The end of NaNoWriMo 2008

NaNoWriMo 2008 is over, and I'm sad to say I didn't finish — I never got above 14,000 words. However, I have every intention of continuing to work on my novel. I will be aiming for 100,000 words total, and I will use a non-NaNo word count widget for my sidebar.

I also plan to continue blogging about my progress, even though NaNoWriMo 2008 is technically over, so stay tuned!

Live blogging our last NaNoWriMo write-in

I am blogging from Tattered Cover (a local independent bookstore) at our last NaNoWriMo write-in. Probably because it is Thanksgiving weekend, there are only four of us here.

When I arrived — about 20 minutes late — I couldn't find anyone, and a couple of old ladies were sitting in the meeting area we had reserved. After wandering around for a little while, I found one other writer I recognized; we claimed a table, I posted a new thread on the NaNoWriMo forums, and before long we had two other writers. Now we're back in our usual spot, which should make it easier to find us if anyone else comes — but I'm thinking it'll be just us.

Actually, though, I haven't worked on my novel yet this write-in. In fact, I haven't worked on it now for about two weeks, I think. I was hoping the write-in would be good inspiration for me, but so far all I've done is worked on my blogs!

I've been doing a lot of non-writing things since meeting my deadlines, just in time for Thanksgiving. Michael gave me a new display cabinet as an early Christmas present, so I have been busy getting dolls out of storage and arranging them, not to mention working on doll and clothing repairs that have been on my to-do list for a very long time, in some cases several years. I've also been having fun photographing my dolls and working on my doll stringing blog. I even sewed a little quilt for a doll bed I have — something I've been meaning to do since I got the bed last spring!

Despite all my apparent procrastinating, I actually am warming up to working on my novel again. Hustling to meet those deadlines took a lot out of me, and I think I needed some time to "play" with my dolls and destress before working on writing — any writing — again.

Back to noveling... albeit a little too late

Today I finished all of my marketing writing work for one of my biggest clients. As usual, the last week of the month was extremely busy as I worked toward the deadlines, and as a result I haven't had a chance to work on my novel since I last added to my word count.

I have resigned myself to not making 50,000 words this November, but I am going to keep on with my novel. This particular plot is one I've had in mind for several years, and now that I have finally started on it, I want to be sure I finish — even if it's not in a month!

13,957 words

Although I haven't technically got caught up in my work to the point that I can take the day or two to work on my novel that I wanted, I was able to add more than 2,500 words to my word count tonight (Saturday night). My goal for the weekend is 6,000 words, so happily I've accomplished almost half of that. If I can find the time to work on client projects tomorrow and write another 3,500 words of my novel, I'll be a very happy little writer!

And now... I'm so tired that I'm nearly seeing double. Hard to believe that two and a half hours ago, I was telling myself I was too tired to work much on my novel. Now I'm downright exhausted — but happy to have proven myself wrong!

Falling further behind on NaNoWriMo

As you will have noticed if you've been paying attention to my word count, I haven't been doing so well making time for novel-writing lately. I have had a whole slew of distractions, the primary one being car problems.

My goal right now is to keep up with my regular work as much as possible. Once my car is fixed (I have a part special-ordered that is supposed to arrive Saturday) and I'm a little bit ahead on my billable work, I am going to reserve a day or two solely for noveling, and see if that can help me recover the ground I've lost!

NaNoWriMo novel info and excerpt updated

I finally updated my Novel Info tab on my NaNoWriMo profile with a synopsis (of sorts) and an excerpt. If you read it please feel free to leave feedback in the comments here on my blog!

11,320 words

As I expected, I didn't reach 15,000 words tonight, which is roughly where I ought to be right now. However, I am quite happy with adding another 1,800 words or so to my total word count.

According to my NaNoWriMo progress report, I need to write about 1,900 words a day in order to make it to 50,000 words by the end of the month. Obviously I am still falling short of that, but I am steadily increasing my writing time and amounts every day, so I have hope that I will get up there and maybe even get caught up this week!

9,500 words: Making progress!

I have a lot of catching up to do to reach the roughly 15,000 words I should be at by the end of the weekend, but I'm making some serious progress: Tonight I added another 1,608 words to my novel, bringing my total up again to exactly 9,500 words.

I suppose 5,000 words tomorrow is probably not feasible, as I have too much else to do: I want to ride Panama, change the coolant in my car, and get some billable work done for my biggest client. However, I'm feeling pretty good about catching up sometime in the next couple of days!

7,562 words and my first write-in

Today I attended about an hour and a half of a write-in for NaNoWriMo — my first write-in ever. I got a lot of good writing done there — 1,631 words, which brings my word count up to 7,562.

I never went to any write-ins for NaNoWriMo 2006, only the weekly social meetings. And I never wrote a single word for NaNoWriMo 2007, so I only made it to one of the social meetings last year.

All that to say that I didn't really know what to expect at the write-in tonight. I'd heard that people actually got writing done at write-ins (rather than the crazy fun we have at the social meet-ups), but boy was I impressed when I arrived and saw about half a dozen people, sitting in armchairs and on sofas pulled up to form a small circle, WRITING.

After I'd been there for about an hour, one of the other NaNo-ers suggested a word count race. The idea was to see who could write the most words in nine minutes. (I don't know why it was only nine...) I wrote 428 words, about 100 words behind the "winner."

