Thank God It's Over!

On on hand, NaNo is over, but on the other, I hope this is just the beginning. First a few stats:

In total, I wrote 50,086 words.
My highest word count day was right around 10k (the end flying up to meet you can be very motivating ;) )
And this blog (excluding this post, titles & my replies in comments) is 13454 words so far
My Region, Peoria, IL collectively wrote 1,560,129 words
119,301 people signed up for NaNoWriMo this year with an 18.2% win rate of 21683 authors!
And the combined total words of all NaNos was 1,519,501,005!

That is AWESOME! Everyone that wrote, whether they hit 50k or not should feel at least some sense of accomplishment. I know even in years I didn't win, I still met some great people, I brought better writing than I had the year before, I always learned new things & no matter my word count I'd want to come back next NaNo & try it all again. I hope you all feel likewise. Congrats all around! These are some truly staggering numbers & I hope that next year they just keep going up!

This year, I learned:
That sprinting is word count Miracle Grow!

For me, reading during NaNo is strictly verboten. I get too caught up either wanting to see the outcome of a new read or racing ahead to my favorite spots on old ones & neglect my own stories.

Posting to or reading the Forums, or other writing message boards may be helpful & interesting, but it WILL NOT add to your wordcount. Forums are a treat to be enjoyed either for brief portions before, or as you like AFTER you've hit the day's target.

Setting a target (daily/weekly/monthly...whatever) can be a major help. When I was at around 8k, I thought quite idly & pie in the sky that it'd be great to have at least 20k in the first week. When I said it originally, I never thought I'd mke it, but as I put more words behind me 20k seemed more attainable & it made me work harder to get there.

Having a cheering section is a great boon! Usually, I have one or two people interested in my NaNo, this year I had a crowd of friends online that followed, cajoled, cheered, threatened me with guilt monkeys & generally drug my sorry kiester towards that magic 50k, even on days I wouldn't have myself.

Similarly, shooting your mouth off to said crowd is a good thing. It makes it a lot harder to punk out once you've run your mouth about how great you're going to do, lol.

This year I learned I could finish a piece of my own work & it'd be worth reading, and possibly, after a few edits & some polishing, maybe even worth paying for. I knew my writing was fairly decent; I get compliments on my game posts frequently & have a lot of requests to write with my chars & have favorable things said about previous NaNos. But this was really the first full length work I've done that was wholly mine; not fanfic, game stuff or the like. And ya know what? It was still good. How 'bout that?

This year I really realized how much writing meant to me. I got how much I love doing it, figuring out the puzzles of it, getting a char to talk & to live. I really got how much I want to get better at it & noticed or the first time that I may want to do this for good - my work, out there, in the world, to be read (and hopefully enjoyed) by as an actual vocation.

This year I'd like to thank:
Chris Baty - without you, none of the rest of us would be throwing ourselves into this annual insanity & life would be poorer without it. Thank you for the weekly pep talks! I love them!! You had this hairbrained notion that gave us all permission to go out & suck & that is so liberating! Lol. Because once you know it's ok to not be perfect, it gives you so much room to be great, as counterintuitive as it may sound to someone that hasn't tried it. You gave everybody a great place to expand their skills & learn about the real guts of book writing; that nothing that ends up on the shelf starts out it's literary life looking like that. You helped us mess the fun & beauty & chance there is in being a mess, because amazing things that can be created from that mess! Thanks Chris!

Russell Uman - Not only is he the ever brilliant "Robot Whisperer" that keeps the virtual lights on so we all have a place to play every year, but Russ was my NaNo mentor my first year. He may not remember, it was a few years back & he's come across hundreds of NaNos since then, but I do. I still have parts of his letters from that first year in my 'cheering section', a file I keep of comments my writing's received. It's great to look over on days I'm having trouble. He encouraged me, read my stuff & told me 'you really write well and it would be a shame for that to go unfulfilled'.

I held onto that & all the other things he said & it was one of the reasons that I kept going, even in years I did badly (and wow...some years I did very badly!) So thanks Russ. I never would have made it here without you!

