Cross Post: Summing Up My NaNoWriMo Experience ... again

You can read all about it on my other blog, the one where I write mostly about the creative process and the stuff I make.

This year, the process was more time and resource consuming because my goal was to reach 50,000 before Thanksgiving. I was hoping for an earlier "win." Say, around the 15th of the month, because that would give me a better chance of finishing the story by the end of the month. I have trouble with motivation in months that don't involve NaNoWriMo.

Maybe in December I'll go back to my usually bi-weekly updates. It's not like I don't have anything to write about or show you. My impulses have been satisfied with a daily word count goal of 2000. (Previously 2800.) Not sure what that means, if anything. Wonder what life would be like if I wrote 2000 words every day?

Meet Grar, the Prototype

Here's Grar. He's just a draft. As you can see he has a pigment problem. That's because the version of Michael 4 that I have does not let me use skins I already have for Michael 3 which means I'm going to have to do Grar over in M3. For now, he'll do. Although you see Grar as a warrior this is how he dresses on his time off or maybe in his dreams. Grar is a short guy, compared to the other Pathbreakers, and as a weakling, the job he has is mail carrier. You can see the tension building can't you?

I am a mere 9972 words behind, so it's back to work for me.

Initiating and Celebrating

Inducting newbs with the "Dream Dance" while celebrating NaNoWriMo word count.

Current Fads
Listening. Road to My Dream, Tony Gerber; whirring space heater fan
Watching. When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Activity. writing a novel!
Gadget. iPod Shuffle
News Source. Facebook
Reading. Soul Mates - Thomas Moore; The Ballad of Frankie Silver - Sharyn McCrumb; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J. K. Rowling
Writing. a novel!

me, only sicker

One of the horrible situations one finds oneself in when one lives alone is being ill with no one to attend you. I'm not talking about life threatening illness (for which relatives come out of the woodwork), I mean the ordinary everyday sort of sickness like a really, really bad cold, such as the one I have today. It has been coming on for days now and I didn't know it. I was ambushed yesterday and lay in bed and watched movies most of the day and night. Today is the same only worse.

Yesterday I had to haul my sick self out and purchase cold remedies. It had been so long since the last time I had a cold I couldn't remember what decongestant worked best. I remembered Nyquil, that blessed elixir of pain free deep sleep. So I got some healing sleep last night.

Today, however, I needed someone to riffle through my clothes and find soft warm things to put on after a lovely hot bath with epsom salts and euchilyptus oil. Someone to clean the tub first and run the water. Someone to find warm soft towels. Someone to care for the dog and do the dishes. Someone to sweep the floors which suddenly look germ infested. Someone to change out the smelly sheets for clean fragrant ones. Someone to run out to the video shop and find consoling humorous films to distract me.

You know, someone to cater to my every whim. I am, after all, the sick one. I know what will make me feel better. Right now it seems as if a moderate walk with the dog in the cool fresh sunshine would be lovely. I may actually do that.
Current Fads
Listening. recently purchased tunes (unpublished); a pin drop (everyone has left for Thanksgiving)
Watching. The Man With One Red Shoe (1993)
Activity. treading the sloppy wandering path of recovery from a rediculously brutal cold I do not deserve; fearfully watching the days go by and the word count needed to finish my novel draft by the end of the month multiply
Gadget. anything that plays movies
News Source. you gotta be kidding me
Reading. amusing detective novels by Simon Brett

novel writing statistics

I'm up to 15,561 words as of this precise moment. I'm ignoring the internal editor with a vengeance and even writing some things on purpose just to make her cringe. Ha! Ha!

I love the statistics page. I love seeing precisely how many words I've written and how many I need to write each day to make it to 50,000. I also like seeing how many days it will take me to finish at my current pace. I like it because even though the statistics are right they are wrong. You can't predict my novel writing behavior from what I've done in the past. I know that I will catch up (at least I'm assuming I will because I have in the past). I plan to catch up. I plan to make the goal no matter what it takes. Last year it took more than one 5,000 word day. This year I am (again!) trying to keep up and even get ahead. I'm not sure but might be that huge rolling stone of words left to write giving me the momentum I need to keep going.

I also like the process. I had no plan when I started writing. I simply began typing and a story presented itself. The story evolves on it's own. I open up and let the story out. That's all it takes.

Last year one of my motivations was having a donation page on FirstGiving where some of my family members had donated to my little write-a-thon. So, I had to finish. This year I'm just writing. I plan to finish, though. I've written it here so it must be happening.

You can find out more about this year's novel by clicking on the mini-graph on the right.

Stop! No more!

Perhaps you're familiar with the spaghetti scene in "Magical Mystery Tour." It's the one with the fat woman sitting at a table with a huge plate of spaghetti in front of her and a big grin on her face. She sits there with the napkin tucked under her chin and the fork and knife poised over her plate. She eats all the spaghetti and as soon as she's done they bring her more. She eats all that and they bring her more. They keep bringing it until she falls behind and the entire table is overwhelmed with spaghetti and the woman is about ready to throw up. That's sort of how I feel now.

Writing is fun and I really like it but having to write 5,000 words a day today, tomorrow and the next day is killing it for me. Enough! Stop! No more! 1600 words a day is quite comfortable and pleasant. However, I did sign up for this so I'm going to keep writing until I win (50,000 words by midnight Friday).

