![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nearly the end
Nov. 29th, 2010 12:26 amWhich is good, since most of you are probably sick to death of these updates.
It was a good writing day today, despite many obstacles including a toddler wide awake at 4:30am and hours of dead internet this evening[1], and I have to say I'm starting to feel almost optimistic about my chances of "winning" NaNoWriMo by straight wordcount, which means that other than adding words to something already in progress (I haven't counted any of the pre-November words in my NaNo total) I pretty much haven't cheated, either. Even more spectatularly, while there are small pockets of suck throughout the draft, I've managed to keep the overall plot structure on track and I think, on the balance, it's really not bad.
Day 28 total: 4243
NaNoCheaMo total: 45,424 (now behind by only ~1200 words)
Novel total: 88,053 (manuscript wordcount)
So I have two days to write a little over 4500 words. I can do that, maybe. If not, I can come really damned close. And you know, that's also going to bring me right up to the actual end of the novel. So there'll be months and months of horrific revisions ahead before it's ready to go anywhere, but a finished first draft is a finished first draft and *always* worth celebrating.
--
[1] which you would think would increase my productivity, but instead I spent too much of that time screwing around with my computer, my wireless router, and then with my cable modem before I decided the problem was distinctly upstream from here. A phone call for the purposes of whingeing at my best friend then revealed that the outage was at the very least state-wide, and appeared to be a problem with Comcast's DNS. Feh. At least for now it seems fixed.
It was a good writing day today, despite many obstacles including a toddler wide awake at 4:30am and hours of dead internet this evening[1], and I have to say I'm starting to feel almost optimistic about my chances of "winning" NaNoWriMo by straight wordcount, which means that other than adding words to something already in progress (I haven't counted any of the pre-November words in my NaNo total) I pretty much haven't cheated, either. Even more spectatularly, while there are small pockets of suck throughout the draft, I've managed to keep the overall plot structure on track and I think, on the balance, it's really not bad.
Day 28 total: 4243
NaNoCheaMo total: 45,424 (now behind by only ~1200 words)
Novel total: 88,053 (manuscript wordcount)
So I have two days to write a little over 4500 words. I can do that, maybe. If not, I can come really damned close. And you know, that's also going to bring me right up to the actual end of the novel. So there'll be months and months of horrific revisions ahead before it's ready to go anywhere, but a finished first draft is a finished first draft and *always* worth celebrating.
--
[1] which you would think would increase my productivity, but instead I spent too much of that time screwing around with my computer, my wireless router, and then with my cable modem before I decided the problem was distinctly upstream from here. A phone call for the purposes of whingeing at my best friend then revealed that the outage was at the very least state-wide, and appeared to be a problem with Comcast's DNS. Feh. At least for now it seems fixed.
(no subject)
Nov. 27th, 2010 12:31 amOne of the things I absolutely love about writing is, when I'm reaching the end of a first draft[1], that rare moment when I realize that my subconscious has been totally setting up all these little bits and pieces for some *fantastic* bit of plot-twist that my conscious writer-mind has been entirely unaware of. And, ooooh, have I surprised myself with a doosie this time, enough that I've been doing the excited happy-dance around the house all evening ever since it first struck me where I was inevitably going. It does further my willingness to believe in a supernatural muse, because I know for a fact I'm really just not that clever myself.
Meanwhile: 77k of the FEB novel first draft now done[2]. Social obligations tomorrow, but we'll see. Definitely have some serious forward momentum right now.
--
[1] I write entirely sequentially from beginning to end, no scene placeholders or skipping around, and I often have only a vague idea of the larger plot bits and just wing everything as I go. It makes for occasional lengthy stalls (like the still-incomplete Aztec story I've been working on for forever) and also complicated and sometimes frustrating second-drafts, but it's how I work.
[2] bringing my NaNoCheaMo total so far to an insufficient 37k.
Meanwhile: 77k of the FEB novel first draft now done[2]. Social obligations tomorrow, but we'll see. Definitely have some serious forward momentum right now.
--
[1] I write entirely sequentially from beginning to end, no scene placeholders or skipping around, and I often have only a vague idea of the larger plot bits and just wing everything as I go. It makes for occasional lengthy stalls (like the still-incomplete Aztec story I've been working on for forever) and also complicated and sometimes frustrating second-drafts, but it's how I work.
[2] bringing my NaNoCheaMo total so far to an insufficient 37k.
Revised and sent out a 1700 word short story. (Yes, by me. What, you doubt I can write a story that short? Well, I did! Once. So there!)
