Progress

Not my first NaNoWriMo. I tried in 2006. Liked my story, but fell behind and got writers block. Gave up, but I am here for another go. I was worried over the last week or so. Last Monday I was home from work and painted our living room. Next morning my carpal tunnel was not happy. Over the next several days it got better, but since I write on the keyboard ALL day long in my day job, its been a long heal. But I did not do anymore plot outlining and am far short of where I want to be. On Saturday I spent 17 hours as a volunteer for the Indiana High School Marching Band Contest here in Indy (Fun!). I was pretty tired on Sunday and not feeling up to starting my novel. Forced myself and really got into it and put in 1707 words. Up to almost 3000 words so far today.

When I told my son I was competing in NaNoWriMo again, he bugged me about that incomplete book I tried in 2006. It was a juvenile fantasy book. So I promised him that I would complete the first draft of that in December! Lot of writing to do.
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I have produced a solid 3,000 words so far with very little effort (less than three hours). Granted, I have been writing and re-writing the same story I am working on for the better part of five years, so I really know where I want to go with it.

Here is my first paragraph, for any of those interested :)

"We didn’t fit in, which is why we were so great together.
Now, before you stop and analyze this first sentence and come to the correct conclusion that this story is trite and has been played out by thousands of other high school kids across the United States, please hear me out. I will submit that, yes, the cheesy “misfits coming of age” tale has become a complete cliché. However, I do feel that the reason so many people have chosen to go there is because it’s a story that everyone can relate to on some level. But I don’t believe that anyone can relate to Reagan Johnson as well as I can, which is why I really want you to know about what happened after our time together in high school. Reagan is the most amazing human being I have ever encountered in my life and is the reason why this worn-out diatribe is worth telling one more time."

I also am opening with the following two lines:
"Time and change will surely show how firm thy friendship," which is a line from the Ohio State alma mater, 'Carmen Ohio'
"Blue are the blossoms to memory dear," which is a line from the University of Michigan alma mater, 'The Yellow and Blue'

I started off VERY slowly yesterday morning - staring at the screen, starting, erasing and restarting several times the first hour or two that I sat in front of my laptop. But finally, I asked myself the right question ("Paper or Plastic?") and I was off and running. In this case, the question is the heading for Chapter One and refers to a superheroine trying to choose between two superheroes - one named "Cardboard" with the super powers of, er... corrugated paper, and the other named "Stretchosity" with stretching powers. A silly start with some silly characters, but I am having fun. Each chapter I come up with a new question to use as the chapter heading and a catalyst for the next character or scene setting.

Hope everyone else is having as much fun as I am. Regardless of word count, enjoy yourself.
Elmore

Author, The Twenty Dollar Bill
NaNoWriMo Winner: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
Script Frenzy Winner: 2007, 2008, 2009
http://www.elmorehammes.com

I joined in 2005 but never really produced anything. Today I have reached today's goal and I do hope to keep going to get caught up. November is such a difficult month because of Thanksgiving and all the holiday things associated with that. However, I figure if I can store up a few extra words a day, I will be fine.

One thing I've already learned by Day 3 is not to reread. Of course it isn't great literature. It is words on paper and that's the main thing. I graduated with a degree in English Composition and have done zero with it. I always wanted to be a novelist. So this is a great way to get me into the habit of writing daily. I hope that once I've won this, I can focus on taking myself more seriously as a writer. So far I'm having fun doing this. Make me feel good about myself just to be writing again.

OH SWEET PEANUTS! Progress you say? Wow, I have no idea how but I've hit 10,000 in three days! *falls over*

The thing of it is, while the word count is, of course, important, my real goal this year is to actually finish a novel. I've hit the word count multiple times and I even got to what was the "The End" moment for my novel 2 years ago, but it still had a huge gaping hole in the middle that I've never exactly filled in. So while, yes, so totally freaking out about the word count, I'm also slightly concerned, because we're only starting to get to the place where the Main Plot BEGINS, we haven't even MET one of the MCs yet, and have only a passing knowledge of two others. If my real goal is to get the thing finished this month then I have a buttload of more writing to do and the little blue bar at the top of the screen isn't going to help me at all.
Le sigh.
But WOOT!
But le sigh.
I need left over Halloween candy. *wanders off*

Try to look unimportant. The enemy may be low on ammo.