:::sigh::::

Feel sorry for me? Or enjoying my misery? Why not donate to the non-profit organization that made this possible: The Office of Letters and Light. I've got a page all set up on First Giving for you. Donate now! And thank you for furthering literacy and encouraging me to stay in this cell until I reach 50,000 words.

Fabulous Virginia Fall

This time right now, including yesterday and the previous couple of days and probably tomorrow and the day after, is the time to be here in Richmond. It's warm enough to eat outside in the sun while enjoying a view of riotous fall color. And listening to kids screaming and birds and squirrels carrying the news. It's really not fair to be inside writing a novel however far behind I am (about 10,000 words).

My greenleaf maple has finally, after four years, decided to become as advertised – edged in red in the fall. I really like the way the inside of the plant stays green while the outer edges get red. It hasn't done this before. It used to just drop its leaves.

And here I am inside not writing a novel and I'm really far behind. I will not stay home on Thanksgiving and catch up by writing 6,000 words in one day. I'm glad I got through it last year but it nearly took all the fun out of writing. The plan this year is to catch up by writing a little extra every day. Especially since Mom is making dinner on Thanksgiving and she's a great cook.

Too bad her great cooking talent didn't rub off on me or creep in by osmosis. Although I have managed to concoct a nice breakfast fritatta that's done all in the pan with eggs, cream, goat cheese and fresh spinach. I have it nearly every day.

Well, I have come far enough from the intent of this post and spent a long enough time not writing my novel. I must get back to it. If only I could justify spending $50 to get a legal copy of Documents to Go so I could write outside. Damn. I might do it anyway. Although, wouldn't that just take more time?

Here's the way it goes ...

All week I've been thinking about how much writing I'm going to get done over the long weekend. Yesterday I got lucky and I also pushed myself to get over 11.5K. Today I thought I would write in the morning before my interview and then come back and write more in the afternoon.

Yesterday was such a lovely day that I had to work outside for awhile. Most of the morning I was either at Mom's or on the way home. I actually didn't sit down to write until early evening.

Got up early (7 a.m.) and pulled out the old portfolio thinking I would just slip in the new stuff. Well, screw me. I haven't brought the new stuff home or if I did I've hidden it really good. So, scratch morning plans and race around like an idjit having breakfast and getting dressed while watching snippets of High Fidelity and wondering where the heck my samples are. I get to the office and find the samples easily. They fit well into my portfolio. I use the table in the conference room so I can spread everything out. Great.

I get into my car and see that I have nearly 45 minutes until interview time. Well, I need to find a place to park. I find one in five minutes and sit listening in the car to an audio book (disc 7) until 20 minutes before the interview. I get to the elevator and look at my phone and remember that the car clock is very slow ever since I changed the battery and forgot to reset it. Fortunately is it only 10:31 so I'm not late, really.

Around 1:45 p.m. I stagger out of the interview building, drained, tired and hungry. By the time I finish lunch it's 2:45 (more High Fidelity – this time to the end). The day has warmed up and even though it's been sunny all day it is now amazingly beautiful outside. But it's too late to walk the dog along the river and I suddenly remember I have a class tonight I'm unprepared for and from which I will return around 8:45 which will be too late to start anything and I'll probably be tired.

Gone are all the many hours of writing I was going to do today. Oh. And then there's the time I spent writing this. Still. There is some time left. It is early in the month. I can still achieve 50K words by the 30th. But not if I keep getting sabotaged by all the things I have to do around here.

Not like it's my fault or anything.

By the way, High Fidelity has jumped into my top five movies of all time.

NaNoWriMo Update

I think the site is seriously overloaded or something. I was going to update my word count to 3,397 and the site wouldn't load. I'll just have to live with the 3,100 odd I admitted to earlier today. Spent a lot of time not writing. Some of it justified. I like having a big project that I'm working on. It gives my life meaning, gives me something to think about as I wander the aisles of Barnes and Noble, and helps me to parcel out the rest of my time. Yep. Just like last time.

I tried to do some mulching and to re-attack the leak in the north wall of the living room but some how it was all just too much.

I did write my quota for today but I'm still a day behind. There's a write-in tomorrow, which will help and be motivational (if it's anything like last year). I am ready with PDA, keyboard and borrowed software (ty DataViz).

Sucky, really, to be here by myself some times. Not often, though.

Listening: Neighborhood – Jan Garbarek, Manu Katché, Marcin Wasilewski, Slavomir Kurkiewicz & Tomasz Stanko
Watching: The Science of Sleep; Who Framed Roger Rabbit; Numb3rs (10/19)
Reading: The Telling – Ursula K. LeGuin

It's here! It's here!

I can't believe I woke up shortly after midnight. Well, that part I can believe. What I can't believe is that I got up and started writing! Woo hoo! I'm sure I'll pay for it during the day at the job. Right now I'm thrilled about my flying start of 2,139 words. If I do this everyday I'll be done early.

I'm also doing a personal Write-A-Thon to raise money for Office of Letters and Light, the people who make my novel writing possible and inspire me. Wish I'd thought of that last week when Chris asked for sound bites. Oh well. You can find out more about my charity and even contribute by going to my home page and clicking on the widget in the upper right corner.

This is definitely the weirdest story I've ever written. But then it 's still a draft.