I went over 50k, so I have to start over

I'm above 50k, and when my project editor told me I was at 50,260, the text editor said 49,967 while the nano validator said 49,885. So I wrote some more to get validated. I still have a little more of the story to tell, but it's winding down, which is key to finishing, I think. During the editing process, I'll add detail.

My writing is heavily movie and tv influenced, I think, so maybe I should think about making this a screenplay, because it's closer to that than a novel perhaps.

I'm at Anodyne right now, but last night I was writing at Riverview Cafe, and earlier yesterday I was at MayDay, where I've spent a lot of time this month. I've also been to Blue Moon, and Friday night I was at the Midtown Market. I've probably been to Dunn Bros. at least once. I seem to get more done if I leave the house.

I'll finish up in the next couple, and then move on to drama for a month, although it's occurred to me to write the next one right now when everything is fresh in my mind. We'll see.

almost done

I have no idea why I haven't posted here in five days. Anyway, I know how it's going to end, so now I sit down and write and it just pours out. It's pretty fun to write as fast as my fingers will type, which is way, way faster than last year. Again, the novel goes from light and comic to dark and serious and heavy. Oh, well. It will lead to a great third book in the series. Actually, this is a pivotal book, which will change my main character forever. Nice. the book took a big turn last night when I thought I knew how it was going to go, then inspiration hit, and I seized an opportunity which meant that the course of the story would change. You can't let that go, though. It's got big problems, yeah, but it's workable. I like it.

A good think to talk about tomorrow is the number of different places i've written this weekend and this month. I had zero words on Thanksgiving. I felt guilty, but tried to give myself permission, and it will turn out fine.

My writing is tortured, and that's ok.

I wrote almost 700 excruciating words yesterday. It wasn't a productive weekend until last night, when I was able to get through whatever else was going on. There was some very important football to be watched on Saturday, so I had to cut my writing session short. I got a call in the middle of it confronting me and ridiculing me for being in a coffee shop, so I left because my peer rep is everything to me. And apparently, my peers are not writers.

It's later in the month, and time to bring the book on home. I think I know where it's going to go, even if I don't know how, so that's comforting. I achieved my daily quota just in my morning session today, which is nice, but I'd rather finish before the last day AND the book will likely be more than 50k, since I'm almost at 40k and I'm jsut now halfway through the school year.

verily i say to you

I've been plunking along here. What I need to do after I finish this is create a bible for the universe in which this series is taking place. When you're writing in bits and pieces like I'm doing this month, you tend to forget what you've written earlier that day, much more what I wrote last year. So I'm pretty sure I have some consistency and continuity problems. It's a draft. Also, the universe is relatively big, so there are large parts that go long periods of time without getting any attention because it's not like i've mapped out this process or story.

although I think I'm best at writing amusing things, during these writing months this year and last year, my tendency has been to go dramatic. Some heavy stuff has happened and is going to happen. If I try to be amusing, I sometimes overreach and hit silly, which is what my first nanowrimo novel is. I've tried to tone down the silly in rewrite, but some central plot points are silly.

I was thinking about watching a show and just being amazed when you realize what some character is doing. I'll have to think of an example, but I probably won't and will never mention this phenomenon again.

midweek replacement

After a big weekend, I've had very little evening writing this week. Last night, I guess I could have written more, but I'm not feeling a lot of pressure to do so. Not when I'm writing 1000 words a morning five mornings a week religiously.

What I need to do is write a Bible for my series, because I can't keep track of all this myself.

advice.

Yesterday I only got my morning writing in, thanks to the confluence of a number of forces. If you want to finish Nanowrimo while working full time, I highly recommend doing 1000 words every morning before work.

the last subject line was a little joke

Well, I'm throwing in the towel after 2500 words today. I could force myself to keep going, but since I'm going to the show tonight ("I am a writer/a writer of fictions") I am going to allow myself a little downtime here. Plus, I'm following the "park on a downhill" rule, because even though I'm not feeling like writing right now, it's not because I don't know what comes next. It will be easy to jump right in tomorrow morning.

The personalities of some of my adult characters are not consistent. I noticed this in a character today, and made him drunk to explain the discrepancy. I am a Master.

Utter failure.

I didn't get 4000 words yesterday, but I did really well and only came up 250 words short. I wasn't sad I didn't get my goal. I'm at 2000 today, with plans for another 2000 later on.

Yesterday a minor character did something surprising to me, and so now I have to deal with that. It's likely to change the entire course of the book, and possibly the entire series. maybe that sounds pretentious, that my characters are operating with minds of their own, but that's what happens, and mine operate with soap opera sensibilities, so although they haven't gotten into things like affairs and sleeping around yet, we have other hot button issues that could happen to a kid on Melrose Place. Which is now out on DVD.

The plan is coming together.

I made a plan today to make 4000 words.

1. Get up in the morning, go to coffee shop.
2. Drink coffee while writing 1000 words.
3. Take break on internets.
4. Write 1000 words.
5. Leave coffee shop, eat lunch, watch TV, rake leaves, clean up squalid hellhole house.
6. Go to different coffee shop.
7. Repeat steps 2-4.