Revised Surf, novelette, and sent it to my Most Trusty Beta Reader.
Added 1000+ words to the novel for NaNoCheaMo, bringing my total to 30,077 words for the month (about 5,000 words behind now.)
Also: CHAOS.
Revised Surf, novelette, and sent it to my Most Trusty Beta Reader.
Added 1000+ words to the novel for NaNoCheaMo, bringing my total to 30,077 words for the month (about 5,000 words behind now.)
Also: CHAOS.
creeping forward
Nov. 19th, 2010 12:26 amDay 18 total: 2029
NaNoCheaMo total: 27,126 (now behind by 2,880 words)
Novel total: 68,933 (manuscript wordcount)
Another small amount of catch-up on top of the day's obligatory words. I know what the rest of this chapter holds, so that should bode well for getting started tomorrow.
I really am abusing the hell out of my poor main character, this novel. Novel is also being really dialogue-heavy these last couple of chapters. Will have to balance that better in revision, but for now, I don't care.
NaNoCheaMo total: 27,126 (now behind by 2,880 words)
Novel total: 68,933 (manuscript wordcount)
Another small amount of catch-up on top of the day's obligatory words. I know what the rest of this chapter holds, so that should bode well for getting started tomorrow.
I really am abusing the hell out of my poor main character, this novel. Novel is also being really dialogue-heavy these last couple of chapters. Will have to balance that better in revision, but for now, I don't care.
half way, two days behind schedule
Nov. 18th, 2010 12:05 amDay 17 total: 2049
NaNoCheaMo total: 25,097 (now behind by 3,242 words)
Novel total: 66,560 (manuscript wordcount)
You know, one of the things I like about NaNoWriMo is (most of) the author pep talks. Can I sign up to get those once a week all year long? Apparently I need a lot of pepping.
NaNoCheaMo total: 25,097 (now behind by 3,242 words)
Novel total: 66,560 (manuscript wordcount)
You know, one of the things I like about NaNoWriMo is (most of) the author pep talks. Can I sign up to get those once a week all year long? Apparently I need a lot of pepping.
Day 14 total: 2653
NaNoCheaMo total: 19018 (now behind by 4,320 words)
Novel total: 59,768 (manuscript wordcount)
Well, did my minimum 1,667 words today like pulling teeth, then caught up just shy of 1k words more towards the big chunk of words I'm currently behind. Just started getting momentum when it was time to call it quits, so hopefully that'll give me a good starting place tomorrow.
Left off with:
"No one is too interested in spending any quality time with Cairnes."
NaNoCheaMo total: 19018 (now behind by 4,320 words)
Novel total: 59,768 (manuscript wordcount)
Well, did my minimum 1,667 words today like pulling teeth, then caught up just shy of 1k words more towards the big chunk of words I'm currently behind. Just started getting momentum when it was time to call it quits, so hopefully that'll give me a good starting place tomorrow.
Left off with:
"No one is too interested in spending any quality time with Cairnes."
mumbledy-mumbledy week 2
Nov. 14th, 2010 01:25 amNaNoCheaMo total: 16365
Novel total: 56,832 (manuscript wordcount)
So, yeah, I got stuck and now I'm behind by something like 6500 words. It's okay.
Aside from realizing that my villain was being overly dramatic with the villainy, while trying to think out a better, smoother way of handling that plot point I also realized that the situation as it stood provided the villain with motive but not opportunity for the action I needed him/her to take, and that if I shifted it enough to provide the opportunity, motive went away.
Bah. Writing is hard. Figured it out, but it took several days and lots of word-shuffling and brain-processing, which means a lot of work not reflected in wordcount. Tomorrow we'll see whether or not I can get back into the mega-word groove and close that gap again at least a little.
Novel total: 56,832 (manuscript wordcount)
So, yeah, I got stuck and now I'm behind by something like 6500 words. It's okay.
Aside from realizing that my villain was being overly dramatic with the villainy, while trying to think out a better, smoother way of handling that plot point I also realized that the situation as it stood provided the villain with motive but not opportunity for the action I needed him/her to take, and that if I shifted it enough to provide the opportunity, motive went away.
Bah. Writing is hard. Figured it out, but it took several days and lots of word-shuffling and brain-processing, which means a lot of work not reflected in wordcount. Tomorrow we'll see whether or not I can get back into the mega-word groove and close that gap again at least a little.
(no subject)
Nov. 10th, 2010 12:07 amYep, I wrote nothing tonight. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Which isn't to say I didn't waste a lot of time not writing all of it.
