I still have no idea where my plot is going, which is a bit of a challenge, and laugh at the idea that there's something called chapters in this thing. I just don't quite write that way yet. They will break naturally into chapters eventually, but right now it's all one big lump.

I'm trying to keep other mid-grade fiction works in mind (I'm aiming for that 5th-8th grade level, ala Chasing Vermeer and Peter and the Starcatchers) so I can keep the writing style simple and direct enough. In a way, that makes it easier, in another way that makes it harder.

We'll see how tomorrow goes. Have to vote, maybe go see friends (they may get put off in service of meeting my nano goals) and do a big work meeting (living in fear that there'll be 2+ hrs of work in my inbox in the morning meaning I can't do any of those things in the AM.) Sigh. Tiring week.

Today was a rougher day for me in the writing world. Not only did real life keep intruding, but I wasn't sure what I really wanted to say. I'd been mulling over the first chapter for such a long time that I didn't have to think about it much, but the second chapter was very fuzzy. However--if I sit at the computer and start typing, the words will meld themselves into a story. THAT is the great lesson of Nanowrimo.

You know how I said in an earlier post about splitting the daily amount into sixteen blocks of one hundred words? So, as I was at home yesterday, I decided to crank it up a little, and do sixteen blocks of three hundred words, starting at eight a.m., ending at midnight. The net result was: Sixteen blocks of three hundred words plus 1,972 extra words, giving my a total word count for the day of 6,428 words.

All that plus the usual daily stuff, plus being witness to a traffic accident litterally inches in front of me, becoming irate on the phone because the superstore wants to keep my son's almost new computer for two weeks, just to find out something I ready know; it's broken. Freaking out over a HUGE spider in my living room, and thinking, around nine p.m., that my head was going to explode.

Believe me, I am never doing that again.

For the rest of the week, I'm working now until friday, I'm settling for a nice and easy 1,000 words a day.

Two issues are hampering my progress, other than my inability to let BS remain on screen. Firstly, I know little about the setting. The story starts in colonial Pennsylvania and remains in the area while progressing to modern day. I've only been to Pennsylvania once. Secondly, I've realized the story is about sex and death... Worse, my husband joked that I'm writing alien smut. I'm now wondering what's wrong with my subconscious.

If anytime during this month you need a break and want to discuss 19th century rural Pennsylvanian life, please email me. I would also love external reminders that I said I would not attempt to publish the story and so should not worry about how it reflects on me as a person or writer.

I haven't been able to jump around in the timeline like some people suggest. But I have been able to turn off my internal editor, or at least mostly.

I think I'm going to go back tomorrow and work on my outline a bit more. Since I'm a bit ahead of where I thought I would be at this point.

I'm worried that the week of Thanksgiving is going to throw a wrench into all of this. I just found out that we are hosting all of my in-laws. That's going to mean 15+ people for Turkey and that's just the relatives, will probably pick up a few more stragglers. We do every year. It's not that I mind, I like having people in the house, but it will make writing hard that week.

Has anyone thought about strategies for Thanksgiving?

As for Thanksgiving, my not-so-well-thought-out-plan is to dictate into my cheap mp3 player during my 10 hour drive and then type it out like a mad woman when I get home. I am almost hoping I can reach a point where I can skip this plan for something better.

LAJD & darklight - you guys are really dumping it out there! I'm jealous! Good job!

About Pennsylvania--I'm sure you could find some experts if you ask in the open discussions section. I've got relatives there, so I've been there many times. I'm not sure if I'm an expert, but if you have any questions, I'll have an answer(no guarantee that it's the right answer of course.

Sadly, I'm not an expert on alien smut, so you're on your own with that one.

LAJD: This week has been crazy hectic for me. Thanksgiving should be much calmer. My rule for this week has been that I stay up late and get at least 1300 words written, no matter how long it takes me. Sometimes I just want to cry at the thought of doing it, but as soon as I start I remember that writing is the FUN PART of life. So my advice is: force yourself to write even if you don't really feel like it. It'll be the best part of the week.

Melanie

Leave in the old one. Use your word processor's "strikethrough" feature to mark the text for deletion. Your word counter will still count the words. After all, you did write them during National Novel Writing Month, you're entitled to claim them, even if you never want to see them again.

Remember, it's all about getting words on the page. I don't look back at what I've written much except to figure out if I've said X about something before or to look up the name I came up with for something. I also then try to copy that stuff to a list i have at the front of the document that's the basics for the world I've created. That actually adds to my word count over the days, so I have a two part word counting spreadsheet. One half I enter what I can tell I wrote (from where I left off last time to where I left off this time) and the other is where I just put in how many words my word processor claims the document has.

Meanwhile, I'm only at 7400 words which is a little behind. I'm finding it really slow going this year and I know it's because i did virtually no prep work. As soon as my day job slows down enough that I can breathe and not be so panicked about getting my word count in, I will go back and do some more brainstorming for scenes and conflicts. It'll help me keep from staring off into space as I wonder what will happen next or wonder if there's any way I can possibly escape this scene without barfing on it.

And in other news, I have already had the opportunity to use some of the Hatrack Utility Belt's Handwavium Pellets (tm) - fantastic for filling in those places that you know require research but you'll never get your word count in if you stop to research. So I sprinkled some on a first aid situation and poof! I'll deal with that later!

Don't let my word count fool any of you. Even though I'm doing okay -- far better than last year's "loss" (I may have an odd-year NaNo Curse!) -- I'm still having a devil of a time of it.

My excerpt is posted. I have no idea where some of that came from. My muses delivered it more or less that way. But that character in the excerpt -- what a stage hog! I can't get him to shut up to make room for anyone else. He's not even the MC.