I am in between steps 4 and 5, so well on my way. I will repeat this plan tomorrow, for an 8000 word weekend. Or die trying. The key so far was to cut off step 3, because that could have gone on too long. The internets will still be there when you're done with step 4.

Just like last year, my novel is shaping up to be way longer than 50k.

Big Thursday

Yesterday was my biggest word count day yet, although I'm still way behind last year's pace.

Yesterday's post seemed like the most interesting one I've written in this space, where there were some specifics instead of a general complaining about writing being hard or some such generality. The bar is low for this blog. It's mostly here for my venting and so that your blog can feel good by a downward social comparison.

names

After coming up with two important names that are supposed to be unique for the names of the two towns in my novels, I finally googled them today and found that one of the names is common in World of Warcraft for some reason, and the other is actually a town in Minnesota! So my fictional Minnesota town is a real Minnesota town. Oops. Plus, the real town is located in the same county where my grandparents live, so it seems likely that the name came from my subconscious. This same thing happened when I took creative writing in college. I named a character "Todd Huth," thinking that Todd would be a good name, and took the name Huth from neighbors I had growing up. Well, as two classmates pointed out to me (in a congratulatory way, not critical), Todd Huth is a recurring character in Primus songs. Primus was my favorite band for a long time. I did not make the connection until they pointed it out, and then you don't sound credible when you call the connection unintentional. What does this say about prominent plagiarism cases?

still waiting for my big break

Writing is hard. If it weren't for this deadline, I would have skipped writing so many times. I would have quit early way more often than I have. Once I get on a roll, then I find it easy to keep going and keep setting higher and higher goals for the session. Sometimes you never find the roll, though, which is one reason why I only wrote 1000 words on Saturday, when I had the day off. The other reason is that it's really hard to get started.

The book is plodding along. There are way too many threads for me to keep track of. You can only really write about one at a time, and therefore, I think a lot are being neglected. I also have an adolescent female protagonist who I'm writing about in the first person with adolescent female friends, and so not only am I not writing what i know, I'm really trying to avoid sounding like a freak. consequently, teh boring.

Overall, I still like the project, and I had another layer to the big puzzle come to me last night. So that's a plus.

a slight improvement

A 1100+ morning. In 45 minutes. That's some productivity. I woke up a little more hopeful today. Even though it's been boring so far, I have control. I can make it fun. It's just that this sequel is more ambitious than just making up a new novel, and I feel like I suck as I try to create this story. It might seem easier at first because you have established characters, but now we have continuity problems when I don't remember the details of last year's novel. I reread it before this year, but not enough. Uff.

what did I say?

I said that I'd meet quota yesterday. I did not. A social opportunity arose, and I took it. I more than made up for my missed words today, though, although there's never really making up of lost days. I could have done what I did today and done well yesterday.

A bigger problem than word count is that what I'm writing is excruciatingly boring. I don't know what's the difference, but man, this had better take off, or else I'll be in a world of hurt as a try to plunk out a clunker. Also, I'm trying to keep writing, so some of the grammar has been completely tortured. The editing process will be formidable.

I've gotten into the main part of the story, but just barely. Nothing has happened yet, and I don't know what's going to happen. This could be a problem. I imagine in the editing phase, much of what I've written so far will be completely axed.

I am at 10k, though.

oh, yeah.

crap.

all that bluster I made about how easy this is kind of missed the point. No, it doesn't take 8 hours of writing a day, but you've got to do this on top of everything else you're doing, and you can't just do it for one day. So I'm properly abashed.

Today didn't go well. I could still salvage it, and I won't finish below quota, but what a waste.

Productivity!

I got a lot done this morning and left Caribou in high spirits. I was accused by students of being "really hyper." It was a 1000 word morning, so that's good. Yesterday was not. I'm starting this novel with a side story, I now that I've started it, it's not going anywhere and i really want to get into the main story. But I'm getting my main character a dog.

Day One

I made a respectable word count today, big enough to take advantage of a day when I have a lot of time to work on it. Tomorrow I won't be able to take 90 minutes in the evening, plus dinking around and procrastinating time.

It's different working on a sequel. I don't really know what I'm supposed to be doing, so I'm recapping a little bit from the last novel including recapping parts I haven't written into the first one yet. So the action of the second novel hasn't gotten underway. I suppose I shouldn't wait too long if I want to finish this month.

I was imagining a month of zero free time, which means I must have forgotten last year. People talk about what a daunting task 50K in 30 days is, but a lot of those people probably have, like, kids. I don't think it will be that difficult if I stay healthy and don't fill up my schedule.

on pace.

I made over 1000 words in this morning's coffee shop session, which is what I did last year which really, really helped. If I can write 1000 words in the morning, it takes so much pressure off in the evening, when I'm fatigued anyway. I'll shoot for 1000-some in the evenings, too, and then this will be a painless process.

Ready, go! No more set.

I applied my nanowrimo tattoo last night. So now it's official. I have only the merest semblance of an idea of how this year's novel will shape up. But I think that's in the spirit of both nanowrimo and Stephen King's philosophy, where the characters drive the story. It's time to get going. Woot!