OMG wow, 10K in 3 days is stupendous! If you can sustain that, you'll be at 50K before the month is half over!

Me, I just finished Chapter 3 over lunch, bringing my total to an even 7,500. I'll probably write more tonight too. Seems like I can bang out roughly 1,000 words per solid hour of work. I think my speed's increased just a little each year I do this, too.

I'm also kind of cramming the wordcount early, since I know I have many days this month where I won't be able to write at all. And, well, it's nice to have a head start so I CAN take a day off if I want to cool down a bit.

Everybody keep that mojo workin'! :)

Chris

--
NaNo 2007 - Four 'til Late - Winner!
NaNo 2008 - Sinking Down - Winner!
NaNo 2009 - Me and the Devil - In Progress!

Wow, Arilan, you passed me handily. Congrats on being at 10k already, but I will endeavor to catch back up tonight when I get home from work. :-) My story is flowing in a forward direction with almost disturbing ease, though in the next two or three thousand words I'm going to be killing off my FMC, so it might get rough for a little while there.

This is my first attempt at something this long besides a couple of term papers as an undergrad, which don't really count because they weren't fiction (as far as my profs knew, anyway). I was quite scared going in that I'd be at a complete and total loss for what to have my characters do/say and get stuck, but aside from a couple of times where my muse must have gone for a smoke break, it's been pretty smooth. There are things happening in my story that didn't occur to me at all during my planning, which is exciting. All in all, I do believe that signing up for NaNo might have been the best decision I've ever made.

Just wanted to chime in and say YAY!! to everyone for their awesome progress. :-)

Tara ~ Co-ML, Indianapolis

I am at just a touch over 4000 right now. I'm not out to set any records, but I'm keeping pace, and since I'm almost totally in the dark as to what this story is about, I'm thankful simply for more words on the page!

"What could I do if I did not have to do it perfectly? A lot more than I am now."

So far so good here. I'm half way through my chapter 3 and roughly at 5300 words. Would like to knock that out tonight if possible.

For me the first portion of my novel is pretty set in my mind, Part II however is already giving me fits. Oh well, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Keep up the good work everyone!

Yay for everyone! I’m so happy about this. I just love NaNo. :D
So. Here I am at 5,007 words. I haven’t had enough time to write to day (I’m supposed to be doing homework, but oh well… :$ ) I’m actually done with Chapter 3, which makes for some short chapters, but from now on the chapters will be getting longer. I have big plans for these next for chapters…. :P
I’m gonna try to get a lot done this afternoon, since I have church tonight. Maybe my parents will be generous and let me stay up after we get back.
Probably not. :P

"...choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward." Hbr 11:25-26

Well, the first day I had a chance to write was yesterday, but I wrote a lot. I'm still behind, but I'm catching up.

However, this is indisputably the worst NaNo I've written yet. I can see about a thousand ways that it sucks. I think that will be my challenge this year -- not giving up when the writing isn't going well.

Sheesh! This is a lot harder than I thought. I had absolutely zero time to write yesterday (and was already behind 1,000 words from the day before). I've spent most of the evening catching up, but I'm still going to be short for my goal today.

I'm really liking how my story is going so far... I just had never realized exactly how long it takes to write so much. For those of you who are interested, my story is a modern-day fantasy set in Indy. I've just gotten most of the backstory laid for the reader and I'm ready to really set out on some "adventures." I'm a little worried because I'm getting to the point in my outline where I was a little more vague about what was going to happen, so I'll have some more work to do figuring out how exactly the events unfold while I write. All part of the fun, right!?!?

