On quota so far

I'm exhausted so I'll keep it short.

A late night sprint with other NaNo folks on Twitter kept me right on track. I'm currently at 30,022. Yes I'm a little behind for my 100k goal, but there is plenty of time to make up for it.

Icarus is going, but if I only had more time I could write more. Perhaps I'll make up for it this weekend.

G'night.

The year may be over, but I'm not done yet.

So yeah...technically won NaNoFiMo at the required 30k, but my story isn't done yet. I'm so close that it's frustrating but time was not exactly on my side.

So I revise my goal as we enter this new year and make two new year resolutions:
1. I will finish my first draft by January 5th come hell or high water.
2. I will have a readable draft by April [as Penny and I have already agreed to trade].


Word count at the year end: 130,574
Chapters/scenes to go: 11

I can do this.



Happy New Years everyone!

WTF! Get back on track dammit!

So I've fallen off the writing bandwagon lately.

Reasons why?
1. Xmas gift making [still got more to do tonight]
2. Costume making [spats and such]
3. Trying to figure out the ending before I get there.

Of all the reasons, number three has my writing practically at a stand still. Like I've said before, it's because the end result is due to a series of events...and I want to plan them so that they make sense. But there are some that for the life of me I can't figure out.

So I'm stuck.

But I really need to get back in the game. I want to finish the damn thing before Jan 1st--hell--I want to finish it. Period.
Part of me says just write whatever ending comes to you and then fix it in post. While another part, the perfectionist, wants to know every last detail before I can write.

This is problematic. I need to solve this ASAP if I want to have this stuff written before I get home on Friday.

Help!

Word count: 114,481

Oh my...things are steaming up.

So a couple of things.

1. I reached 30k!
Not as nice as the desired 35k, but it still puts me in the lead, which is good because I have a feeling that this story will run about 80-100K and I'd like to pretty much finish by end of NaNo.

2. Olivia and Artemus are fogging up my goggles.
Yes indeed, it seems love is blossoming between the pair. I had not intended to get so romantic, but you know how characters like to do what they want. It's very clear to me that Olivia has a crush on Artemus, but I don't know if he feels the same way yet. You know how oblivious boys can be. :)

3. Excerpt of steamy goodness!
After all that writing, I figure I should share some of it. Not much editing was done, so be gentle. Anyway, here it is:

Olivia did not feel fine as she found herself alone and clinging to a bit of railing numerous miles above the ground below. In fact, all she could think about how and when she might fall out of the airship and tumble to her death.
You won't fall out. She thought to herself as she stared at her hands instead of the view below. People don't fall out of airships.
This thought would have been comforting if she did not remember that she had, in fact, fallen out of one herself. And that her falling out of an airship was the very reason she was standing on that balcony this very moment. The girl suddenly felt a knot tighten in her chest, making it incredibly hard to breathe. So she closed her eyes.
"I promise you won't fall." A voice said in her ear and she opened her eyes. Another set of hands rested upon her own, which had relaxed their death grip on the railing a bit. Her heart beat began kicking up again, but not because she was afraid to fall. Her heart was responding, as it often did, to the presence of Artemus Doyle who was standing behind her.
"Artemus." She said softly, but did not turn to look at him.
“Just look down,” he said and reluctantly the girl did as she was told. She allowed her eyes to look away from the railing to the ground below. Below the airship was something that looked like an intricate design etched into the land. The circular form rippled outward and branched out with intricate twists and turns. At the edge of the pattern was a field of green and yellow.
“Is that the city?” She asked, turning to look at Artemus.
“Yes.” He smiled, his eyes unreadable behind his goggles. “That is your father’s design. He and the Orvilles built this city as a mecca for innovation. And the city itself is its own masterpiece.”
“It’s amazing.” She said, still looking at it in awe. Her fear of falling a distant memory.
“You see that structure over there?” He asked, pointing towards something in the distance. Olivia shook her head. “One second.” The boy took one of his hands off of hers and leaned forward, moving her body with him. Surprised, Olivia straightened her arms and stopped him from leaning forward any further.
Artemus laughed and he wrapped one of his arms around her waist.
“Still scared?” He whispered in her ear. Olivia’s heart fluttered. “I promised you that nothing will happen. Just trust me, for once.”
“Okay.” Olivia swallowed hard and relaxed her arms. Artemus leaned both of them forward slightly over the railing and pointed down to something that was much closer to their view.
“See that structure?” He asked again.
“Yes.” The girl could clearly see the large domed structure. Now that they were closer, she noticed that the roof was made of a prism of glass. Everything in the intricate pattern that mad up the city seemed to spill out from there.
“That is the heart of the city. The factory your father and the Orvilles started. It was once one of the most important places in this country.”
“And now?”
“Now it’s not doing so well.” George said as he approached the pair. He glanced down where they were looking and then back at the two of them. Olivia suddenly felt very conscious of how close she and Artemus were that moment.
“Oh, really?” She said, taking a step towards George and out of Artemus’ arms. She didn’t look behind her to see how her actions had affected her companion, if at all.
“Yes...” George said with a brief glance over in Artemus’ direction. “Was I interrupting anything?”
“No.” Artemus said, his voice blank.
“Artemus was showing me the city,” Olivia said, turning back to look at Artemus, who was still looking down at the city below. She gently touched his shoulder, but didn’t get a response. So she placed her hands on the railing next to him and then turned back to address George.
“So what happened to the factory?”

Plots fall apart...[or why character goals are important]

On the third day of NaNo, I wrote absolutely nothing.

Yep, nothing.

Fear not, I am not quitting NaNo, I just ran into a major issue that needed to be tackled before I could write anything else. That major problem being that my MC/Protagonist did not have her own goal. Sure she took on the goals of others as they came, but nothing was driving her. And as any good writer/writing book will tell you, the MC needs a goal or what's the point?

