Monthly Archives: November 2011

Feeling all Frodo-post-Mount-Doom-like

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Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration.

But that was probably the toughest NaNoWriMo I ever managed to push to conclusion. I mean, yeah, drama and angst and illness and work and distraction and …

Well, let’s just say rather than Writing Monkeys or Plot Bunnies I had NaNo Eagles this year.

I had a really hard time focusing this NaNo month.  I mean, look at that calendar. A whole heck of a lot of red days where I did nada. Fridays in particular, suffering from end-of-work-week burn-out.

On the other hand, look at those Tuesdays and Saturdays.  Write-ins, every week.  Give me an assigned time to write, and I am there and it is on.

Or, conversely, give me a chance to make excuses and … not so much.

*Sigh*

The graph also tells the tale.  There are a hell of a lot of plateaus there — days (in sequence) where there were no words.  Not “just a few words” — but “no words.”

Which, of course, flies in the face of all that stuff I blogged about earlier in the month, and shame on me, and all that.

But I did it.

That curve in the last five days of the month?  Yeah, I did that.  And I’m damned proud of it.

Here’s something else I’m proud of (although in a vaguely abashed way): I finished the story.

Yup.  Donne & Donne, File 1: Gunsmoke and Jasmine.  Finished.  Took two NaNos, and a net word count of 101,731 words, but I wrapped it up in a neat little bow, with hooks for future volumes, and booyah.

Yeah, I was the one at the beginning of this year thinking I was a few days, maybe a week of writing, and figuring out how to convert editing time into word count for NaNo purposes (note to self: 1,000 words per hour is the rough number to work by). And I barely managed to get the story into the allotted 30 days.

But I did.  And the word count. Which is doubly good.

And the last bits were gut-wrenchers, which makes the accomplishment doubly-emotional.

Whew.

So … what now?

Well, how about this?  My NaNoWriMo local moderator is interested in continuing on with a writing/editing group.  And I’m going to attend, weekly. Which means all the editing this novel desperately needs (Overall timeline; Frisco geography; Chinese mythology; names I didn’t have time to go back and look up; adding in some more senses; picking up some loose ends; etc.) might actually happen.

Am I aiming toward actual publication?  Hell, I don’t know.  It needs a solid edit. Or two. Or twelve. At this point, I’m looking toward having something that I could share with friends (esp. those of the writerly persuasion) and family (sorry, wait for rev. 1) and not be embarrassed by. Anything beyond that is frosting on the cake.

Meantime? I’ll take credit for making it through NaNoWriMo 2011.  I honestly didn’t think I would make it.

You win some, you nearly win some

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Kay hit her goal today (5,113 out of 5,000). Bravo!

I (who am still sick), did a bunch of short bits during the day between napping and feeling ooky.  Then we went to the Write-In (wherein Kay hit her mark), and I cranked out like crazy.  I am now at 46,938, leaving me just over 3K to hit the mark tomorrow.

Which I plan to do, by hook or by crook.

 

 

Meanwhile, in Kay’s tale …

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So amidst my own writing, I’ve been serving as typist for Katherine on her YWP effort.  She chose to do a 5K tale this year — above the age-recommended level (3600), but the same as last year.  That’s let her cruise a bit; as the sidebar graph shows, she’s been blasting ahead at the Write-Ins, and then doing nothing in-between (like me, but moreso — but, yeah, I’ve been a bad influence).

But she’s also doing it written longhand, still being slower at typing than handwriting (not through lack of encouragement on our part). And, at that, she’s beating some of the adult typists at Word Wars …

And as I’ve been typing up her story, I’ve been damned impressed by her turns of phrase.  Even if she’s lifting bits and pieces from other things she’s reading (excuse me, that’s called an homage), and even if I need to do a bit of spell-correction, it’s still pretty cool that it’s falling from her pencil that way:

Will didn’t think he could stand that kind of rejection, so he kept on treading slowly, with his head down, with the weapons and shield weighing him down, sapping his remaining strength.

That’s pretty spiffy, if you ask me.

Coming down to the wire

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It’s November 28th … do you know where your novel is?

So here we are, in the final few days of NaNoWriMo. The tension is mounting.