Hopefully this weekend I will find plenty of time to get ahead for next week; it's going to be another busy one for me! Still hoping to hit the BR write-in - sorry I missed you guys this passed week!

Andy

Tonight was really weird. I didn't write much - only about 800 words - but I *really* had fun with it. The tone seems to be changing, but...guess we'll just follow that and see where it ends up.

For tonight I'm at a little over 8900, and realizing that things aren't going to explode out of the gate on word count like they did last year, or how I remembered that they did last year. Whatever. I'm keeping pace with a very slight bit of padding. Glad to be keeping pace.

I have no idea where my story is going. Sort of. Maybe.

"What could I do if I did not have to do it perfectly? A lot more than I am now."

Blarg Blarg! We're five days in, and all of the tips and whatnot that people have said just hit home today. This is my first time through this nano thing, and for the first three days I was trucking along through the exposition like a novelling fiend. Last night I got a call from one of the businesses for which I do tech support on the side, and lost the entire evening trying to help them through their latest IT disaster (therefore writing exactly zero words for the day). Then, today, I hit a pivotal point in my story, and after struggling with it for many hours longer than I should have, I'm through. Now I have all of these questions and doubts in my head about how I wrote it and whether I gave too much or too little information, whether the actual facts in it are exactly how I want them, etc. I have the nigh-overwhelming urge to go back and rewrite every single bit of the 12-something-thousand words I've got so far, and I'm wondering if I'm wasting my time with all this.

All that being said, I know the answers, because all of you wise veterans who have pioneered this month of insanity before me have already told me how to handle it (plow through, get the story written, edit in December, etc.), but it's still a blow to my (admittedly overinflated) ego that I hit this speedbump five days into the month.

Okay, whining complete. I'm still a little over two days ahead of schedule wordcount-wise, and even including the frustrations of today it's still one of the best things I've ever done. Back to it!

I manage to be keeping right at pace. I started the month off with almost 4700 words, which was amazing, but of course Nov. 1st was a Sunday, and that is the least busy day for me. Then Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I was at school all or most of each day, and I somehow ended yesterday only 2 words above the daily goal. And I stuck those last two words in just so I wouldn't have 6668 as my day-ending number. I am ending today 3 words above word count, so yippee!

On a humorous note, on the way to school yesterday I got behind not one, but TWO, cars whose license plates were XX6668 (where X represents some random letters I don't remember). I thought that was pretty funny. I didn't see the number 8335 anywhere today though.

Anyhow... I don't remember how I was doing on day 5 last year. I know I started the month of strong, slumped in the middle, and wrote about 11K words in the last weekend. So, as long as I can stay on track and hopefully get some padding in on the weekends (well, Sundays really) then I think I'll be OK.

Content-wise... well, I'm winging it this year, which is a pretty new concept for me altogether. I am kind of stringing out my MC's random happenings at the moment because I'm not sure what the next real plot point will be. I know a very vague concept (MC meets a man who can fate something to happen just by speaking it, and once it has been spoken it can't be undone... and she meets this man in a strange new town she has stumbled upon when fleeing from her cheating fiance... and somehow, the man's abilities are going to put her in harms' way and she'll have to figure out how to get around them, with his help of course, against the backdrop of a strangely supernatural town.... Oh, and the MC is struggling to get her lit agent a new book by yesterday, and if she doesn't, she's going to run out of money pretty soon and end up working at McDonald's. Just to add some flavor.) ... but I don't really know the WHATs of the story. So, if anyone else is in this boat --- don't feel too bad. You're not alone.

Will check in next week sometime. Hopefully I'll be on track still!!

*Insert a clever remark here, and pretend I said it.*

~ 2nd year NaNo participant ~
2009 -- Providence... in progress
2008 -- Vaampyr.... won!

Today was my first day where this novel felt like work... Uphill work. The first 4 days had momentum and today... well, I got the wordcount in, but I really had to get out and push.

