Am I insane? Yes. Will I make it to 50K? Hell yes.

This has probably been the craziest NaNo of all time for me. I started 7 days late with one story and then 20 days into it, decided to start another one. [Hey, those words count dammit, no matter what the end result is].

Yes, that's right, I'm no longer writing a story about the roaring 1890s. Now it's something more of a insane tale about a girl cursed to calamity if she leaves her home and a boy doomed to eventually blow up working together to find her brother who has been kidnapped by a robotic Pied Piper along with a slew of other children.

It's pretty crazy, but I'm loving it so far. I think I'll even try to finish it in NaNoFiMo and then polish it up during March.

Tonight I wrote 8k. And that's after a full day of work at the job (which is partly why I've gotten so damned far behind).

I earned some cheesecake and sleep.

Goodnight.

I was much further along this time last year...

So while I may have gained a brief lead, I've been swiftly falling behind. At the moment I am 15k+ behind the requirement. Thanksgiving proved to be much busier than planned and many other things keep getting in the way.

But I've started writing again today and I intend to catch up before this long weekend is over. Come hell or high-water, I'm hitting 50k on or before the end of the 30th.

Back to writing.

Quick check-in

Things are going fairly well so far.
I've been plotting out the novel's beginning and despite the changes, I might be able to salvage some of the originally written novel. Huzzah! Unfortunately I shall not be posting any plot outlines here for obvious reasons I'm sure other writers would understand.

Also, I've been doing some research by reading this simple little book called "Daily Life in Victorian England" by Sally Mitchell. It's my second choice to the first book I was trying to read "A writer's guide to Everyday Life in Regency and Victorian England" by Katherine Hughes. Unfortunately my leaving San Francisco required that I return the book. So it's next on my list as soon as PDX public libraries secure it for me.

Well that's all for now. Hopefully I'll start working on some character profiles in the next week or so. Those I plan to post.

Cheers.

Long time no post...

Not as long as most times, just forgot to write in the last week or so [my mind's been preoccupied].

Anywho...January is over. It was slightly productive, but not as productive as hoped. Still here's what I've done:
1. Read 3 books
2. Writing prompts [not as frequently as hoped]
3. Collected inspirational images
4. Wrote an incredibly long list of "what ifs" (for alternate plot ideas)
5. Came up with a few alternate plots


And I've learned a few things about my story...

Based on the original myth...the beginning of the myth (long before they flee the labyrinth)...Icarus' death is due to Daedalus' choices.
He was responsible for the Minotaur's existence, the labyrinth being built, the reason they were trapped inside and the method of escape. While my story is a more modern version, these facts hold true as well. The past plays a huge role and my MC will quickly learn how her father's actions deeply affected her life (at least by the end of the series).

The labyrinth and the Minotaur are as essential to this story as Icarus' fall
The more I think about it, I just don't think it will be a story based on the myths anymore if I dump those two factors. Not that I was going to, but for a little while I wondered if the first story needed to involve a labyrinth at all. But without it, the story seemed pretty paltry. So yeah...those motifs/elements not going anywhere.

I really need to define my villain, even if he/she is not in the first book.
Yeah...that good ol' villain wall again. I hit it. The first draft of my novel truly avoids the finer details of my antagonist and their motivations and I think it's pretty obvious (although I haven't read my novel in a month...so maybe not). So I need to figure out my villains, subvillains, bosses, etc. Otherwise, I'll end up BSing during the re-write, which is not good.

I need to define my world.
I was supposed to do this during January, but it was hard when I wasn't sure where the story was going. World building can sometimes be a "chicken or the egg" scenario as your world can define your characters, but your characters can also define your world. So I put it off until now and I finally think I'm ready.


So yeah...that's all for now. Back to planning.

What ifs rearing their ugly head as I near the end

So I'm making progress, in fact the final scene is just around the corner. Olivia has reunited with her father and all seems well [for now].

But despite my currently planned ending, part of me is coming up with different ending options [some which may be better than what I'm currently writing].
I know that part of this is my mind trying to stop me from finishing, but it's also rather useful suggestions that might be great to try out once I'm editing.

Nevertheless, I've been good. I just write the ideas down and keep focused on the ending I have. If I deviate now, I'll never finish before the end of Monday.

And I will.

Word count: 137,702
Scenes left: 6
Days left: 1

Getting there.

So the ugly scene is finally over! And it was a really long one. I am heading back to SF today, which means a day on the train. Hopefully I will spend that day writing the rest of the novel. But we'll see.