Okay, so it felt like, today, I was in the middle of coming down with the same flu / illness / malaise that Ginger’s had since shortly after arriving, and Margie has had the past couple of days.  I felt badly enough that I headed home from the office early.

But I still sat down and typed a bit before dinner.  And typed a bit after dinner.  And … well … managed to kick my words out for today.

(Click to enbiggen.)

So you can see the problem I’ve had here — way too many days of not doing nothing.  That’s my mea maxima culpa.

The past few days, though, have been a pretty sweet, dedicated curve.  And I punched past the number I needed to write today, doing just under 2600.  That means if I manage 2400+ the next couple of days, I hit my victory mark.

Woot!

More importantly, I got through the not-very-expected climax of the tale, wherein the villain is confronted (and dispatched, and dispatched courtesy of the protagonists, and yet not without some grave sacrifice).

Which means that the next two days are denouement, explanations, settling accounts, resolving stray threads, and overall finishing not just the wordcount, but the story.

Short of (knocks on wood, crosses self, fumbles at various religious pendants around the neck) falling too deathly ill, I think … I think … I can make it.

The light at the end of the tunnel is actually approaching, not receding

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Okay, so I started the day needing to do a daunting 2600 words plus a day in order to hit the 50K mark.

This afternoon I wrote for a couple of hours, and banged out 1600.  That was all I could manage.  Not promising.  I mean, a good score, if I’d done that daily, but at this point of the game, it was too little, too late.

Just look at that NaNoWriMo calendar widget over there. Way too many “red” days.  Hoist on my own lazy petard.

Tonight, though … everyone else went to bed early.  So I hit the keyboard … and banged out another 1500.

Whoa.

That’s 3,151 words for the day.  And breaking the 40K mark.

That’s cause for celebration. And optimism.

Better yet, not only did I advance the plot to the climactic scene (I think), I even have an idea how the good guys are going to get out of their mess. Which will still leave a lot of loose ends (Will the mob lay off? How about the police? What will Colonel Phillips say about this? Will Inspector Fong be satisfied? Will Uncle Chu eat them both? And what about Naomi?) but that’s just gravy.

I think I can … I think I can … I think I can …

End-game

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So I’m at 37K now, huzzah.  That leaves me to do 2,600 words a day to hit 50K.  That’s a couple of hours, really.

  • Sunday: A day without work (except for some home improvement projects that need doing, plus a podcast I need to kick out). A matter of scheduling.
  • Monday: Work! Bleah!
  • Tuesday: Last Write-In of the season.  I’m usually leaving these with at least 3K (I hit 4K today), so that’s good.
  • Wednesday: In-laws back home, wife off with her friend shopping — sounds like a great opportunity for a Bataan Writing March.
So it’s probably doable, with some elbow grease — but here’s the neat  (or annoying, or both) thing:
I’m growing less interested in the “winning” 50K, and more in completing the story. Because I can see it, really.  I know the murderer. Roger has figured out who (in general) did the murder.  Chrys has figured out the murderer (and just had a close encounter with same).  And all the threads are converging.
And there will be a final go-around, and a battle (maybe), and some loose ends tied up with the police (probably) and the Feds (possibly), and the Other Clients (most likely), and a romantic conclusion for our detective couple (for this installment, at least … maybe … probably … unless I need a hook for next novel).
So as these things start to gel, I’m feeling more excited. Which will probably help the word count, but which also makes me a  lot less worried about the word count than in being done. With a story I’m fairly satisfied with (but which needs a lot of revision, multiple passes).  And to me, that’s of more value than hitting some magical 50K, whether it happens before or after 30 November.
Though I still want that award sticker …

Lagging

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Doyce’s comments around De’s post on being behind in NaNoWriMo really hit home in a lot of ways.

Look! A guy! Stressed! Which makes him break his pencil! So he can't write!

For me, too, this has been one of the toughest NaNos (my fifth year participating).  I’ve been behind pretty much  constantly since Day 1 — sometimes catching up very close, but then followed by days of inactivity.

I can point to a variety of reasons — my work’s been nuts, too, from a time perspective but also from a stress perspective. And I’ve let that distract me from all those wise word about writing a little rather than nothing, and basically spent more evenings unwinding rather than working on the novel.

Not that I mind all the distractions, mind you.