To all the authors that've taken time out to do pep talks - Thank you, they're amazing. It's wonderful knowing not only are we not exploring these strange new worlds alone, but you all have survived the trip & live to report back, and with great success in doing so. Beyond that, and maybe this is just me,. I find it somehow a little reassuring that pep talks from "real" authors show up in my inbox, complete with typos. I'm sorry, but that's great!

A special thank you goes to Piers Anthony. When I saw his name on this year's pep talk list, I must admit, I nearly squealed in transports of fangirlish joy. I love his stuff, I've got about eight of his books. I ran, figuratively, to my email every few days in anxious anticipation, only to have my little hopes dash time & again. On the night before NaNo ended, I was lamenting to a friend that there was no Piers post yet, only to have it arrive about five minutes later. It was well worth the wait.

Silke & Carolyn - ty, ty! It was great having two people from the game going through this two. And I'm so proud of you both for making it to 50k! You guys rock!

Cheri & Kelly - Peoria's illustrious current & former ML. You two are fabulous! Cheri, you set up real world events & online write ins & Kelly for setting up The Cafe for us to hang out in & both of you for staging all those sprints! Thank you, thank you for being such wonderfully helpful & encouraging forces in our little corner of NaNoworld!

Nehellenia - You made it & I'm so proud of you! I know you ha a couple hang up spots in the middle, but you did great.

Gypsy! Oh, Gypsy m'dear, you were my NaNo angel! Lol. You read along, clamoring for more, you were my constant sprinting companion & my staunchest cheerleader this year. Ty, ty, ty! I never would have made it without you.

And finally, you, gentle reader. Thanks for hanging in with me through this crazy time. Keep checking back, I'll keep posting. And thank you, thank you for all the comments. Keep'em comin'. It's great knowing I'm not just sitting here talking to myself.

Ok...I think that about covers it for the time being. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming in the next day or two.

Purple is the New Black

Ok...I'll have a bit more detailed breakdown of things once my head stops spinning, but....

I WON!

It was spectacular seeing that progress bar go from blue to green(50k+, unverified) to winning purple. Oh wow...I don't even have words for it, lol. I will, but tomorrow once I'm a little more sane again. I still have a couple thousand(at a guess) left to actually finish the story, but that's ok. I made it to fifty thousand words & beyond with a full story I actually like. Don't get me wrong, lol, there will be much editing thrown around in a couple months, but for now, I'm just enjoying the rush of beating something I thought may well be insurmountable.

To anyone reading out there who are still plugging along, DON'T GIVE UP! 50 is attainable! And for all of you that have reached, or even passed that magic mark, CONGRATULATIONS! I hope whichever camp you fall into, that you'll be back next November to go again. I know I will.

The Final Hurrah

Ok...I'm back, I'm refreshed & I woke up with my book on my mind, so I'm reasonably certain my brain has forgiven me for what I put it through yesterday. From when I started yesterday to when I passed out this morning I think I wrote almost ten thousand words. Yowzah! I'm currently at 43,396 & all i have left is the final scene. If for some reason that doesn't fill enough, though I'm fairly certain it will, I'm recycling part of my opener as an epilogue.

OK, and there'll be more on this later tonight or tomorrow when I write my post-NaNo post, but I just wanna say thanks to all of you that followed along with this blog. And thanks to all my cheerleaders. You guys really helped make this happen! Cuz, let's face it, it's a lot harder to pun out in front of a crowd, lol.

See ya when I have a book.

Brain Fried

I have less than four thousand words left! But, I'm heading to bed. I want to finish cuz it's just right there, but I'm exhausted & my brain is turning to goo & threatening to pour out my ears in protest of my extended abuse of it if I don't sleep.

Anyway between when I started yesterday & now I wrote almost 10k, so that's pretty exciting. All that's left is the final scene & maybe, depending on the count, an epilogue. I'd be more enthusiastic if I weren't so tired I had to keep going back & fixing things in this post. Hooray for spellcheck! This last chapter or so's gotta be looking real pretty, lol.

See ya when I get up.

On to the Summit!

I'm at just over 40k. Wow...That boggles my mind. I'm **this far from having a finished first novel! Ok...so maybe * *this far, but still... I'm nearly there!! I'm nearly finished with the first draft of my first novel & what's more, I have plans for when I rewrite it in a couple months! And more than that, I have plans for my writing between then & now, how cool is that!?!

