Nothing...nada.

So I wrote nothing today. It's not even worth doing the little write up because I've made no progress. Oh well.

Currently 8k behind. I have a lot of writing to do this weekend.

Monday...

I was distracted again today, but managed a very nice 4k for the day. I could be writing so much more, but I've been dealing with some writer's block lately.

Word count:
20,226. Only a bit over 4k from catching up to Tuesday's 25k.

Inner Critic:
Appeased, but I haven't written enough for her to critique.

Actual Novel:
11,192, which is pretty good considering the whole situation. Woo.

Characters Dead: 1
None.

Where are they?
She's about to go to the circus. [I really need to rewrite this all in editing...it's so damn sluggish.]


Bed time.

Almost caught up...

Here's another update. To make things easier this Nano I'm going to use the following format from now on.

Word count:
As 2am this morning I'm at 14,869 words - a little over 3k away from the required 18333. Woo! Completely doable. The story itself is only 3 scenes in and clunky but slowly growing on me. Clearly another reason why it's good to plan/plot/character develop before NaNo, but I'll get the hang of it as I go along.

Inner Critic:
Still loud and very annoying. I've decided to appease her by letting those nasty comments become a part of the story - either through the snarky narrator or as notes that will inevitably be removed.

Actual Novel:
My goal this weekend is to try and get the novel itself caught up to the required 18k, but that means that I'm really at 7,811 a much more depressing 10,522. Blegh.

Characters Dead:
1 - The Great Vincenzo - Fell ill and died (in exposition)

Where are they?
The lovers are introduced, sort of and my MFC is about to sneak off to see a magic show.

Alright...back to writing!

4K to go...

Word count: 9,336

After some thinking, Reggie/Regina finally seems to stick. It's been sluggish writing - bad even, but at least something is getting written. Twice I've tried to rewrite scenes due to my inner editor taking hold, but if I keep that up my story will get nowhere.

And to make things worse I sprained my wrist. It hasn't quite hampered my writing, but it will dfinitely make the rest of my life difficult. And there is the cold that will not die.

Still I only have 4,000 words to go and 2.5 hours left.


I can do this!

Day 4: Back on track - finally!

Phew. It's the end of Day 4.

After a lot of false starts, self-sabotaging, etc, I am finally writing. However, it is not Memento Mori or Resurrection Man as I originally planned. They simply had too many plot holes that I had to put them on the back burner for another time.

Instead, I'm working on what I've called "The Girl in Red". It's a story very very loosely based on the fairytale of Little Red Riding Hood and set in a Steampunk setting. Our leading lady is a military courier who works for the R.E.D. (Regional Emissary Division)known for their red uniform jackets. It's one of the entry level ranks in the armed forces for women and she hopes to earn her way up the ranks to airship pilot.

As for the wolf he's more on the "good" or "neutral" side. He's an old friend of the MC from her days on a "transport" (although they were occasionally involved in smuggling) ship when she was rejected by the military for being a woman. He's got a bit of a wild side and is a thief, but comes from one of the wealthier families in town - although he'd never tell her that.

I won't go into more detail about what happens yet, except to say this: it all begins with a delivery going terribly wrong.


Word count as of midnight - 6,022 words

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.

Making it serial...part 1

YA novels generally run 40,000-75,000 words, but you’ll find books on either side of that. Write the story in the length it takes to tell it, and then check publishers’ guidelines.

Yowza...and my current story is about 139k.

So I've begun thinking about this serial story thing as a possibility. I just think that there can be a lot of adventure to be had and I'm probably going to need a few novels to tell it--especially if the cap is at 80k.

But that means a lot of restructuring...and that brings up a lot of questions.

1. Where do I end the story?
2. If I end it before she leaves the Orvilles, what is the focus of the first story?
3. How do I keep each serial from getting too cliche?
4. Where does it all end--when she finds her father?
5. Am I losing too much of the original Greek myth after the first book?
6. What happens when she finds her father?
7. What is the formula for the novels? Is there one?
8. What are the other novels based around?

I've got a lot of thinking to do.

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

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!

Slow and steady

So I have about twelve more scenes to write, which means I'm getting closer to my ending.

Woo!

Current word count: 128,632


Things are coming along. Tomorrow is the big showdown scene, which will be difficult as it will involve quite a few people. It will probably suck writing wise, but hey that's what editing is for!

Wish me luck.

Gonna stop beating myself up.

So tired...because this weekend was hell.
I'm 5k behind at the moment and tomorrow I'll technically be 8k behind. I say technically because I am going to be lenient with myself because I have been far too busy to get much written anyway.

Things are still moving--just really really slowly.

Sigh. I won't stop writing though, because I really don't want to take the chance that I'll abandon this project like I've done with others before.


Tonight's word count: 110,139

G'night.

Catching up...

School kept me busy for two days. So I worked my ass off Saturday to catch up.
Alas, I am too tired to finish.

So I'm at 67,730.

I should be at 68,975...so I'm like off my about 1,245.

I can do that.

I just need to get back on track and then write more than necessary each day.


But now I sleep.

Sooo tired...must keep writing...

So today was the first day of Nanofimo.

I'm still surviving, but gave myself a lil break from writing today to game. Yay WOW!
Despite that I still managed to write 1,000+.

I'm going to start posting my word counts here since Nanofimo.org doesn't really allow you to post that kind of stuff, etc.

Overall, I'm moving slowly. Maybe I'll be able to write more tomorrow.

G'night.



Word Count: 62023

Nano is offically over.

So today was the last day of Nanowrimo.

As of midnight I have 60,960 words. Hooray!

I still have a lot to write, but that's what NaNoFiMo is for. Although its for a month, I plan to try and finish before the 17th of December...so I can spend the break editing.

We'll see.

As for my wrimobuddies, 6 out of twelve finished. Huzzah! I called Jean the moment I saw that she reached 50,000. I knew she could do it. We both have a lot of editing to do. Hopefully we can both beta test our stories on each other--I can't wait to read her novel!

So right now I'm going to take some well earned rest for the evening. Plus I have some homework to sketch.

Good job everyone!

Into the woods...

So now at 27,569 words and 62 pages. My MC has finally entered the forest.

And now I have a lot more planning to do. There are a lot of things I have not figured out yet...like:

-Othena's past: her involvement with the war, the magic council, the business she keeps going off to handle, and why she's been banished to Benim.
-what Othena is keeping in the forest and why Silas wants it [the lie he tells]
-how Othena gets Zavier to join her to search for Devi
-how they plan to enter the forest and find her [use dogs maybe?]
-what Devii and Silas encounter in the forest, while trying to get the object

& and the rest of the story.

Yep...a bunch of work to do. So tomorrow I plan to do a mini write-a-thon since I can't go to the real thing.

30,000 words here I come!

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.