolute wonders for my novel. Hopefully I will hit some sort of plot brilliance by then, although I think I’m starting to hash out mentally a general direction.

Reading The Christmas Train by David Baldacci while I’m writing this story is probably going to end up influencing me in some way, not going to lie. But that’s okay. Maybe Baldacci can lend me some sort of divine inspiration (although right now all he’s got me doing is wanting to hop on a train with my laptop and go as far as it will let me), and I will suddenly be plowing through my novel with vigor and excitement.

I’m still pumped about this. I missed this feeling so much – this burning desire to just write, write, write. I missed remembering how much I absolutely adored fiction. And for reminding me of that passion, NaNoWriMo deserves all the thanks in the world!

On to the first weekend of November, which will be a prosperous and fruitful one for me, and I hope the same for all you fellow NaNoers out there.

Day Four

Today was… unproductive. I wrote approximately 500  words. And while I’m a few days ahead of schedule, falling behind like this is not a habit I plan on getting into. I have a sketched outline for the next chapter, so that should help get me back on track tomorrow when I sit down to really get at it. I’d like to be at least around 14,000 by the end of tomorrow. It’s certainly not an impossible goal, but  it’s a little lofty. I, however, am going to accept it readily.

I shouldn’t be making excuses for procrastinating in my writing habits, because excuses lead to the demise of this project, but today was genuinely amazingly busy. I had very few moments during which I could sit down and churn out a good number of words. Tomorrow is significantly more free, so I should accomplish much more on the story front! I might write a couple hundred more before I hit the hay, but I apologize for day four’s uneventful entry!

Day five will certainly be more exciting, I promise! I will be plot brainstorming while I’m not writing, and hopefully will come up with something brilliant.

Day Three

During the third day of November, I sat myself down and made a strict personal goal. Before I went to bed that night, I was going to hit 10,000 words. Because of this, by the time I went to bed, blogging was the last thing on my mind.

But here I am with an update that should have been posted yesterday.

I was stuck yesterday. I had almost written myself into a corner and I didn’t know where to go with it. But then, as my characters sometimes so nicely do, my MC wrote his way out of the rut for me. I have never been more appreciative as I was when I finally pushed past 7,500 yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, the ins and outs of a day at college interfered with my writing for awhile, and by the time I sat back down at the computer, with 2,500 words left to hit my goal, it was later than I’d hoped to start.

I plugged headphones in, though, and found myself exploring the characters in a setting that was neither unusual nor extraordinary, but it was what I needed to do for the time being.

Exploring my characters is one of my favorite things to do as a writer, but what I’m aiming for today is a little bit more drive in the plot. I need to get a more plot-centered mind before my 50,000 words resemble strictly fluff. It isn’t so much that what I’ve written so far has been fluff, it’s more that I don’t want it to turn that way because I feel that these characters have the potential to make something amazing, something finished, something I’ve never done before.

Here’s to hoping tonight goes as smoothly as the last couple have. The first three days of November has graced me with muse and purpose and an overflow of words. May the rest of the month be as kind.

Day Two

taken from julietfounherromeo.wordpress.com (in order to keep my blogospheres separate).

On November 2, 2009

I was worried about my word count today when, by my afternoon classes, I had only advanced from 3,000 to 3,500. To put it lightly, I started to mildly hyperventilate that this year was going to become a failure like last year already.

However, when I got back from my afternoon classes, I sat down, plugged in my headphones and set my iTunes on shuffle and then… I typed. I typed and let the characters carry me. Unfortunately, Braden is new to me, and because of that, he isn’t jumping off the page quite how I’d like him to just yet. He needs to bring in his own sense of life that I haven’t exactly discovered yet. But it’s only a first draft.

The purpose of NaNoWriMo is to get that first draft on the page. To get a complete story, from start to finish, written out. I have so many half-finished stories in my repetoire, the prospect of a finished one, even though it will be nowhere near publishing ready at the end of the month, is so terribly exciting I can hardly describe.

As of now, I am at 5,265. I may continue for a little bit once I’m ready for bed and then call it a night, or I might consider my progress today a victory and continue tomorrow.

Either way, I’m over 1/10 of the way there, and I have to say, that alone feels rather amazing!

Insanity, I claim you this month

taken from julietfoundherromeo.wordpress.com (in order to keep my blogospheres separated.)

On November 1, 2009

Well, this will be my second year’s attempt at NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

50,000 words in 30 days. So far, I’ve got 2,400. Deep breaths, and I’ll be plunging in. My goal on it this time around is to let the characters and the story guide me. It doesn’t have to be awesome this time around, it just has to be complete.

This is my log of how it is going well, or makes me want to cry in desperation. I guess it’s abotu time I get blogging again, huh?

Thus far, I really have no clue where I’m going with it. But it’s a ride. Life’s a climb. But the view is great. And this month will certainly be a climb. I’m simultaneously excited and terrified for it.

Let the noveling begin!