By Sunday I'll be done & will spend most of my time giggling like a crazy person & sighing the relieved sigh of someone that never thought they'd be able to manage something really difficult, but did. After that I'm still not really done though. I'm going to hunt up a few beta readers to take a look at things. Plus, and this may wait until after Christmas, I'm pulling out my first NaNo, dusting it off & I'm going to reread it to see if I can pick it back up & finish it!

About the time I'm through with that, cuz though I don't plan to dawdle, I won't have the NaNo of Damocles hanging over my head, that should warrant enough time to distance my brain from this year's novel.Then starts the ever exciting world of rewrites. I'll go through this year's a time or two, and then if I get frustrated/bored/need space/whatever, I'll go through my first NaNo. By NaNo next year, it's possible that I ma have to, actual, full blown, finished novels that are worth reading & maybe even paying money for. That is exciting! But ya know...'saleable' or not, I just love the idea that they'll be finished for me. I'll have two completed pieces that are stories I like & find interesting.

That is awesome.

I figured out my ending this morning. All I have left is wrapping the scenes with J&Z and E&J & getting them back to the city so they can all meet back up, put the stuff together & get where they're going. Once there, it's the ending & them discovering all the whys & wherefores. On one hand, the prospect of nearly being done is great for a number or reasons, but on the other...I know some percentage of the group isn't going to make it & that's going to be tough.

Depending on how that scene feels once it's done, I may go back & recycle my first scene to show the world after that & how it may (or may not) be changed because of it. We'll see when I get a little closer. I've got a bunch of things that I want added or expanded come rewrite season. So much that was either tossed aside for the sake of 'there's really not time right now, I need to just keep going' that'd add detail to the world or chars. I'm anxious to see what it all looks like after it's totally finished, though I know a lot of people hate their NaNos, I've really enjoyed mine...for the most part.

Ok, I'll check back later. I have a book to finish.

I Think I May Be Stuc...Scratch That! I Think I Know How My Book Ends!!

Ok, whoever said writing got so much easier once you hit the 30k mark wasn't writing my book. Yes, alright, some things are simpler; not so much setup, actually getting down to downing things, etc, etc. But, on the other hand, now I'm trying to see the ending in the distant fog, its still hidden and so I'm bumbling along uncertain of how to get things tied together. I have three pairs of chars who've been off hunting for various items. Each item is a clue to the central problem: why are all the gods dying off.

One pair, Bram & Gus, got theirs easy & so they headed home before the others had even found theirs. For them I had someone rob the diner they'fd been waiting in, so the item, a map, could be stolen so they'd be forced to chase it down & thus kill a little tiime while the others were still looking.

The next pair, Jubes & Erin, found their item, a small carved box. I'm not sure yet what it's importance is. I'd thought of making it a puzzle box, but that really only delays my having to DECIDE exactly WHAT IT IS!!

*sigh* Sorry 'bout the yelling, that was for me, not you. Anyway, the third pair, Josh & Zhi, are still looking. They just found a something, but jumped to the next scene because i don't know what it is yet.

So here's what I'm thinking... the pieces are somehow cooperative. Like, maybe the box has a necklace (or some such) in it that fits into the whatever it is that J&Z just discovered & the map leas them to whatever it is that'll put all these things together to a useful (and hopefully interesting & wordcount heavy) purpose. The box was found in the base of a statue that had Jubes' name on it, I'm thinking the whatever that J&Z find'll had something similar, one of their names or a likeness. That'd leave me with putting something likewise on the map - not too hard a task, as they haven't gotten to sit around & look too long at it while undisturbed.

Some predetermined thing from way back, even before them, which leads to what's before them. i did a bit on that in the Josh/Zhi scene, they found some old temple to some precursor god, and I think whatever happened to him is what's happening to them & maybe all these items'll fit together to stop it...or at least lead them to someplace that'll explain it maybe. *ponders*

That could maybe be something...

Ok.....ok, I think I've got it.

LOL, thanks for listening to me prattle outloud. This was a lotta help.

Happy 50th Post!!

