And it's over...or just beginning

NaNoWriMo is done and I'm proud to say this is my first time finishing with 50k words! I did it! I made it! I am very thankful.

Final word count: 51,886

My original goal at the beginning was 100k. I knew it was ambitious. Even though I didn't reach my personal goal, I feel accomplished in a small way knowing that I did better than I did last year.

I think that will always be my true goal for NaNoWriMo: write more words than I did the previous year. (Of course, if I get a fluke year and write 200k, that goal will probably stop and I'll make it more realistic.)

Congratulations to everyone who participated in NaNoWriMo! And an extra applause for those who wrote 50k or more by the deadline.

I'd like to hear a short synopsis about your NaNoWriMo experience. A synopsis of how you get into your writing groove, what your favorite part about NaNoWriMo is, or even a synopsis of the novel you wrote during November.

Also, what did you do the day after NaNoWriMo?

I promptly started another story. I don't know why. It sounded like a fun thing to do.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Praise the Lord for His incredible blessings. This year I am most thankful for my fiance and the way the Lord has brought us together.

Week 4 of NaNo

Hey! It's the last week!

This is exciting, relieving, and sad all at the same time.

I got pretty stuck on my story, so I decided to add in a few extra plot twists. For instance, now my MC is in the middle of a tunnel maze after having found a gigantic pit of skeletons and a test-tube containing the black plague that she has to get to the surface.

I know a lot of people rail against NaNoWriMo because it promotes reckless abandon. And the point is valid because assumedly we're all trying to write something that will eventually be publishable.

And it does seem comforting to say that life should be all about quality and not quantity.

But the truth is, writing with reckless abandonment and making up crazy plot twists is just plain too much fun to pass up. It might be drivel. It might have taken up a lot of my time. But I find myself even now thinking back to last year's NaNoWriMo and remembering scenes I wrote during that time. Those scenes have now grown in my head and make a little more sense. But I wouldn't have had them if I hadn't tried to write crazily.

If NaNoWriMo doesn't work for some people, that's cool. But if it does work for some of us, that should be cool as well. I have always ALWAYS brought something away from writing crazily that was useable later on, even if it was just learning about how I write.

Sheer volume of words doesn't equal quality. But it sure helps in getting to that quality stage.

So what am I going to do with this mountain of words after November? Well, I have a second story I want to start on so I will probably file them away for a month or two, work on the other story, then bring them out when I have a fresh perspective on them again.

Happy Writing everyone! And Happy Thanksgiving! May your turkeys be big and make you sleepy, and may you find some time to settle down and enjoy family. And to write.

NaNoWriMo stats:

Words total: 43,676

Words left: 6,324

Average Words Per Day: 1,985

At this rate I'll be done on: Nov. 25th

Percent complete: 87%

Week 3 of NaNo!

I think I missed week 2. Oh well.

Chris Baty is right: the second week of NaNoWriMo is the toughest!

I'm not exactly sure why this is. I do know that last week I was down in the dumps about my story, and today, Monday, I'm happy as can be and was able to write 5k+ words today. :D

NaNoWriMo Update:

Total words: 41,626

Average words per hour for November: 469.31 (whoah, that's low!)

Words left to reach 50k: 8,374

Average words per day: 2,602

At this rate I'll be done on: Nov. 19th

Percent complete: 83%

Am I obsessed with numbers and figures? No, not really. I just happened across a really cool Excel spread sheet publiushjm made for NaNoWriMo. Thanks publiushjm!

Writing Buddy

You know how flies only live a short period of time, and you can tell how long they have left to live by how fast they move?

There's a fly that's been bugging me for awhile now where I write. Today I noticed it's getting more daring and flying right onto my keyboard while I'm typing! It's also getting really slow in its reaction time.

I was tempted to catch and kill it, but I figure, it's going to die soon anyways. I guess I'm just overcome with compassion today. For now, it's my writing buddy. The fly on the wall that, even if my inner critic says my story is bad, will look on from above. I'm kind of glad it stuck around. Makes me think my story must be great if it chose to spend the last moments of its life reading it.

NaNoWriMo update:

I got a little stuck the last few days. Am just now wiggling my way out of it.