In any case, the write-in was a success for me, as I added more than fifteen hundred words to my word county. I still have a lot of catching up to do, though!

5,931 words: Time to start catching up

After several days of not working on my novel, tonight I finally added another 1,281 words, for a grand total of 5,931. That still puts me significantly behind, since I should have over 10,000 words by now!

Of course, the calendar widget seems to be having some problems right now, so please go by my reported word count and NOT what the calendar says — at least not until it starts working again!

I am anticipating having some extra time to work on my novel tomorrow evening, and on Saturday I'm attending a NaNoWriMo write-in for my area, so hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll have gotten caught up. Wish me luck!

NaNoWriMo calendar widget is back -- and working!

As of this evening, the NaNoWriMo calendar widget is working, so I put it back on my blog. I also changed what the images link to: The participant badge links to my NaNoWriMo profile, and the calendar widget links to my NaNoWriMo progress report.

I was tired yesterday evening and I've had a busy day today, so I haven't written any more since I last updated at 4,650 words. However, since I was a little bit ahead, it's not a big deal — I'm only about 2,000 words behind right now, IF I don't write any more this evening.

Right now I'm heading out to a social meet-up for NaNoWriMo-ers in my area. I'll blog more about that — and report any progress — later!

New NaNoWriMo widget

I got tired of having a NaNoWriMo widget that didn't work, so I changed it for the time being. The new widget has a bar graph, my current (reported) word count, the percentage done (out of 50,000 words), and the number of days left of NaNoWriMo.

I still prefer the calendar widget, though, so if it starts working again I'll put it back in the sidebar.

'Novel' means 'new'

I am one hundred percent in love with my NaNo novel.

I'm serious. I can't stop thinking about it. I think I'm even going to work on it today and save my paying work for this evening. I had so many great ideas for it this morning that I was itching to get down on paper (well, on screen).

One of the reasons why I think I love it so much is because it's different: different from anything I've ever written, and different than almost anything I've ever read. Not we-can't-publish-that kind of different (I hope), but different enough to hopefully interest readers as much as it interests me.

That's the way it should be, though, I think. Novel the adjective means new, so a novel should be something new: a story or a point of view or a character the likes of which haven't been seen before in the world of fiction. Plots and characters and settings that are rehashed versions of other books are boring.

Are you writing a novel this November? Make sure it's something fresh and new — preferrably in a good way!

4,650 words: Off to a screaming start!

The NaNoWriMo moderators suggested that we get at least 3,000 words this weekend. So imagine my surprise tonight when I realized I had gone from around 2,800 words to 4,650 words in just two hours!

The novel is going far better than I had even dreamed it would. I was worried about getting into the narrator's voices (I'm writing in first person from a male point of view) but it doesn't seem to be a problem so far. And the story just keeps flowing!

Unfortunately, one thing is going to be different from when I did NaNoWriMo before: I can't stay up as late at night to write. In 2006 I stayed up until 3 or 4 am most nights writing, but I'm on an earlier schedule now, primarily out of necessity: I need to get up with Michael and take him to work on days when I need to borrow his car.

Have no fear, though. I am sure I will still find plenty of time to work on my novel!

NaNoWriMo word count calendar widget not working

You may have noticed that my calendar word count widget in the sidebar reads 0 words. No, that's not my real word count! I wrote almost two thousand words last night and about 300 this afternoon, so my actual word count is currently around 2,800 (and I'm not done for the day yet).

It appears the calendar widget is not working, but the other word count widgets work fine. If the calendar widget doesn't start working properly in the next few days, I'll switch to one of the functional ones. I'm sure you are all dying to know how I am doing!

557 words: A decent start!

It may only be 557 words, but it's 557 words more than I wrote last year!

Actually, I think it's a pretty good start for the very first couple of hourse — especially considering I was busy until about 1:30 am with computer issues. (Never archive emails in Outlook that you will want to access again — or trust me, you'll be sorry!)

I almost went to bed without writing anything tonight, but I decided I wanted to get started off on the right foot. My goal was to write the prologue, which I've done. Tomorrow I'll try to write the first chapter!

Wish me luck!

Announcing NaNoWriMo 2008!

I have been so busy lately that I didn't even participate in the 2008 Muse Online Writers Conference. I am, however, planning to participate in NaNoWriMo this year. (I signed up for NaNoWriMo 2007 but never actually wrote anything; in 2006 I "won" by completing the 50,000 word challenge.)

If you don't already know, NaNoWriMo stands for "National Novel Writing Month" (though it's actually international now). It's essentially a challenge to write 50,000 words of a novel just in the month of November. You can outline before November 1st, write character development pieces, etc., but you can't actually start on anything that would contribute to word count until the clock strikes 12 on Halloween night.

I'm thinking of attempting again to write the novel I planned to work on last year, but never got to. (I never wrote a single solitary word. A stunning failure to follow my equally stunning victory in 2006.) The outline is already written, so I just need to go back and review it, see if I want to make any changes, etc.

You will notice that in the sidebar I have a NaNoWriMo 2008 Participant badge, which links to the NaNoWriMo site. Below that is a calendar widget that will show you my overall word count, as well as how I am doing each day; if you click that it will take you to my NaNoWriMo profile. Supposedly, the calendar widget should show light green for days when I have met my minimum word count, dark green for truly spectacular days, light red for days when I didn't meet my minimum word count, and dark red for days that really sucked.

Let's hope red isn't the predominant color at the end of the month...