Wow, I know it may not seem like a big landmark in the blogging world where some have posted for years, but....wow. I don't think if you took all the logs, journals & diaries I've attempted to keep & rolled them all up together they wouldn't make 50 posts, lol.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it. I hope you all had wonderful dinners & some memorable moments with whoever you shared the day with.


Anyway, I have to get back to the book, time's running short. I'm writing till the words start to swim because my afternoon's going to get blown via my Grandparents' annual 'oh god...what're we gonna do with all this stuff?! Come help up eat some of these leftovers!' annual leftovover purge, lol. It's the sequel to a nice meal & a little extra time with everybody, which is great, but not real conducive to adding words. So today, take a little time, have a nice turkey sandwich, then go write.

Does a looming deadline, rushing up to meet you help or hinder your writing?

SHERPAAAA!!!

Oh, bugger....this is a steep ascent! *sobs* Where's the sherpa to carry all my stuff?!? Oh well, I just hit 33,514 & my brain is so fried as I pretty much didn't sleep today (yeah....that was a good move, right?) But, I AM NOT GOING TO BED 'TIL I HIT 35K! *ggrrr!* Sorry to holler, that was really more for my benefit than yours, lol.

On the plus side, I have a little NaNo monitor/predictor thing on my Firefox which had been ticking happily along, well in the green for about half the month. Of late it'd switched to the glaring 'what have you been doing?!?' red & just now I finally hauled it back into the 'c'mon, pick up the pace, you're nearly there!' brown again. Go me.

On one hand the book is getting kind of exciting; the chapters are filling out of their own accord, gone are the intro & just light running around days & now I'm into the more substantial complete the mission, use the clues, solve the puzzle stuff. It's fun & I like seeing how things shake out. The only drawback is, all that takes a bit more thought & planning & while the momentum is faster, the process itself is slowing up a bit with the new influx of more complex details.

Still...35 is just around the corner & from there 50 isn't far off...not really. So, I'm off to do another sprint or two...or five or however many it takes to drag my beleaguered brain over the 35k mark. See ya tomorrow.

Oh & a quick hello to my newest follower. Hello! *waves* Thanks for stopping by.

WOOHOO! 30k! Onto the summit!!

Just a quick note to say hey, 'Hey!' & let you know I just passed 30k a bit ago. Woohoo! I know that means I still have 20k left, which sounds undoable in the less than a week remaining, but, if you don't say 'I have to write a whole 'nother twenty thousand words!?!' & instead go 'huh, that's like 4 k a day, I'm averaging 7-800 per half hour sprint...yeah, that's not so bad. Couple sprints in the morning, one or two in the afternoon, a couple more to finish the day & I can knock that out, easy!'.

In other news, there's a few things I've noticed as this wears on: one, fights (as in arguments. Physical confrontations, in my experience, have an opposite effect) go by really, really fast! And two, the more I write on this, the longer each chapter gets, lol. When i started & broke the coterie into pairs, each revisiting of a pair was a chapter &, just as it worked out, each chapter was only a couple pages long. Now though, the scenes feel like they're just stretching farther & farther. I'm not complaining about the phenomena, lol, just noticing.

Ok, it's back to my saltmin-...eh....Novel.

I'm going, I'm going

Alright, it took a li'l it to get started, a bit more so than I'd planned even, but I'm writing again. Ya know, one of these days after I'm finished & have, at the very least run spellcheck, I'll post a few bits from the novel. For the time being, my friend Gypsy is the only one reading it. She also NaNos so she doesn't mind the mess quite so much. For her I'll just say this: that thing with the jukebox...? *nods* Based on an actual even. No, seriously. I was there when it happened. Lol, that should drive her sufficiently nuts for a bit as I'm still writing the scene in question & she won't see it 'til it's posted later today.

I'd also like to give a quick Hello! to my new 'followers'. Thanks for stopping by. Also, I haven't done Word of the Day for a few days because the friend that asked for one originally finished her novel the other day, wahoo! But, just for fun & in honor of her oldest boy, I'll give you one last. Today's word is: birthday!

Ok, back in a while, hopefully hauling a fatty wordcount behind me.

