End of Nano

And I wish I’d had the time to find a clip of a lady singing opera, but have started to come down with a head cold today, so that won’t be happening.

Didn’t make the NaNo goal this year. Made it halfway and I’m going to be pleased with the fact that the story itself is flowing along very nicely. Still keeping up with Sven, so will be posting my progress about that.

Now I’m off to bed with some honey and lemon.

I feel Happy

Oh so happy, ’cause it’s flowing, it’s going so riiighhhhhtttt! (kind of sung to I Feel Pretty).

For some reason, today I am chipper. Which is odd, because I’m usually quite melancholy at this time of year. You go to work in the dark, come home in the dark, it’s like your day’s all done and you have to get up and do it all again tomorrow.

Today – I don’t know why, just really happy. Someone said maybe because we had an unusally sunny (but very cold) day.

I don’t know.

What I do know is that even though it’s looking increasingly unlikely I’ll reach the Nano goal, the story is just flowing at the moment and I’m taking advantange of the creative splurge.

I’m not giving up on Nano yet, the game’s not over ’til the fat lady sings. Okay, she may have come onto the stage, but she isn’t singing yet.

Day 3 of Wordcount Blasting

LOL – have slightly come to the conclusion I suck at wordcount blasting. Maybe next time I do it things will fall into place and I’ll have the time at the computer I need.

Start of Day 3 – 18421

End of Day 3 – 20537

I think I have learnt from this, that I am much more slow and steady wins the race. But I think it was well worth trying and I’m onto Chapter 6 having finally gotten over my Chapter 5 hump.

Day 2 of Wordcount Blasting

So, onto Day 2. Reasonably clear day, just have to take the dog to his class this afternoon, but that should still leave me with plenty of time to crack on. Apart from expecting a visit from my sister and nieces later, but hopefully will have made a dent in it by then

Wordcount start of Day 2 – 17589

Wordcount end of Day 2 – 18421

Now it might seem that this is not a cause to celebrate – but IT IS! Because I have finished chapter five – the first love scene. And anyone who was reading between the lines of my Thursday 13 on Procrastination a couple of weeks ago will have realized I was sorely stuck on that. But I am over it! Finally – and it’s only taken me most of the day editing and re-editing to get it right (and changing the point of view character for the chapter)*. And I can now crack on with the rest of the story.

* – I know that editing is not part of the Nano process, and it’s the part that I struggle most with. But I find the more I’ve got my character’s behaviour straight in my head, the easier the revision process is.

Day 1 of Wordcount Blasting

So at the beginning of this three day wordcount blast. I stand at 16,097 words for Nano. Will have to work out Sven later.

Will edit this post with my final count of the day, tonight.

Wordcount Start of Day 1 – 16097

Wordcount End of Day 1 – 17589

:sigh: as often seems to happen when you plan things like this, real life gets in the way. Unfortunately my mother was taken ill and we had to get the doctor to come out and visit her. So not much time for writing today. She’s feeling better, so fingers crossed the count will be slightly higher tomorrow.

Nano and Sven update

So progress as of yesterday when I wrote this post.

Nano – 9191 words – will have to make a really big push in the last two weeks to get to 50,000. Believe it or not this is usually standard Nano procedure for me. The closer I get to the end of the month the more I seem able to write.

Sven – 4000 words – counting from the day I joined.

Nano and Sven

How goes Nano? I’m tempted to answer that question with – don’t ask – I’m currently at 5191 words. This is not as good as it should be, but is about usual for my Nano experience. Yep, I am one of the people who ends up trying to write 25,000 words in the last week of November.

As I am the queen of procrastination (more about that on Thursday) I’ve also joined the latest round of 70 days of sweat. Just call me a glutton for punishment. But I really need to try and get into a proper writing routine, despite everything else that may be happening. So Nano and Sven stats below. Thanks go out to Nicole for posting about Sven today and giving me the idea to join.

 

12th November Nano word count – 5191 (I don’t even want to think how far behind that is)

12th November Sven word count – 0 ( well I’ve only just joined)

Ready, Steady…NaNo

Well I should be on my way back home by now.

But today’s November 1st so everyone needs to get their writer’s hats on and start NaNoing.

I think you can still register for this year, during the first few days of November so it’s not too late if you want to join in.

More information can be found at the NaNoWriMo website.

Anyone for NaNo?

Yep, it’s coming up on that time of year again – November – which means NaNoWriMo.

For anyone not familiar with this phenomenon, November is National Novel Writing Month, when thousands of people across the globe sit themselves down in front of their computers, typewriters and word processors and attempt to write a 50,000 word story. This means you have a target of 1667 words a day, which certainly sounds more attainable than 50,000.

I have been taking part in NaNo since 2005. I won (this just means you completed your 50,000 word target, the only thing you’re competing against is your own procrastination) in 2005 and 2006. Though I didn’t win in 2007 the piece I worked on last year eventually became If Wishes Were Horses, so that’s a win in my book.

What you write doesn’t have to be great, though that’s always a bonus. In a way what you’re proving to yourself is that you have the ability to sit down and do it. The main idea is that you don’t revise, you don’t edit, you start at the beginning and keep writing until you finish, if you want to go back and edit you do it at the end of November. The story I wrote in 2005 I think was the first thing I ever finished and will probably never be shared with anybody. Although there are parts of it I was really pleased with, I have never re-read it because most of it was dire. LOL. I am great at writing beginnings, but up until that point I’d never finished anything. So 2005 was about proving I could finish something once I’d started.

In 2006 I wrote a story which I ended up calling The Tithing. This one I was very pleased with and although it still needs a lot of work. I do hope to do something with it one day. You may have noticed it appearing and disappearing from my progress meter widgets.

I think year on year through NaNo it’s possible to see an improvement in your writing. Though you need to be writing in the other 11 months of the year as well.

2008 is the first year I’ve been organised enough to get an outline worked out before November. For the past three years I’ve been sitting down and writing by the seat of my pants. But this year I’ve got a great idea, I’m going to use September and October to get it solid in my head, with hopefully some character sheets as well. Then come November 1st I’ll be ready to go.

If you’d like to follow my NaNo progress I’ll be posting regular updates in November on my blogs. I’ll also be posting my progress on the NaNo site where I’m posting as SarahL. It may seem like November is weeks away at the moment (which it is ) but before you know it, it will be day 1 of a 30 day marathon. I hope some of you will be NaNoing with me.

For more info. visit – NaNoWriMo.