So I spent most of today trying to figure it all out and I have decided this:
My MC/Protagonist's father has gone missing and she has to find him/save him.

This opens a can of worms, so I still have a bit of replotting to do. Some characters can be salvaged, but a lot of them will probably be recast or dumped.


I've got a catching up to do.
Hope I don't have anything to do at work tomorrow.

I'm exhausted...

I was going to write tonight, but I think I may just hit the sack early and write in the morning.

Why? Because I didn't really get to eat dinner at a reasonable time, so I am feeling semi ill. Plus I'm already past 50,000 words so I can relax a bit. Grr...

So I read this website of a person who is completely against Nanowrimo because it means a plethora of crappy novels by wannabe authors. I see what they sort of mean, but for some of the participants Nanowrimo is a catalyst. As it was for me.

I have always wanted to be a writer and wrote a lot of short stories when I was young. I even used to check out the Writer's Marketplace book and study all the publishers listed. When I got older, I had less time to write, but I was never short of ideas for novels. But I never wrote anything that was a full length novel--ever. I sort of thought it wasn't possible for me as I tend to not always finish things.

But Nanowrimo has rekindled my love of creating characters. Although I first thought of this story as just fluff for this challenge, I've become engrossed in it--to the point that I want to write more--a sequel even!

My one goal for the rest of this year and the next is to finish my novel. Edit and beta test it [friends you'll be doing some reading for me] and maybe...just maybe try to get it published. I may also start writing short stories again to submit to magazines.

Lordy lordy...I have a new hobby [sort of]. So that makes what...5? Writing, photography, costume design, comics and cooking.

Well at least I'll be busy. Maybe I can write 6,000 words tomorrow. We'll see.

Try and try again.

Today I tried for the big 50,000. I tried my best but only managed to write about 5,000 words. It was a lot of work, but it's going pretty well.

I would have reached 50,000 if I had written 45,000 the day before. Oh well.

So tomorrow I will go for 50,000 again--maybe even 52,000.

Where am I in the story? About #6 if you check one of my previous posts. They're currently being attacked by zombie as two kids try to steal the stone. Othena is watching them from afar, planning to swoop in after the zombies have killed the bounty hunters.

Woot.

I think I would be able to write much faster if I had planned out every scene down to the description. Despite all my efforts, descriptions just keep stumping me. Just need to plan out each scene as I go along and hope for the best. I can always just go back and edit. [But that's the plan for next year.]

I'm nearly a winner, but still so much to write after that.

So tired.

Turkey day means write your heart out.

So my goal for today was 40,000 which I didn't make but I came super close at 39,283.

Cooking took away a bit of my time and I got stumped for a while with some descriptions. I need to learn to just keep writing and not get blocked like that, but hey I try. [Maybe next year when I do massive pre-planning and don't change my plot last minute all those little things will come to me easier.]

Woot!

Thanskgiving was nice and delicious--but a lot of cooking I get all tomorrow to myself for writing but I need to turn in a bit of homework first.

So tomorrow's goal is 45,000 or more. We'll see how that goes.

Good night folks.

Back on Track

So on November 2nd I wrote up a contract for myself, which outlined daily quotas along with prizes and punishments, which included:

1 piece of candy for every 1,000 words written.
1 chapter of any book for every daily goal met.
2 hours of WOW for exceeding my daily goal by 1,500 words.
Missing daily goals means no TV, gaming or book reading and time must be spend book planning or doing homework.

As I figured I was able to use today to make up for lost time.
Current word count [drum roll]: 5,261.

I have given my inner critic the boot except for his occasional advice on name and word choices. I only go back to embellish or add, but not to erase. I think I finally understand my characters and what they want. Hooray.

One minor change though. I created this character Cael who was to become Devii's new friend in Port Ryetto where she lives now. He was originally a kitchen boy--as in young. But somehow he blossomed into a 21 year old hottie who's the apprentice to what we would call a magician.

And on top of all this, he's becoming a possible love interest. That was not my intention for him, but he's made up his mind. He's even threatening to come on her adventure--we'll see. He could be handy.

Here's a little excerpt about him:

She glanced over at Cael who had not budged from his position. In fact he had been watching her. When their eyes met, he quickly looked away and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his dark brown pants.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said, but still didn’t meet her eyes. Instead he picked up a watermelon and studied its markings. She walked over and stood in front of him. He looked down at her. Cael was at least five inches taller than her. A smile budded across his boyish face and he removed the hat from his head. Nervously he clutched the brown patterned cap against his matching vest.
“I wanted to talk to you.” He finally said, his voice wavering uneasily. Devii looked at him nervously. She knew what he wanted to talk about.

I'm making progress...slowly

So today I sort of "restarted" and what little 281 words I had written has been replaced with a decent 1731. I would write more but I was thwarted again today by life.

a)Homework
b)Meeting with partners about homework
c)Being so damn tired from all the meetings/homework
d)Phone call from friend that lasted too long

So my plan to start writing at 6pm turned into a writing at 10pm. And I still have homework to do. I wrote a contract and based on it I should be punishing myself, but I did well on daily standards. I just need time to make up the 1,666 I didn't write on Thursday.

Saturday I just have one class until 1pm. So after that it's a major writing session.

Sigh.

So my story opening lines:

“What’s that?” a voice asked.
Devii Fahrit looked down, in the direction of the voice, to where a dark haired girl stood on the ground. From her perch in the sturdy branches of an owari tree she could see that she had her slender arm pointed towards something on the horizon. Devii shifted uncomfortably against the tree’s rough green branches to get a better look. Something black and shiny glided quickly and effortlessly across the sand, leaving clouds of dust in its wake.

It's coming along.