A 10k Weekend

On the NaNo site, one of the places I frequent in the Writers' Groups forum is the Cauldron Cafe. One of the other Cafers suggested having a 10k weekend & I'm gonna try for it. An extra 10k from where I am now would put me almost on schedule again. Anybody else interested?

What's the most you've been able to add to your novel in a single block? Mine's about 6k, I had a 6k day this year & felt both exhausted & at the same time, pretty spectacular afterwards, lol.

Oh! Also, I had an idea last night. One of the recent Pep Talks mentioned that if you're stuck you should do whatever will cause the most trouble for your chars & I'm taking that advice to heart. I've had a little sideline scene I've been trying to place & it hit me that now, I have a home for it. One of my pairs of characters are done with their leg of the quest while the other two are still only halfway through. I've been cycling through each pairing & was a complete loss as to what to do once I got back to Bram & Gus, as they're cooling their heels back at the diner again. This is where the twist I'd been holding on to comes in. I'd been planning to have an alligator tattooed guy heist the diner at some point, I just didn't know when. Well, I think now's the time. What's more, I think he's gonna snake the map Bram & Gus just brought back.

That should make things interesting as the map in question shows the location of all the gods left on Earth. And, with that map, Gus, Bram & all the rest were going to be able to suss out the next target for death/disappearance, but now they'll have to decide to go after the thief or wait around & see where the 'destroyer' hits next. Either road has some pretty decent potential.

A Bit of Progress

Well, I didn't hit 30k, but I did add to my count. Atm, I'm at 27069. I'll say more & more to the count after I get home & grab a bitta sleep.

Yep, still writing

Ok, I'm still going! Oh & cuz she just crossed the 50k threshold today, gotta give a shout out to Silke! *applauds* I knew you could do it!!

Just logged about 400 new words & I thought I pop in for a sec. I want to hit 30k tonight. Last night was fun & I was half tempted to keep running with the scene I was in, but it was time to check in on one of the other groups. Last night was also interesting because it's the closest in some ways to my actual life. In it we discover that Zhi & Josh have a long standing on again, off again thing. I have someone like that in my RL; a guy that's been anything from friend on, who there've been times I spent all my time with him & others I haven't spoken to him in years. There are days, tho' not nearly as many as there used to be, lol, that I wish things were different & we could be together, tho' I know that once the initial excitement wore off, I'd be miserable again, lol. And there are days when I just wanna smack the crap outta him, LOL. That's kinda where Zhi & Josh are. I'm not certain just yet where they'll end up on the spectrum. I'm so accustomed to writing superheroes & spacemen & things wholly removed from my life, it was interesting pulling something real.

Ok, I'm gonna stop for an hour to grab some supper & Survivor time. I know, lol, it's dumb, but it's fun. Anyway, I'll see you later after I'm done for the night. Happy noveling!

Have you ever pulled a direct real life sorce into your writing? Tell us about it.

Twenty Five Thousand!!

I just cleared my target for the night of 25k! I'm gonna try for 30k by tomorrow, wish me luck.

In other news, a pair of my chars, I'd thought were a little sweet on each other, but now I'm not sure that's right. I think maybe they're more on again, off again, we keep trying to be together & we keep getting in our own way, I love you to pieces when I'm not too busy hating your guts kinda thing. It should be fun, lol. Is it terrible of me that some of my favorite scene have been watching a couple of my chars sit & snipe at each other? One pair they just butt heads all the time because one of them thinks he knows everything & the other is disinclined to put up with the first one's attitude & now this pair teetering between kissing & killing each other, lol.

Now I just have to figure out what they find, lol. The two gentlemen that squabble & snark all the time found a map, the two former (maybe future?) lovebirds are wandering around an old, hidden temple & the last pair found a rare statue that's going to have an incribed clue or a secret compartment, I'm just not sure which yet. And then, lol, they get to go back outside & deal with the great hullabaloo that a pretty graphic display of godly powers is causing. LOL.

Yeah....I know

So, you may have notice, I kidna vanished for a bit there. Sorry. I slammed into the Week Two wall & just could not seem to pry myself off the bricks for a few days. I dunno what the problem was, I just couldn't construct a sentence or figure a direction or anything recently. I've just been completely walloped by this writing malaise & as much as I've hated it, I couldn't seem to get out from under it. Apologies to those couple of you that've been reading this consistantly, I promise I'll try harder to suck it up in the future.