Days left: 2
Scenes left: 9
Words written: 133,292

I'll post once I get back into San Francisco, hopefully I'll have made a lot of progress.

Until then.

EDIT:
Back in San Francisco and finally able to type up my notes.
Word count: 136,546

A new year and more writing

So I've been diligently keeping to my plan to get this thing written by Jan 5th.

Current word count: 132,237

Still tackling that one behemoth of a scene, but for once it's moving along. Gonna be a really long scene when it's done. Anyway, I should be done with it soon enough and moving on to the next ones.

I'm doing it.

Tomorrow/today is gonna be crunch day.

Progress

I'm writing again...and as of tonight, I have technically won NaNoFiMo.

Before you celebrate, however, the reason I say technically is because I have yet to finish my novel, but I did write the expected 30k.

Still can't really win until the story is done. Until I type "the end" and slowly I'm getting closer.

Woot.

Now back to writing.




Word count: 120,905

He's her doppleganger...sort of.

So things are looking up a bit. I managed to get a bit of writing done today because I was stranded at work with nothing else to do [yes I had to work this Saturday--what of it?].

Didn't quite meet my goal of 109k, but I'm not about to shirk at 107,036 [only 2k behind]. Plus I'm incredibly sleep deprived and need my rest.

Update:
These past couple of words has brought Olivia to her doppelganger, a young man claiming to be Oliver Wells. Technically he's not her doppelganger as they're different genders, but the world thinks that Ollie was a boy, so when you consider that--he is.

I've been looking forward to Oliver's appearance quite a bit as he's got a villainous streak to him. When I first planned their encounter it was a really small moment, but now it's turned into something far more interesting. He's a con-man with some very valuable information, but he's also not someone to mess with. He will really give Olivia a run for her money for a little while. Which makes her big "I told you so" moment even more awesome. Squee!

Epic Fail and a Shamless Plug

So this week has been quite the bust. A migraine took me out for two days [putting me 7k behind] and last night I had a hard time staying awake.

So I'm pretty mad at myself right now. I'm also worried that I'm self sabotaging because I fear that I can't finish my story without it sounding like crap. Then I remind myself this is a rough rough draft and somehow I will make it up. That is what the weekend is for after all. So I will catch up again. It's not like I have much else that I need to do.

Word count: 98,151


AND NOW A SHAMELESS PLUG:
There are two books I purchased before NaNo. They were mentioned a couple of times on NaNo message boards so I decided to check them out. They were actually incredibly helpful and will probably be even more helpful once I start editing.

After mentioning them briefly to Penny and she asked me to post them, so here they are--

Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell
If you ever needed help structuring a plot, crafting a scene or even just starting your novel, this book has so many good tidbits. If it weren't for this book I probably would have still been working on my first plot, which was pretty lame.

Character & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card
Haven't read as much of this book, but I really like how they talk about narrative and character development. I'll be doing a lot of this after I finish, so I know that book will come in handy later.


Now unlike some folks *cough* Penny *cough* I still have a bit more writing to do before I can be finished. So I'm gonna get back on that and hopefully have a healthy word count by the end of the night.

Impostors

More research as I write...this time it's impostors and stolen identities.

Olivia is about to meet a man who claims to be her--well the male version of her: Oliver Wells.
I didn't put much thought into it when it first came up as a plot element, but as I'm about to write that scene it's sort of important to address. Which means learning more about why someone would pretend to be someone else. So off to Wikipedia where I found some very handy info.

There are quite a few reasons to impersonate someone: money, social standing, fresh start, hiding from the law or gain privileges specific to that person.

Option 1:
He does it for fraudulent reasons, so perhaps it's all a con sort of like Cassie Chadwick: who pretended to be a Andrew Carnegie's illegitimate child and gained access to a lot of big loans [that she never paid back].
Mind you, the Wells family is known for inventing...so unless he can invent--he's gonna have to run someday because people will figure it out. Perhaps he's a mechanic.

Option 2:
He does it for opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable to him [like funding].
No good examples of this that I've found so far, except for a similar situation in the anime Full Metal Alchemist. In the episode, the lead characters, who are brothers, meet another pair of brothers that are impersonating them so that they could be apart of an experiment. The intentions are selfish, but not meant to be slander or as part of a con job.
If he goes this route, he's going to be less of a threat--and less conflict overall. Olivia will also be more reluctant to reveal who he really is.