Word count: 33,211 as of this afternoon.

Ok, back to the, er,.....writing board.

(I guess that would be keyboard.)

Possible Kindle Winning!

Hey everyone.

Just wanted to let you know about a Kindle drawing over on Lisa and Laura's blog. You gotta hurry though. Contest ends Friday.

Thanks to everyone for your advice about my plot holes. I'm still not decided but I think I'm going to go with the princess. Either that or kidnapping the princess AND an attempted assassination on the cult leader.

Happy writing!

Day 7

It's been a week filled with NaNoWriMo.

Here's where I stand:

Total word count: 19,896

Average number of words per day: 3,316

At this rate I'll be done on: Nov. 15th

Percent complete: %40

My goals:

1. Write 50k words on Dragons of Windsor, my historical young adult fiction.

2. Write 50k words on A Difference in Magic, my sci-fi fantasy fiction.

To copy Cindy Wilson's blog, I'm going to post an excerpt or action. Feel free to post your own excerpt or tell me about an action one of your character's is doing.

Action:

My MC has just witnessed her first embalming session, and shortly afterwards was kidnapped.

Excerpt from Dragons of Windsor:

Hannah watched with excitement, curiosity, and a little bit of melancholy. She had waited for this. She wasn’t entirely sure she was ready to take it all in, but was determined to do her best.

The embalmer, when Hannah first saw his face, looked very hollow. His face was a mixture between wrinkles and wrinkles that wanted to come out. They were barely held back by some invisible force. His eyes were clear, though he had barely any eyelashes. When he blinked at her, she saw a newborn’s eyes in the head of a bloated man. Still, he had done what he could with his appearance. He wore expensive slacks and a suit coat. When he removed it, she could see he already had on an apron underneath.

“I come to work prepared. Saves time.” He explained. Hannah wondered if he kept a box of disposable aprons near the front door or if he took the used ones home and washed them then brought them back. She didn’t ask. All in all, he was a sad man who seemed to slump forward from years of slow melancholy weighing him down. Hannah regarded him as a man who had probably faced death one too many times and was gradually succumbing to a sad truth about the human race. Is this how I will become? She wondered.

Mottos and Dragonish Stuff

Found this interesting link through Carrie's blog about character mottos. It might prove interesting.

The character mottos from my book and their consequences at the end:

Main Character: Follow your dreams no matter what = satisfaction

Secondary Character: Do the absolute best that you can = safety

Villain: Do whatever it takes = death

Plot mover: Follow your heart = selfish and insignificant paradise

My NaNoWriMo novel has taken off! Or, at least one of them has.

I had a story in mind that I wanted to write and was really excited about. But then there was this other story that my writing buddies and friends asked me to do for NaNoWriMo. Short story is I'm going to try to do both. Which means I'm attempting to write 3,334 words per day instead of the regular 1,667.

Yesterday I got on par with 13,748 words. It's been a lot of fun.

If you scroll down to the bottom of the blog, you'll see the banner I made for "Dragons of Windsor."

How are your NaNo novels coming? Want to post an excerpt? I'd love to see a snippet of what you all are doing.

Here's an excerpt from my secondary character's journal:

The Castle definitely needs to be bolstered in several areas. The general look of the place is at best outdated. I understand why the King has been advised to change it. This is the creative opportunity of a lifetime and I intend to use my full force on it. I did not think once today about how I might serve the Dragons or how I might be a better spy, blacksmith, husband or father. For one day I was simply an inventor. Though I gladly fulfill the other roles placed on me, I am thankful for the chance to immerse myself in one thing only. Though I don’t doubt the requirements of a spy will surface soon enough. And I wish but do not expect that my role as father and husband will come back to me someday soon.

Sorry I don't have any incredibly compelling moments yet. No tear-jerking scenarios or emotionally charged scenes. But they will come.

How are your NaNo Novels coming?

IT'S HERE!!!1

NaNoWriMo has started!!!!

I will post more once I have a significant word count.

What are you doing reading this blog? Get to writing!!!

Or, just use the Metaphor of the Day Assignment to help your writing along:

MDA:

Come up with a metaphor for a procrastinator. Yeah, I know. Not an original prompt here, but hey, I've gotta get to writing.