I'm entering territory that's not as well thought out, so I keep having to pause and think... What now?

Good luck with your roadblocks, we all have 'em... but no rewriting... November is forward only, never backwards.

Chris

--
NaNo 2007 - Four 'til Late - Winner!
NaNo 2008 - Sinking Down - Winner!
NaNo 2009 - Me and the Devil - In Progress!

I like that, Chris. The idea of forward motion, I mean. :) I'm someone that writes two or three chapters, goes back over it to edit, gets frustrated, saves the file, lets it grow dust, pulls it back up in three months, maybe work on it some more or kill off a character if I can't figure out how to move on it, get frustrated again, save it, store it away..............you get the picture. I backpedal more often than I leap forward when it comes to writing, so I'm anxious to change the cycle.

I hit just over 9,300 last night and am ecstatic! I was pretty sure I would have an epic fail moment and hit the wall last night since I usually slam face first at around 8,000 words. But I'm happy to say I'm past the normal wall and pluggin' along!

Woohoo!

Have a marvelous day and write on!

-Heather

"The early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."

~*~

First year NaNo participant.

2009 - Tears from an Angel : Trying to catch-up and get back on schedule :o)

Heather, your normal writing routine sounds a lot like mine outside of November. Without NaNo, I double I would have a single completed rough draft.

I'm actually doing surprisingly well considering I have yet to feel any real interest in my FMC or what she's doing. I have no plot and no idea for a plot. There are a couple of events in the future, but I have no idea how to get there or when (or if I really care). I have a back story, but nothing for the present day story. I suspect I'm writing another book that at the end of November I'm never going to care to go back to. That hasn't happened in a few years.

But hey, I'm writing. ;-) Maybe eventually I'll grow to like my FMC. Right now...not so much.

Tara ~ Co-ML, Indianapolis

physguyk, I'll just add a little note from last year's NaNo that may add some needed perspective:

I killed off a side character, and three pages later I realized that the character needed to live or else I couldn't continue with some important plot points in the story. At that point, the character was just suddenly alive again, no explanation. I never bothered with that little detail, just wrote her back in and kept on going. 'Tis NaNo, we're allowed these little extravagances.

I'd also like to add that it's great to hear everyone's progress. I'm having a tougher time of it this year, worried about keeping pace and all that, not sure of my storyline, but hearing others struggle and tough it out makes it easier for me to continue. I am basically on pace for day five, hope to get in another 1700 before today ends. We only have to do this thing a day at a time, kids! It can be done!

thegear

"What could I do if I did not have to do it perfectly? A lot more than I am now."

Ha ha, I like the carefree way you ignored that character death! I figure the best way would be to just make a note somewhere and do something in the revision.

My past experience playing roleplaying games has put me in a mindset where "retconning" (retroactively changing the action that's already happened) is a bad thing, and moving forward is better. This is NOT a good strategy as an author, since we do have ultimate power over time and space. If I need a trash can with Wyld Stallyns painted on it to fall on a villain's head, I just have to go back a couple of chapters and mention somewhere that the MC is setting that trap up.

But the no-retcons mindset is hard for me to break, so I try to live with my bad decisions in writing. I guess I'd have it turn out that the dead character wasn't really dead, like Doc Brown in Back to the Future, or maybe the MC was mistaken in what she thought she saw happen.

But still... always forward during November! Huzzah!

Chris

--
NaNo 2007 - Four 'til Late - Winner!
NaNo 2008 - Sinking Down - Winner!
NaNo 2009 - Me and the Devil - In Progress!

Yes, well, it...it just had to be done! For what it's worth, I don't think that character ever showed up in the plot again - oh, wait, maybe the character lived and then I killed her pages later suddenly? Yeah - we're seeing how really closely I was paying attention to that.

This really points out what NaNo is all about: moving forward. I don't even remember those mistakes I made. They are, after all, available for fixage in the rewrite (which I have no hard plans to ever do, anyway).

