August redemption?

So there's this wonderful thing the elves at The Office of Letters and Light have created for the long summer months called "Camp NaNoWrimo".



It's compact version of the ever challenging-yet-wonderful NaNoWrimo with a camp style format. You have cabins and cabin mates (as of August) - there's even a camp store! I missed out last month when it first launched in July, but I'm excited for August and what it will bring.

So what am I planning to write? I'm not quite sure. I have a few ideas in mind - one being my previous failed NaNo novel as well as so newer ideas. I think I'll decide when I sit down in front of my computer and begin to type those first thousand. It's a crazy way to decide, but it's the summer and I can think of this as a trial run for the big show in November.

I'll post an update on my progress tonight.

A compromise...

Word count: 10,578

I have about 2, 758 words left to go. Unfortunately, I don't think my sprained wrist is going to make it. I really want to avoid adding carpal tunnel to the list, so I may have to change my goal to a much simpler 800 words before midnight - putting me at 11,378.

No, it's not 13k, but it's less than 2k short. I think that's a reasonable goal.

Back to writing.

Update:
It's 12:03 am and I made it to 11,606 before my wrist really started acting up. So I'm calling it a night. Since I'm only 1,736 words short of my main goal and since I'm going to bed before 1:30, I think it's fair to say I would have made it.

I'll make the rest up tomorrow, but now I'm going to rest my hand.

Goodnight.

Historical business and easter eggs.

This week I plan to start laying out a historical timeline.
I'm not sure how indepth I will go, but I want to make sure I have a clear idea of the events in the past and the events in the future.

It's weird, but I think it's safer for me to layout the history and facts of the entire series before focusing on the novel. Or at least make it familiar enough that it's in the back of my mind as I write. That way you end up with nice little easter eggs that make more sense once you read the other books.

OOO...so excited.

I'll post an abridged version of the timeline at the end of the week.

Unemployment means more time...

...for writing.

So I've graduated from school and the insanity that was putting my final project/portfolio together is done. So in my down time I plan to work on my novel.

Hopefully I'll be posting actual things soon instead of these dull updates. I have a bit of world planning, character histories to write before I can start writing again, but the should prove to make more interesting posts than ones like this.

Let the planning beginning!

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.

Happy Holidays!

So of course it's the holidays and what not, which means a morning of celebrations before I need to get back to my writing. Because dammit I'd like to be nearly at the end of my novel before this week ends.

Progress [to be edited throughout the day]:

12/25

10:12am - 124,716

6:49pm - 125,189 [really sad...could have written more but I took a nap.]


12/26

2:12pm - 126,194

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

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!

Of Steampunk gadgets and the literary dillemma

Monday I did not write anything because I was incredibly busy on le good ship internship and have a presentation to work on. So big zero on the daily word count. No worries, because I'll catch up tomorrow.

So as most of you know, I am writing a Steampunk NaNoWriMo.

That means gadgets and gizmos a plenty. Unfortunately, that can be quite the problem.
Films, videos and comic books make these things so easy to accept. We see them and well seeing is believing so we accept them. However, when it comes to the ever complicated novel, we are rendered blind.

The only way to end this horrid blindness is with descriptions. However, it can be very hard to describe something if you don't have a clue what it is [or even what it does]. This was something I intended to fix with pre-NaNo planning, but that didn't really go as planned. So I'm thrust into the world and making up thingamajigs on the fly. I know I have a vivid imagination, but I'm generally more of a engineer of "magic" than of anything remotely like engineering.

So this is definitely going to be a struggle. I'll probably resort to just making up random names and just vaguely mentioning the power source or if any levers need to be pulled. I can always go back and fix it.

And to flex my steamy inventing muscles, I will probably begin a "random inventions" list in the Excerptlopedia. Maybe I'll use some of them or it'll just be for fun.

If you can think of anything...and I mean anything, please feel free to share.

Back on track, but still have some catching up to do...

So as of tonight I have 5,037 words [although most of those words are from the older plots--but hey I still wrote it for NaNo].

Nevertheless, I am back on track and trying my best to catch up and then get ahead. It didn't help that I've been sick today and so I decided to take it easy instead of making myself worse with stress.

Anyway, at least half of my plot is in my head. As for writing it, we shall see how it goes. I've started to put words on paper, but it's been a little slow and clunky [reminds herself that it's just a draft...die inner critic, die].

So as a little taste, here are the new opening lines:

As Olivia watched the play come to its conclusion, she could not avoid the sneaking suspicion that somehow this story was based on her life, albeit less comical. It is not strange to associate oneself with the characters in a play, but most would have picked the dashing hero or the scheming villains over the hapless victim that was now clinging on for dear life.

Sunday, Bloody Sunday.

So Steamboy was very useful for inspiration. If you are interested in Steampunk or just an enjoyable movie in general, I would definitely look into it.

Most of today was spent planning...but it was super helpful. I figured out about a quarter of my plot and smoothed out my villain. Also, I created a helpful little playlist for myself to aid me as I write.

I started writing at 8pm and it's going, wouldn't say it was great, but it is coming along.

So I plan to start a few new posts in the Excerptlopedia.

1. Excerpts [anything from chapters to great paragraphs]
2. Favorites [lines, mottos, character quotes, etc]

Check em out when you can.

Today's challenge between myself and Penny was that we were to reach 4,000 by day end. I do not think I will win this one Penny, but we'll see.

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.

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.

The case with day writing...

After Friday's attempt I was more determined to meet quota before midnight. I just get sleepy and defeated when I start writing too late.

Saturday nearly failed as I had class that morning and fell asleep once I got home. Around 5pm I began writing--but didn't meet quota until after 1pm. But I did manage to make quota and then some.

Today I made sure I started writing at 2pm and even took a little trip to Borders to write without distractions. I made quota at 5pm.

Hooray!

Now if I can keep up with my daytime writing--that would be great.

So much for that plan...

I treated myself to Ihop today and spent a good hour or so in B&N and wrote about 700 or so words. I was totally on a role, but had to stop to meet up with a classmate for homework.

Begin the procrastination:
-Preparing and cooking dinner
-Preparing and cooking muffins
-WOW gaming [hey I pay for it]
-talking on the phone with BF

I literally am 109 words short of today's goal. Le suck.

I'll try day writing again tomorrow.
But I'm tired and class is at 10am in the morning.

So to bed with me.

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 ::

It begins soon

So in only 40 minutes or so Nanowrimo 2007 will begin.

I have a plot and plot twists. I have characters in my mind, but they don't really have names and aren't fully developed yet.

I plan to start writing tomorrow morning and focus on characters and plot building tonight.

Wish me luck.