Things I"ve been doing to prepare for NaNoWriMo

1. Took a small break from writing and did other creative things like draw, make pop-ups, etc.

2. Polished and spent lavish time on my two outlines using the Snow Flake Method and Phase Drafting. It was fun giving myself permission to spend more time outlining instead of telling myself it was just a distraction and I should be writing instead. This is the one time of year I don't have to feel guilty for indulging in back story and extraneous facts about my novel.

3. Reading more books, listening to more podcasts about writing.

4. Cleaned up my writing space and hung a word-count chart on my cork board. I even armed it with little golden stars at the ready for each time I complete a daily goal.

5. Took some pictures I hope to turn into banner art for my novel to be displayed in my signature on the NaNoWriMo forums. I'll post it here when it's done.

6. Ignored most of my RSS feeds in an effort not to overwhelm myself with the writing world.

I want to hear from you about your writing!

In the comments below, post the following:

Title of WIP:

Genre:

How you prepare for NaNoWriMo:

Here's mine.

Title: Dragons of Windsor

Genre: Historical Adventure Fiction

How I prepare: see above.

NaNoWriMo is around the bend! And so is Cake. No lie.

I'm officially registered for NaNoWriMo this year which happens in November. My name is leolewis if anyone wants to add me as a buddy.

What is NaNoWriMo? Check out the link. It's a challenge where many writers across the globe attempt to write a book in an entire month. (A book being defined as 50,000 words. In reality, that's a pretty short book, but hey, we're doing it in a month.)

I feel I am more prepared now than last year (which was my first try). In 2008 I made it to 30,000 words, 10,000 of those being written on the last day in November over a period of 9 hours straight. My butt was pretty sore after that.

But this year I've already started outlining, using a method called Phrase Drafting. I'm combining it a little bit with the Snowflake method. We'll see how it works.

Does anyone have experience with either of these methods? Do they work for you? Don't work? What does work for you?

Ok, now it's off to bed to dream about my wonderful characters while I can. I'm sure by the time November blows over I'll be sick of them.

MDA:

What's a metaphor for NaNoWriMo?

Highlight the text to see my example if you need inspiration:

Example: NaNoWriMo is a piece of cake.

It sits there at the end of the dinner table just waiting to be eaten. It promises me it will be easy to eat. But I have to get through my vegetables in a hurry before I can even take a bite. As I shovel peas into my mouth, I gag. As I look at the steamy bowl of characters before me, knowing my mother will make me eat some of those too, I get a little queasy. Then I remember the cake, and I make myself be more patient. Soon my mother is putting really tough and dry plot meat onto my plate. It's tough to chew. I try to wash it down with some setting, but it doesn't help. Finally, after three hours of arguing with my mother about how many vegetables I have to eat, and asking if I really have to clean my plate, I get to bite into that delicious piece of raspberry-I-finished-neener-neener-inner-critic-cheese cake.

Working hard and hardly working

Hey.

Been busy writing so haven't had much time to post here. After the JuJu challenge I'd like to say I'll have more time to post but to be honest, I kind of hope this writing grove stays with me.

JuJu is a personal challenge inspired by some bloggers and writers I know. My goal, abstractly is to write a significant amount during June and July. More concretely, I'd like to at least write 42,000 by the end of this two month span. 60,000 would be better and I would be satisfied at that. I would be ecstatically happy if I could reach 100,000, meaning 50,000 in each month, just like NaNoWriMo, but I'm going to take it one day at a time, and shoot for 1,000 words per day.

MDA:

I've been listening to a podcast novel lately by J.C. Hutchins titled "Seventh Son" (you can find it on www.podiobooks.com) and he uses a lot of metaphors to add to his descriptions. The whole book is like listening to poetry. At times it's a little heavy, and other times it draws me right in.

When you write, do you use metaphors a lot? What do you use them for? Do you think they can be used too much?

The assignment today is to come up with a metaphor and use it in your writing, then tell me how you used it. And if you want to, why you used it.

For example, this is one I used this past week as a description which also indicates to the reader the character's attitude toward the place:

[The psychiatric hospital's] long corridors stood with open doors looking like mouths or catacombs. He couldn’t decide which.