Way behind, but coming on strong !!!

I'm not that far behind, but I'm still around 21K. We can do it!!!

Ditto. I was at 20,900 as of late Sunday. I am going to try to race tonight to get into the 27,000 - 30,000 range. Argh.

Ah, here's my group!

Coming from behind, it's the American way, at least in old sports movies.
Anyone can sit down and jot off 50,000 words (ha), it's the catching up,
the "will they make it?" that's the real thrill. Right?

Go team!
Karen

Nothing like some last minute heroics.....*wait* I could use that in my novel !!!!!!!!!

WooHoo!

No worries - I'm on just over 18,000. Aaaagh. Sprinting seems to be the way to go.
I saw some people's word-counts in the forums that were on 130,000 plus.
They ought to be disqualified - or have to count backwards!

go mike !

OK, 3,700 words last night.... that was good, but I need to be cranking out closer to 4,000 (every night).....*ohhh crap*.

I barely made it over 27,000 and hope to crank out another 3,000-4,000 today. The problem is that it's so difficult to make up any ground when you're behind. Even if I do what I hope, I'll still be close to 4k words behind. Argh.

Nice!

I just crossed 16K last night, plugging away at 1K per day on average of late. This is going to be a big weekend as it seems like after breaking 15K that I now how a lot more of the characters' stories to tell. I also have a party to describe in my story with at least a short speech, which should give me a double-sized chapter to help get this rocket off the ground.

Best,
--Jeff

Jeff - luck to you. I had some luck catching up when I realized that the character I had been thinking of as my main character was really just one of an ensemble of main characters and I shouldn't worry about always returning to his POV if someone else is doing something interesting.

I didn't make it to 30k, but I'm close. I'm a little over 6k behind and going into a four-day weekend. With any luck, I'll be able to catch up and maybe even get ahead.

Still way behind but still coming!

The ML from my other home said she once loitered around to the last
minute and then wrote 29,000 words in the last two days.

It can be done.

Karen

I disappeared for forever. I didn't write at all for the week my relatives were in town. I also took a few days off before that with the whole "car fiasco," for those who know what I'm talking about. The wedding that refuses to be planned occasionally sends me into fits (Jan. 5 is coming quick), but I refuse to give up!

I need about 5,500 a day to finish. I've completely revamped my story into a romantic comedy -- but first I have to write a divorce. Then a year or so will magically pass, and wham! Romantic comedy it is. Everyone lives, everyone's happy, everyone magically gets along.

So what if it won't sell? So what if it won't even turn into anything I even have half a chance of being able to salvage? I refuse to quit!

Sorry, I forget who said it, but whoever wrote that coming up from behind is the American way -- I like that =) Totally agree.

Go Erin.

I think you will find that fun and humor goes a lot faster too.

Some word-padding tips (both for you and for everyone else):

My missed week turned around when I realized I had thought I had a main character, but my main character wasn't doing anything. I decided to approach it as an ensemble story and wrote a lot more chapters from the POV of other characters. That way whenever I realized someone had to do something but I had no way of knowing how to describe it, I would switch to someone else, and have a little bit of action show up off-screen. I know you can't abandon your main characters, but you could give minor characters a chapter here and there (which would allow us to see main characters through someone else's eyes).

Have some chapters/2000 word bursts where you just do something wacky and creative. Why not have a chapter from the POV of one of the dogs? Have a chapter about a nightmare one of them has about an improbable future (You can do really fun things with dreams and nightmares)? Do an entire chapter about the eccentric life of Mr. Ian Woon.

Let yourself write out of order. I've gone all linear, but the problem with that is when you feel some writers block, you're stuck. If you say "well, I can't write what happens next now, so I'll jump ahead to something I am feeling" it's easier to get into one of those flows where 5000 words in a sitting just happens.

One of the things that really helped my story was that I realized I had too many rational characters, so I took a minor character, and (based on a not-to-be-named person I know) made him amusingly crazy and irrational. Suddenly I had a monkey wrench to throw in once things were slowing down. In a comedy based on relationships, it seems like a family member would be perfect. How about a uncle who always thought the male lead was gay, and is convinced that the breakup of the marriage is proof (/keeps on trying to take him out to leather bars). Maybe the heroine's father loves the ex-husband and keeps on trying to get them back together (so he doesn't lose a fishing buddy/someone who knows how to buy the right tools).

Best of luck.

The website is obviously under a lot of strain, but I'll give this post a go anyway.
I just got past 31,000 this morning. For me, the best thing has been Sara Gruen's advice: to write the parts you will enjoy, all the fun sections, all the bits and pieces you have played over in your head and know, vaguely, how they are to go. You can worry about what she calls the 'transitions' afterwards.
I've been doing that, not sticking to a linear storyline, but just writing a part every day. So I got my first sex steamy scene out of the way; had my characters have a massive row; described a party; sent my characters on a weekend away ... easy stuff to write.
It's going to be one hell of an exercise trying to put it all together after Nov 30.
But then, the idea was simply to write, wasn't it? Not to be Ernest Hemingway.

As of Nov 21, I was pretty hard-core behind. But I am officially caught up as of tonight. YAY!

Luck to everyone still pushing. Drama down the stretch as we frantically try to finish is the nanowrimo way.