October is here, and that means the NaNoWriMo site has been swept out and re-opened for business! Can’t you feel the energy in the air? Thousands of writers and wannabe writers, sharpening their metaphorical pencils and getting ready to put noses to grindstones in order to bang out a novel in a month.

I have *no* idea what I’m going to write this year, though. Honestly last year’s novel is still bouncing around inside me head though I haven’t touched it since last December.

I have time to come up with a plot, though… but not infinite time…

So a week ago right about now I finished the first draft of my NaNoWriMo novel. See my fancy badge over there? Yay me!

At the time it all felt rather underwhelming, honestly. Almost anti-climactic.

But since then, and you’ll think this is silly I have no doubt, but since then I’ve felt different. I see things, some of the time, with a different set of eyes. I read something in the paper or overhear people talking and I start imagining the events fit into one of my stories, usually with a twist.

Its cool. I don’t know how to keep this feeling, though, and I fear it’ll slip away. I guess I just have to keep on writing!

And so it comes to an end.

The last 5000 words were almost physically painful. I ran out of story before I ran out of words. In a real world setting, the difference between 48000 words and 50000 probably wouldn’t be that big a deal, but dammit I wanted 50000!

So I went back to the beginning and started editing/adding. But it felt like every time I added something, I cut another bit. Finally at 49,200 words I said ’screw it’ and went back and gave my main character and his love interest an explicit love scene.

If I were ever to try to make this into a sellable novel I’d clip that bit out since it doesn’t really fit in with the tone of the story, but then I’m sure in the course of editing the whole thing I’d make a lot of additions and changes and who knows where the word count would end up.

But I wanted to hit 50K today. I got out of bed, started writing, and aside from 1 or 2 very brief breaks, I’ve been sitting here every since (its almost 4 now). I just NEEDED to finish!

I wish I hadn’t had to go cheap with the sex scene, though. But oh well. I need to get up and stretch.

Did a lot of chores on the way home from work, so got a late start. And I still have some things to do around the house; basically I’m trying to get the weekend free for one last big push.

Still, I broke the 40K barrier. And, amazingly, I think I have just enough story left to carry my through to 50K.

I’m really going to do this, dammit. I’m fucking amazed…

Tonight wasn’t easy. First of all, I was exhausted when I got home so I laid down for a minute and the next thing I know it was 8 pm, so I started late. And I had a lot of distractions on my mind. Some pleasant, and some not. A friend of mine is having a tough time in her relationship right now and I’m a bit worried about her.

So the words came slowly. And then suddenly I was writing a relationship between two of my characters and finally the floodgates opened.

Which makes me wonder if it’d be possible to outline a book, identify the scenes I needed, and then choose a scene to work on based on my mood or what’s on my mind?

Not a lot of words tonight, but this time it was by design. My mid-week slack-off night.

After all, Lost is on!

I had a lot of things I wanted to do tonight, and figured I wouldn’t get much writing done. Still I sat down now and then, out of force of habit. The laptop say there beckoning to me.

And I ended up getting some words down. Sweet.

Hitting 50K is going to be trickier than I thought, though. When the story was ‘broken’ it was broken because there was no way I could fit that story into 5oK. But the fixed story is rushing towards ‘The End’ a bit too rapidly. I don’t want to hit the end before I hit 50k!!

These are pretty artificial problems, of course. NaNo problems. I’ll work it out. There’s no sex in the story yet. I could layer in 10k words of pr0n easily!!!

After the weekend I’d found I’d written myself into a corner. So tonight I spent some time plot-doctoring by throwing ideas around with a friend, then sketching out a rough outline for the rest of the novel.

So not a lot of words tonight, but I accomplished more than what is shown by the word count.

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!

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!