Oh, and: "Wyld Stallyns rule!"

gyrhed

"What could I do if I did not have to do it perfectly? A lot more than I am now."

Ha, that sounds familiar... I can't remember if you brought her back just to kill her again, but I do recall you considering it.

So many people are doing so well! Bravo!

I'm reeeally struggling this year, and it helps to know lots of words are being written elsewhere. For whatever reason, I'm not enjoying my story much this time around. Or not getting into it much, maybe. This may be the year that I introduce penguin-carrying pirates just to see what happens.

I'm bummed that the story isn't flowing, but I'm still having a great time. I've fallen out of the habit of writing for the last few years, so it's great fun to sit in traffic and dream up stories about people in other cars. I'd missed inspecting *everything*.

Ericka
Co-ML, Indianapolis

Inspired vessel of the Traveling Shovel of Death

Wha-? 4 rlz? No way, yo! You're the one I keep thinking about when I'm all, "Yeah, how can I write this with, like, barely a wisp of veil of a rhime of an onion-skin of a plot? And then I go, "Well, Ib did it last year with nothing. It's possible. It's totally possible."

"What could I do if I did not have to do it perfectly? A lot more than I am now."

ok, i'll admit it--gearhead, you are by far the funniest. i look forward to your posts. can't wait to meet you at a write-in. maybe you could wander up to the keystone at the crossing/carmel write-in's sometime? we could use a hit of your humor!

hey--hang in there. i'm only doing well because my family has had spaghettio's for dinner three times this week and i'm pretty sure we're all out of clean clothes. i've missed two appointments i've had on the calendar for months and wither blown up or killed off people at an alarming clip in these first 15000 words.

life's about sacrifice... tomorrow i might serve dog food instead of chex mix for college game day!

Hey, if the game's good enough they might not notice.

2006 - How to Survive an Earthquake (50,600)
2007 - No Title (5,000ish)
2008 - Moon Dog (15776)
2009 - The Baker's Apprentice -- updates M-F @ http://joanna-nanowrimo2009.blogspot.com

Haha... my first couple of years, I had three children at home, and they were rather feral by the end of the month. I had visions of fending them off with lunch meat, chicken legs, and Goldfish.

And hey, I'm gonna pull through. Four years, four "wins," and I'm not gonna break the streak now. However, if Thanksgiving rolls around and I'm still wrestling with a depressing story and haphazard plot points, hm... maybe I'll just have a black and white extravaganza... penguins, prisoners, zebras, killer whales... It'll be fabulous.

I've never had to bomb a story with silliness, but it sure seems cathartic. I refuse to rule it out this year.

Ericka
Co-ML, Indianapolis

Inspired vessel of the Traveling Shovel of Death

This year, I have discovered that the crock pot is my dinnertime ally. That and recruiting my between-jobs wife to help cover that to keep us all from "going feral" (I laughed out loud about that, thanks Ericka!)

Chris

--
NaNo 2007 - Four 'til Late - Winner!
NaNo 2008 - Sinking Down - Winner!
NaNo 2009 - Me and the Devil - In Progress!

I haven't quite yet gotten around to posting in this thread because I've been a tad busy (with writing a novel, of course), but I figured since I just passed my first big milestone I might as well post to celebrate it.

I finally passed my 10k mark!

I know a lot of you have already passed that and then some, but for a person who's done this only once before and hardly made it out of the 1k area, I'd say I'm pretty proud of myself. And the story's not half bad either. I'd have to say it is MUCH easier writing this time with a story I actually enjoy heh. I've got an idea of where I want this to go, but Ive got not much more planning that that!

I'm glad to see so many other people are having as much (if not more) success as me, and for those of you who are struggling: keep going! You've got a community of wonderfully supportive and brilliant writers right here at your fingertips who I'm sure would be more than willing to give tips, help with ideas, etc. If I can write 19k words in 6 days, I KNOW you guys can do it too! :D

~Rao