Plus this week, the in-laws have been in town, which has provided additional distractions.   Not that they aren’t supportive of my efforts, but there’s a dozen different things being worked on, and when I’m done with my job work, I feel the need to work on some of those home improvement and/or meal prep efforts. In fact, I want to.

A telling point is that the two regularly scheduled Write-Ins I attend have been lifesavers, in terms of word count. And it’s not just the mutual support and all, but because they are regularly scheduled blocks of time (and external blocks of time, not “just” my saying that I’ll write daily from 5:30-7:00pm).

Theoretically, if I had one more Write-In a week that I went to, I’d be golden …. I’m not going to do that (this year), but it’s something to remember.

Aaaaanyway, I’m still plugging away.  I have a Write-In tonight, then the holiday weekend which will be very tough, and then we’re into the last week.  I have no idea if I’ll hit 50K (and here I thought I’d be done with the writing in short order and was puzzling about how to convert editing work into word count, ha!), but I do still have a story to tell, and I want to get on with telling it.

Shucks, nothing that a Time-Turner wouldn't help with ...

My NaNoWriMo status (a melodrama in three acts)

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Act I: The Score

I’m currently at just over 30K.  The target for today is just above 31K, so I’m a bit behind the line for the 50K average.

So there’s my Stats block (which I had no idea NaNo was compiling, but …), and that shows everything.  At the given rate, I can expect to hit my target on … 1 December.  Eek!

More importantly, note the “stair-step” graph. I’m not doing a good job of consistent, daily writing. I’m actually making up my wordcount in my biweekly Write-Ins … which is cool, but worrisome.

Act II: The Philosopher Speaks

Okay, 50K words is a cool goal. It’s actually a bit short for a published novel, but it’s a fine round number.

But if you don’t make it, know that you won’t make it, that there’s no way you can make it …

So what?

It’s an artificial number, arbitrary, pulled out of the collective NaNoWriAss.

Write what you can. Get the count that you can.  Feel like you stretched, like you did something.

And you know what?  When you tell your friends and family over Christmas that you wrote a 35K word novella in November? They will oooh and aaah just as much. They will be madly impressed by your dedication and achievement.  They will be all, “I could never do something like that.”

So it wasn’t 50K?  Crack open the champagne anyway.  Because someone else wrote 75K or 100K.  That shouldn’t make the 50Kers feel inadequate.  Nor should “only” hitting 25K make you feel like a failure.

I gave the above pep talk to someone in our Write-In today who was constantly denigrating herself over her word count. It also was on my mind as I was contemplating how far behind I was.

I don’t know if I’ll hit 50K this year.  It’s been a bitch of a year, and my November is chock-full of time-sinking goodness.  If I don’t, I don’t.  I’ll still crack open the champagne.

Act III: A Quote! A Palpable Quote!

“You got anything else that might be of use?”

“Only what the girls all sigh over.”

“Then get the hell out of here. But don’t take any trips outta town, Donne. This is two killings you’ve shown up around, which is two too many in my opinion.”

“Mine, too, Inspector.”

I haven’t been doing enough of these.  And today’s is kind of lame. But there it is.

Neil Gaiman on the NaNoWriMo Mid-Month Slump

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Great advice.  I loved this particular bit (which is not advice, but still fun):

The last novel I wrote (it was ANANSI BOYS, in case you were wondering) when I got three-quarters of the way through I called my agent. I told her how stupid I felt writing something no-one would ever want to read, how thin the characters were, how pointless the plot. I strongly suggested that I was ready to abandon this book and write something else instead, or perhaps I could abandon the book and take up a new life as a landscape gardener, bank-robber, short-order cook or marine biologist. And instead of sympathising or agreeing with me, or blasting me forward with a wave of enthusiasm—or even arguing with me—she simply said, suspiciously cheerfully, “Oh, you’re at that part of the book, are you?”

I was shocked. “You mean I’ve done this before?”

“You don’t remember?”

“Not really.”

“Oh yes,” she said. “You do this every time you write a novel. But so do all my other clients.”

I didn’t even get to feel unique in my despair.

Keep on writing.  “That’s the only way that novels get written and, short of elves coming in the night and turning your jumbled notes into Chapter Nine, it’s the only way to do it.”