But, on the plus side, as peculiar & nebulous as my gloom, the sun comes again! I dunno & I'm not gonna examine it too hard, lol, but tonight, I WANT to write!! So, pardon as I cut this short. I'm @ 22k & change atm, think I can hit 15k before the night's out??

Today's word is: clarion

Word of the Day

Today's word is: hope. I need some. At the end of week one, I was a couple days ahead & was so excited, but last week....yowzah. My brain/story/ambition just stalled out on me. I've spent a fair bit of time the last few days working on game stuff cuz a) it reeeeeaaally needs done & b) 'oh, well the writing's just my stuff & the game stuff a buncha people need finished.'

It's a lousy reason, I realize, but there it is. Here's hoping Week Three picks up, a lot

*snaps* I forgot

Yesterday's word was: revolution. Sorry 'bout the delay.

Ouch...

That dull thus you may have heard a few days back was me running directly into the dreaded Second Week slump. It's a delightful little combo platter of 'Ok...now what?!?' with my plot & my brain deciding 'what? We're not technically behind until Thursday!' Last week I was so gunning for 20k, and the closer I got, the more & faster I wrote. Since then I've done just over 1,000.

So, let that be a lesson to you; setting a big goal in NaNo is great. Reaching it feels AWESOME! But, once you climb that mountain, don't get complacent, there's another peak right behind it, so pick up you pack & move!


What's your best tip for unblocking/keeping momentum?

And the Question is....

Did anybody see Jeopardy yesterday? They're running their annual Teen Tournament atm. One of the kids does NaNo, how cool is that? Actually, I'm kinda surprised they don't get more people on there that do. Anyway, she was ahead most of the game, but got the final wrong. Still, as it's a tournament, there's still a chance for a Wild Card slot. So, Sarah, wherever you are, good show, kid. I hope you make it through the next round.

Today's word is: luminescent.

New Day, New Chapter

Yesterday was a bit of a mess, I realize. Sorry 'bout that. If you listen very, very closely when reading yesterday's last you'll realize that there's a clanging fading into the distance. That clang you hear is me deciding on something big & then running full tilt at the stretch of faultless adamantium that is the rest of reality.

I decided, I ran, I bounced off that wall hard enough to make even Wolverine's head spin for a moment or two. And, in that moment or two, dazed & spinning & half deaf from the fresh clanging reverberating in my ears...I went a li'l bats for a few. And then, I wrote about it. I promise, I shall endeavor to keep my meltdowns to a bare minimum, lol, unless they'd just make really good reading & then you may get them anyhow.

So, back to work. The last few days have made progress on the novel, though it's been slow. In the last three days I've written no more than 500 words a day on it. I'm not too upset as it's not a complete stall, but I'm not thrilled either. I'm trying to make a point of writing at least something every day. If it's 200 words instead of 2000, well at least it's 200 more than had been there before.

I think I'm also giving up my word counter. Lol, to allay all the 'no!, you can't do that!' I just heard from the room (along with a few snarky 'well, that'd be pretty stupid!') let me explain. I don't mean entirely, I just mean I'm taking it off the toolbar & leaving back where I have to actually go get it. That way, I hope, I won't be so tempted to hit it every other paragraph.

Word counting every other paragraph; rather that at the end of a session/the end of the day, may sound helpful, but to me it isn't. You type away & it feels like you've been going forever because this bit is just flying or that one drags so long. And then, all excited & knowing you've written acres of words, you check you count & find...yeah, not so much. Your mind (and sometimes your fingers) felt like you'd just put miles behind you until that little total popped up to burst your bubble. So, give
the count a rest for a bit. It'll be waiting for you at the end of the day.

Today's word is: sanguine.


Ever had a writing meltdown? What set yours off? Bad word count? RL messes? Chars that are screaming for a timeout? Conversely, any writing triumphs? Deciding to become a professional? Seeing your name in print? Just a really great bit of dialog? Let us know, we love stories here ;)