The highly complex sequence of this nothingness unfolded thusly:
---
* huh... use nanotech to hijack someone's auditory cortex so you can send 'em a private, anonymous message, or...
..write them a note and just don't sign the fucking thing?
Dammit! )-:
The highly complex sequence of this nothingness unfolded thusly:
- Hey, what my bad guy is doing is really kinda dumb.
- [Think for about 8 hours.]
- Ah! I can make it less dumb if I change it a little bit right here. Now it's much less dumb.
- [Stare at open doc for several more hours.]
- How come I still can't seem to get forward traction again?
- Oh. That's because while what the bad guy is doing is no longer totally dumb, it's also more complicated a way of doing what should be a pretty simple thing*, which makes for much ridiculousness and unsubtle villainy of the twirling-moustache-and-tophat school of dastardly behavior.
- I can fix this by removing the last chapter and a half.
- Dammit, that screws my wordcount pretty badly. What should I do?
- [Stare at open doc all evening, can't bring self to delete anything, can't bring self to continue from that point forward having now acknowledged that it's bad.]
- Crap. Now I'm *really* stuck.
---
* huh... use nanotech to hijack someone's auditory cortex so you can send 'em a private, anonymous message, or...
..write them a note and just don't sign the fucking thing?
Dammit! )-:
Day 6 total: 1884
NaNoCheaMo total: 12084
Novel total: 52,964 (manuscript wordcount)
Ended Chapter 7 with:
I have some demands. Your lives depend on meeting them.
Don't forget to set your clocks back an hour tonight, if you live in a place subjected to the horror that is Daylight Savings.
NaNoCheaMo total: 12084
Novel total: 52,964 (manuscript wordcount)
Ended Chapter 7 with:
I have some demands. Your lives depend on meeting them.
Don't forget to set your clocks back an hour tonight, if you live in a place subjected to the horror that is Daylight Savings.
Day 5 of NaNo
Nov. 6th, 2010 12:47 amDay 5 total: 1247
NaNoCheaMo total: 10200
Novel total: 50,938 (manuscript wordcount)
Once again didn't make the daily quota of 1667 words, eroding more of the good head-start I had going a few days ago. Still more than a day ahead, but barely.
My hapless main character takes an awful lot of abuse, poor guy.
NaNoCheaMo total: 10200
Novel total: 50,938 (manuscript wordcount)
Once again didn't make the daily quota of 1667 words, eroding more of the good head-start I had going a few days ago. Still more than a day ahead, but barely.
My hapless main character takes an awful lot of abuse, poor guy.
Day 4 of NaNo
Nov. 5th, 2010 12:42 amDay 4 total: 1397
NaNoCheaMo total: 8953
Novel total: 49,563 (manuscript wordcount)
Fell short of the daily quota of 1667 words, but I had a good head start going into the day and am still ahead of the game. Might have gotten further but tonight's adventures included a barfing toddler.
NaNoCheaMo total: 8953
Novel total: 49,563 (manuscript wordcount)
Fell short of the daily quota of 1667 words, but I had a good head start going into the day and am still ahead of the game. Might have gotten further but tonight's adventures included a barfing toddler.
I'm sure these updates are tedious as all hell for everyone, especially those of you not participating in NaNoWriMo, so rest assured that as soon as I start falling behind I'm sure to become too embarrassed to post anything that would reveal that fact. However, I'm not behind yet, so you get to suffer another day.
Day 3 total: 2514
NaNoCheaMo total: 7556
Novel total: 47,970 (manuscript wordcount)
Ending it with:
"Pickles."
In other news of the day, my week of staying home to clean the house is being less successful than I would have liked, though not a total failure. I cleaned the teen's bathroom today (for which I deserve hazard pay) and got some other small things sorted and put away. I also took a nap after getting kids dropped off at their respective day activities that I didn't wake up from until after 1:00pm. If nothing else, by the end of the week I should be more caught up on sleep than I've been in more than two and a half years.
Day 3 total: 2514
NaNoCheaMo total: 7556
Novel total: 47,970 (manuscript wordcount)
Ending it with:
"Pickles."
In other news of the day, my week of staying home to clean the house is being less successful than I would have liked, though not a total failure. I cleaned the teen's bathroom today (for which I deserve hazard pay) and got some other small things sorted and put away. I also took a nap after getting kids dropped off at their respective day activities that I didn't wake up from until after 1:00pm. If nothing else, by the end of the week I should be more caught up on sleep than I've been in more than two and a half years.