(Make me explain some other time why his stallion -- a male horse -- has a female persona within it that seems to reside also within Sethuur's head. Truth is, I'm not yet sure. Just kind of came that way and I'm running with it for now.)

I started out with a beginning and an ending, and I had a decent idea about what would go in the middle to drag the two together into a novel, but my characters aren't giving me their full cooperation yet. Things are slipping slightly askew in a few places and may require much editing later.

But the words are coming -- maybe not super easily, but they are coming -- and I'm just going to have to tuck my chin to my chest and blunder on.

Oh, yeah, that's kind of the idea in the first place, huh?

I guess persistence is the key though. Hopefully a few hundred will become a few thousand without too much more effort. Keep it up, girl!

I finally got some time to work on my novel during the day! I had an hour an a half before my son needed to be picked up at preschool, so I went to a nearby library and wrote the whole time--with only one foray into a calvin and hobbes book. I was really picking up steam, and I looked at the clock and I was 10 minutes late! Yikes.

annepin, couldn't you write one little word? That's how books are written, you know.

I was trying to think of something we could do to boost our word totals. We can't really do a one hour challenge, because we're not all on-line at the same time. I think we could all use an energy boost. Does anyone have any ideas?

edited to say: Sorry. It's been a particularly long day, and I'm in a pretty goofy mood.

You are catching up with me, if that makes you feel any better. Will you be able to work on it during the week? or is work just too brutal?

I had to take a few days off to finish up some other major projects and then to recover. I'm hoping my kids will give me a while to write today (no school...) I can dream can't I?

I'm home alone tomorrow and am going to give myself another mini challenge, though nothing as severe as last Tuesday. Then I'm home from Firday to next Wednesday so hope to get another big chunk written.

Anyhow, I've just put my MC in peril, and he has a dangerous time ahead of him. I'm hoping that will perk me up a bit.

It sounds like most of us are still plugging along. Tomorrow I really need to figure out the specifics about the next few scenes so that I don't stare blindly at the screen like I did today (until I decided to skip ahead).

Meanwhile, my personal writing hell for the day is that my characters' only reactions to one another seems to be to laugh. Uh, really? That's the best I can come up with. Pathetic! If anyone wants to suggest some alternatives I'd be forever in your debt.

What other stupid things do you find yourself doing in your WIPs? Last year I figured out at some point that I was always having my MC notice things, instead of just writing them. I write third limited, deep immersion POV, but that doesn't mean that every thing that happens in the world has to be expressed through the MC noticing or seeing or sensing things. I can say "The wall was white" instead of "MC noticed that the wall was white." Oh boy, that was a mess!

I wrote 1,104 words in one hour, and yes, probably much of it needs to be deleted, but I actually had fun. If I can write this many words in an hour, I might be able to salvage this contest. I was feeling mightily discouraged, but now I'm pumped! That puts me at 11,916 words. I am sure I can get past the 12,000 mark before I go to bed. Tomorrow's goal is 2,500 words.

There really is some magic in turning off your inner editor. Now, if she'll just stay off until I catch back up.
Melanie

I did very little planning before Nano started, and this is my first one, so I have nothing to compare with. In the future, I might plan more. But what I like about this approach is knowing since I had very little to go on at the start, I am not as picky about how things have to be. My writing is crap and I know it. I am happier with certain story elements I am coming up with on the fly than I am the writing.

I have probably used the word "that" an astronomical number of times. "Already" has found its way in there quite a bit too, or at least I was noticing it a lot tonight. My MC is a clutz. I think he got knocked out three times and fell down twice in the first three pages. I will fix that - in December.

im sure when i learn about POV, true character development, adverbs, cliches, and all the other "good writer" stuff, i'll cringe and hide under my computer desk. but for right now, who cares.....

yesterday i only had an hour to work before i collapsed, but i did get in around 1000 words. i plan to make up some of my word count today.

in the back of my mind i sincerely hope that there is some quantity of salvageable stuff in what im writing.

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im sure when i learn about POV, true character development, adverbs, cliches, and all the other "good writer" stuff, i'll cringe and hide under my computer desk. but for right now, who cares.....

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That was the beauty of last night. I made myself ignore all that stuff and just write, and to my liberating surprise, it wasn't half bad. I may be telling parts of the story that I'll cut out later, but at least they're getting on paper, and out of my head.

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just so you know, my inner editor is in Tahiti.

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I am at a point in my story that my characters have to go on a journey, about eighty miles, by foot. But nothing really happens on the journey, it's what happens when they get there that matters. Can I just skip the journey and go to when they or arive, or do I need a paragraph or two about the journey?

I know it doesn't really matter because its NaNo, but until I get over this, I'm stuck and can't take the story forward.

A few thousand words ago, I thought I wasn't going to have enough material to complete the story, now I don't know how I'm going to fit it all in. I realise with this, the story doesn't have to be complete, just have to have 50,000 words written, but if I don't finish the story, I probably wouldn't for a long time, if at all.

Louise (31,000 words in and ready to collapse. I need to sleep!). And need to learn how to spell.

"The journey was long and arduous, but nothing out of the ordinary happened. Josephina and Lornal found themselves at the foot of Mount Desolate 3 days later with considerably lighter packs and downcast attitudes."

I had a couple of slow days, but I am back now and rolling.....I have had a serious lack of inspiration and then I looked up and saw a bunch of crows rattling away in the trees and realized that they were in the story and were spies....

8)

Really, just high on life...

Leslie

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behind where I want to be, but still ahead of where I thought I was going to be.

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