Verdict:
I think Option 1 is more exciting and allows for more conflict. He might actually be able to fix things and managed to pull it off for a while going the Frank Abagnale way of having other people do it for you. It will also not be as bad if Olivia reveals him, because he was tricking them anyway.

We'll see.

Mini-update

So despite the arrival of the boyfriend for holiday festivities, I have kept steady with my writing. In fact I've been waking up early just so I can get some writing done while he sleeps. Makes me feel less guilty that way.

As of this very moment I am at 70,822. But my story is still very far from being finished. I think I failed to realize how long this story has to be to tell all of it--phew!

Let's just say that my protagonist needs to be running away from her guardians with a valuable object for the latter half of the novel and she's still there. On the bright side I'm only a few scene away from her officially running off. So perhaps I will hit "action" territory before NaNo ends.

Still nervous though, because once she leaves for "action" land...I haven't a clue what it's really gonna be like.

Well back to work!

I am a winner...okay now go back to writing.

So this morning I hit the big 50,000. Hooray!

I celebrated briefly and quickly returned to writing. I might have had met the Nanowrimo goal, but I still have a lot of story to write before I'm finished. And I want it done before the Nov. 30th, but I won't be angry if I don't.

I reached 53,000 tonight, so that makes 6,000 total for the day. Go me.

I finally decided to give my characters a break: they got a little swim to clean up after fighting zombies. I mean if I was covered with gore I'd want a bath too.

They also picked up a new friend. She's a little blind girl named Ila. Her twin brother, who they are going to find is name Eli. Hehe...yes I'm a clever one when it came to naming. Ila is nearly Eli backwards...but Ile doesn't sound as nice for a girl.

These two kids have some nifty powers. Eli can produce forcefields and Ila can see through the eyes of others.

Progress check: I just finished with #8 and now I'm working on #9.


Time for bed.

Rock on!!!

So I didn't reach 45,000...I got 42,000.

But it's looking good so far. I fell behind because I had homework for one of my classes and it took up a bunch of my time [URG...so pissed about during the break homework].

Any who...except for a quick trip to Goodwill, I should be able to spend all day writing. So a goal like 50,000 might be within my reach.

Hooray!

Where are my characters now?
Devii has reunited with Cael in the forest and Silas isn't too happy about it because Cael seems to have a grudge against his kind.

Do I smell love triangle? Hrmmm?

Othena and Zavier are resting peacefully a few miles away. They'll soon find out Cael is missing when they wake up. Huzzah!

G'night folks.

Woot! I made it!

10,131 words baby!

Last Nano I failed at 6k, mostly due to an overly controlling inner critic, lack of organization and a very vague but overly complicated plot.

I can't believe I made it. Yes it's 5am, but I did what I sought to do--catch back up and get the plot working for me again.

There was a tiny roadblock in there for a while. My muse suggested some crazy plot where my MC and her best friend were doing a magic show to earn money so she could runaway. And another idea where she is forced to use her magic to impersonate people or torture them by making bugs crawl on them or some other creepy illusion.

None of this had to do with my main goal for the first part of the book:
GET MC TO FIND MAN BEING HELD HOSTAGE BY HER TRUSTED TEACHER.

Of course the BF [my official novel reality checker] helped to set me straight. I dumped the plots and made the "secret thing they were doing last night" something that related directly to the overall plot. It took some minor rewording in earlier parts of the text, but I'm much happier with the way the story is going now.

Huzzah!

Now bed.

Into the wee hours

I figured out a lot of things last night. Just need to write them down.

I just finished writing 7,952 words around 400 short of my daily goal. Boo! But it's 5am in the morning and I want to get some sleep. So I will make those few words up tomorrow morning.

The story is coming along...some of it's drivel or boring. My main goal is simply developing the characters and moving the plot along. If I really like the story I will go back and edit it during December.

But to sum up the plot:

A young girl who is gifted with the ability to create sensory illusions [they affect people so that what they see, hear, smell, taste and feel seems real] is forced to live in a corrupt city that her magic teacher was exiled to. She longs for escape when her already strange life is uprooted when she finds a strange man being held captive by her teacher. Believing him innocent she frees him, only to find out he's more dangerous than he seemed. Afraid of the punishment she will receive from her teacher, she flees the city the only way she can, into a dark and treacherous rainforest. Lost and confused she finds herself at the mercy of the very man she released and must help him find something hidden within if she has any desire to leave the forest alive.

Yeah...there is a LOT going on.

Right now I'm still on the everyday life part.
Soon the captive stranger will show his face.
And then...the forest.


Yes. :: tents fingers evilly ::

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.