Calling it a night on account of being very cold and tired and having giant mountains of laundry on my bed that need folding before I can crawl under the covers. This was a tough night and the first 1600 words were like pulling teeth, and just when I crossed that minimal line and was ready to pack it in I had a thought about one line, went back to fix it, and it unexpectedly came with about a hundred of his buddies. Now I face laundry doom.
Day 2 total: 2999
NaNoCheaMo total: 5048
Novel total: 44,904 (manuscript wordcount)
Ending it on the end of a chapter, with:
"Or so I hope," Ray mumbled, and if Kyle heard he didn't comment.
Day 2 total: 2999
NaNoCheaMo total: 5048
Novel total: 44,904 (manuscript wordcount)
Ending it on the end of a chapter, with:
"Or so I hope," Ray mumbled, and if Kyle heard he didn't comment.
the starting line
Oct. 31st, 2010 11:52 pmThe flesh-eating bacteria novel (FEBn) as of shortly before midnight, October 31st, stands at 39,217 words by manuscript wordcount, or at 34,944 by microsoft wordcount. I have left myself on this last line to pick up and run with once the clock ticks over to November:
"Well, that's completely fucked," Julie said.
Solely for the purposes of my NaNoCheaMo score, I'm going to use microsoft as my official wordcount, and I'm calling 34,944 as zero. The goal (my goal, anyway) is to add 50,000 new words to this (first) draft, which should finish it. I'll take fewer words over more if they're less broken, but it's hard to quantify that on the run. Suffice it to say that as long as I make decent forward progress without completely borking the entire thing, I'll count myself a winner. (-:
"Well, that's completely fucked," Julie said.
Solely for the purposes of my NaNoCheaMo score, I'm going to use microsoft as my official wordcount, and I'm calling 34,944 as zero. The goal (my goal, anyway) is to add 50,000 new words to this (first) draft, which should finish it. I'll take fewer words over more if they're less broken, but it's hard to quantify that on the run. Suffice it to say that as long as I make decent forward progress without completely borking the entire thing, I'll count myself a winner. (-:
(no subject)
Nov. 29th, 2009 01:00 amMiledrop
61,317 / 110,000 words (56%)
NaNoCheaMo total: 30,271
[44,384 words revised (1/3 credit) + 16,933 new words]
0 words on Turkeyday, about 900 yesterday, and about 2650 today.
Yeah, not much chance at all of hitting 50k by the end of Monday night. Oh well. I've gotten a lot of writing done, and I intend to keep going even after the month ends. The goal is not so much to have 50k of just-any-old-words, but to have 110k of words-that-I-can-work-with.
It's so much easier getting into the groove when I'm writing from the PoV of my favorite bad guy. He's just such a phenomenal asshole that he's unbelievable fun. I suppose that says bad things about me.
( yet another excerpt with my bad guy again. )
Y'know, it's okay to tell me you hate it, or don't hate it, or something.
NaNoCheaMo total: 30,271
[44,384 words revised (1/3 credit) + 16,933 new words]
0 words on Turkeyday, about 900 yesterday, and about 2650 today.
Yeah, not much chance at all of hitting 50k by the end of Monday night. Oh well. I've gotten a lot of writing done, and I intend to keep going even after the month ends. The goal is not so much to have 50k of just-any-old-words, but to have 110k of words-that-I-can-work-with.
It's so much easier getting into the groove when I'm writing from the PoV of my favorite bad guy. He's just such a phenomenal asshole that he's unbelievable fun. I suppose that says bad things about me.
( yet another excerpt with my bad guy again. )
Y'know, it's okay to tell me you hate it, or don't hate it, or something.
(no subject)
Nov. 26th, 2009 01:16 am3,053 words tonight on Miledrop, bringing me to a total of 57,742 words. Not bad at all.
To catch up and actually "win" NaNoCheaMo (current total: 26,696) I'd have to have been pulling 4k a night starting at the beginning of this week, so obviously not going to make 50k, and even if I was, a chunk of that was credit I arbitrarily assigned myself for revision, so meh, not really stressing about it. Of course it'd be nice, and I can still use the motivation of wanting to see just how close I can get.
I wonder if I can type while I drive tomorrow? I can always dictate to Eldest and make her type for me. (-;
To catch up and actually "win" NaNoCheaMo (current total: 26,696) I'd have to have been pulling 4k a night starting at the beginning of this week, so obviously not going to make 50k, and even if I was, a chunk of that was credit I arbitrarily assigned myself for revision, so meh, not really stressing about it. Of course it'd be nice, and I can still use the motivation of wanting to see just how close I can get.
I wonder if I can type while I drive tomorrow? I can always dictate to Eldest and make her type for me. (-;
