After a few days of stumbling, I feel like my NaNovel is back on track. Today I wrote more than I have in any other single day so far. And my characters are doing things, and growing a bit. The world is starting to coalesce. Its feeling good again.
I couldn’t do this without the support of friends and strangers. Thank you all!
Amusing (yet painful) Joystiq article for us over-30 gamers.
So another night when the words just refused to come. Every little thing was distracting me, then I’d sit down and just stare at the screen. Write a few words and drift off again.
I’ve decided that 8 hour meetings are not conducive to my writing. But the weekend is almost here and hopefully I’ll be able to put my nose to the grindstone and catch up.
I wanted to thank you folks who left such encouraging comments on my last post, by the way. I don’t think I would’ve even *tried* to write tonight if it hadn’t been for you.
No words today. I’m empty. Numb.
Tonight I got to invent an evil race. 🙂
You see, my novel is schlock fantasy. It has humans and elves and…when it came time to have a race of bad guys, I wanted to stay away from the tried and true orcs or goblins or what have you.
So far the race doesn’t have a name, but my characters refer to them as “Bead People” for reasons I shall leave unspoken for now.
My plot is finally starting to take off, although I fear the story will grow larger than 50,000 words can contain.
This feels really, really good.
Tip: I stopped listening to MP3’s and started tuning into Internet Radio, in my case Live365. With a continuous, virtually ad-free stream of ambiant music, its easy to just lose yourself in the words.
I wrote a good deal today, but I may do a bit more later so I’m not updating the word count yet.
This process, so far, has been almost entirely positive. I’m learning a lot about myself as a writer. For instance, I think I’m an outliner. Flying by the seat of my pants is proving difficult. It’s like I’m running a race but I don’t know where the finish line is, so I don’t know if I’m getting close or not.
I’m already looking forward to the end of NaNo because I’m going to try again, giving myself the time it takes to write a ‘real’ novel. I find myself, now, wishing I had more background on the world, wishing I had time to draw a map, or what have you. But I know that this is NaNo, and I need to keep forging ahead.
I’ve been downright reclusive this week, but that feels ok too.
And it isn’t like I don’t have help, because I do!.
(Actually, my friends have been incredibly supportive so far. Thank you all!)
I’d hoped to generate truckloads of words today, but I was just too tired to keep at it consistently. Tonight I’ll get to bed a lot earlier and hopefully can break my single day record tomorrow.
Although…on the other hand, to quote Michael Stackpole quoting someone else, “My wordbag is empty.”
Our intrepid heros finally got moving today, but now they’re stuck again. They’ve got an enemy to fight (fantasy, after all) but I’m not sure if I can make this a satisfying conflict, since the enemy is a creature that is intelligent but not really sentient.
Maybe I need a plot bunny!
A belated update… I submitted my word count and stuff just before midnight tonight.
I’m pleased with the wordcount, but not with the story. I’ve always read about how characters take on a life of their own and do things that you don’t expect them to do. Well I’m experiencing that now…except my characters refuse to get their arses in gear!!! They’re prone to navel-gazing rather than action.
Mind you, I’m not letting that get in my way. The goal was to write a 50,000 word novel in November. NOT to write a GOOD 50,000 word novel in November!!! This is my first NaNo so I’m just focused on finishing. Next year I’ll focus on trying to do something worth reading.
My super-double-secret goal, by the way, is to finish by Nov. 22. Why? Cuz that’s when the XBox 360 comes out!
So I’m doing things a bit differently tonight. I’m writing this update *before* I work on the novel. I have no idea how many words I’ll manage tonight.
Today was one of the worst days at work I’ve had in…jesus, a very long time. It was long, tiring, frustrating and in the end not very productive. I re-affirmed my boss’s opinion of me that I am a problem employee, which will lead to more angst down the road (of course when I’m unemployed I’ll have a lot more time for writing). Mind you, all I was doing was trying with every fiber of my being to prevent us from making what I felt in my soul was a disasterous mistake. I should take a cue from my fellow workers and just keep quiet, let the mistakes happen and then clean up the mess.
Anyway, on the way home I bought all the fixings for some kick-ass margaritas. Dinner is made and waiting in the fridge (a cold salad). Its 8:30 already so if I don’t write now, I never will.
Time to ignore the rumbling belly and the siren call of tequila, and get writing.
Hello lamp post, whatcha knowin?
Um, anyway. This whole NaNo thing is feeling do-able tonight. I had a nice writing session that felt really, really good. I got comfortably past my goal of 2000 words/day, but the important thing is that I really enjoyed myself.
I got the whole “flow” thing happening. It wuz teh roxx0rzz!!11!