5,000 Word Thread

I don't think so...I'm nearly there. Got 4,582 at the midnight write in last night. I'll probably break 5,000 tonight.

Congrats =D

I started writing this morning & hit 5,000 sometime in the afternoon. Decided to stop there for the day. Loving my story so far. :-)

I wanna live till I die, no more, no less. --Eddie Izzard

Worked half the night and all day, but I made it! Too far into it to back out now!

:-)
Shirley
Bluebirdsong

5000 was my goal today but alas, I did not make it. At the moment i'm a little over 4000 which isn't bad since I wasn't expecting on working a *surprise* eight hour shift at work today :/

I'm not doing too bad so far, tomorrow I work a much shorter shift so i'll be able to spend some quality time with my keyboard.

- Nicki

"Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery." - Jane Austen

3am, but it's still within my "first day of writing" time :P
Magic 5000 word... "females"... yay to all females!

2006 - Ghost Coast
2007 - Children of Trinhodg
2008 - The Lastisto Ambassador
2009 - Daughters of Ashby - In Progress

I just hit my 5000th word - tow.

Now all I have to do is repeat this fear 10 times and I'll be done!

I hit 5229 this morning. I'm a day ahead and feeling pretty good about that. I also needed the peptalk this morning because my writing is sucking! Oh, well. Like they said, all words are good words this month!
Teri

Tolerable!

*does a happy dance*

~ To be a real woman is to bring out the best in a man. ~

My 5,000th word was "booths" in the sentence "All of the tables were perfect, shiny, and none of the booths had a single crack in the fabric." Not a great sentence, I realize.

And whoever said their writing is sucking, ME TOO! I love SOME of the sentences I'm coming up with, some of the descriptions, but it's not going anywhere and isn't really exciting right now. Maybe it's just because my character had a weird dream, then got up and rode the bus to work and is now visiting someone at the ice cream shop next door. It's about to start getting exciting but it's so weird to create that suspense instead of reading the suspense that someone else wrote.

The best NaNo attempt I ever did was a little over 8,000 words, so having 5,000 already is great. I have another book I've been writing on when there's nothing better to do for years, it's between 200 and 275 handwritten pages, but there's not much suspense buildup. It needs a lot of work.

I'm excited to have something written though, once it's out of your head and onto some sort of paper - virtual or not - it's so much easier to tweak and work on perfecting. I'm excited to do that. I think I'll make the rough version into a book form, and then tweak it and make it again. You know, those sites where you send in your file and they book-ify it for you. =D

Oh I know this is hidden in my post, but if you guys want someone to make a cover for you, I have some pretty good digital art skills. I'd do it for free. And I'm not just one of those people that says they have skills and uses bits of other things people made - I make stuff from scratch. Send me a message later if you want.

How's this for epic irony: I just typed up to exactly 4,999 words and just had my first writer's block. #5000 will probably be a typical sentence-starter such as "The" or "I" or "What". Except now I'm too conscious about it...

OK, I just busted through. #5000 is "I".

word number 5000 for me:

find.

the sentence:

"If anyone should see it, they would investigate and find us." (The eldest of the 12 brothers, Gregar, is speaking of a torch. good thing i made it an almost full moon out, eh, so they could find their way without the dang torch!)

My 5,000th word was "Emperor." One of my characters is in hiding from Napoleon's agents.

Every year, when I'm done, I save my novel as a PDF and upload it to Kinkos.com and then have a bound copy made up. Usually costs about $15, I think, and I can usually go pick it up the same day. Handy for editing. Or attempting to edit. Or just referring back if you're writing a sequel this year like I am :)

I'm close. It's been great fun so far.

Question for those of you who've done this before, and I know there's no set rule on this, but are you all on a second chapter (or third?) after 5k words? I'm only...maybe...halfway through my first chapter, and it's feeling kind of long. Just wondering where you all are on that, or if you even bother with chapters at this point.

I'm shooting for 5000 on every day I have off, and 5000-10,000 from wed-sun while I work. If all goes well, I will hit the 50,000 goal by not this weekend, but the weekend after.

I have just officially jinxed myself.

Cheers,
Stasha

Cheers
-Stasha

Word Number 5K for me: "teeth."

As in:
“Of course,” Thor growled through clenched teeth at the skinny brunette in the tight-fitting polyester uniform.

5K! what a challenge. I'm going for that this eve, at 3300. If I put it here I have to, so here we go. My characters have taken over, inviting friends I didn't even know existed. Why didn't I finish this last year! I will post the 5K word as soon as my computer chimes it at me.

Gratz all. I want to edit, I sooo want to edit. I will resist and keep moving forward.

Agree on the "suck" comments. I can't reread what I've written the last 2 days. I know it stinks, I know its full of holes and mixed tenses, etc. But its closer to a completed novel than I've ever been!

Don't let the Inner Editors out of the kennels. All writing is a HUGE accomplishment. All is good. It will be like de-boning a chicken later.

Grins,

~ LL Derr
"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop." - Confucius
------------------------------------------------------------
ll@writerslatte.com
http://www.writerslatte.com

My 5,000th word was tooth! From the sentence:
“The tooth fairy,” the man said, “my girlish charm and hatred of dentures should have given it away.”
...I guess you have to read the story to get it :/

the word was "inedible."

congrats everyone!

I didn't realize I had hit the magic number, nor do I know what the word could possibly be. I have conquered 5000 and I'm just glad to finally be getting these characters out of my head.

I agree, my work earlier today felt simply terrible. At least there's editing in December.

My 5000th word is "glow". The sentence is describing the remodel of the dining room which included lighting only by candles in the candelabra..."The glow was soft and beautiful, and enhanced anyone’s complexion."

I'll try anything once-move over Hemingway...
Pat

Woot, made it.

5K word : black

Sentence : ... but the colors are odd, she thought as they were sucked away and all went black.

~ LL Derr
"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop." - Confucius
------------------------------------------------------------
ll@writerslatte.com
http://www.writerslatte.com

Hit 5000 here, not sure what the word was because I was cruising through the story:) Feels good to be on track today.
Congratulations everyone :)

Emily Heisler

I saw this thread and decided to keep trudging forth; just hit 5,683. Just starting to warm up!

i'm just starting chapter 5... but i've condensed some of the story in order to get a full novel knocked out in 30 days, and i'll have to flesh it out somewhat later when (if?) i revise. but a chapter can be as little as a sentence, or as long as you want. is there a place in the action that you can break up your chapter? as the creator of your booky universe, you can make a chapter wherever it feels right... if it doesn't feel right yet... well, you're just going to have a few long chapters, rather than a bunch of short ones.

anyhow, keep up the good work, and keep having fun!!!

I tend to write long chapters, so I was at the beginning of my second chapter when I hit 5k. Some people prefer short, snappy chapters with fast-paced action, and so a reader feels accomplished.

(Reader: "Wohoo, I read through three chapters today!" when it was only about 10 pages)

Others get caught up in a scene and don't end until it's done. Or my problem is dialog. I swear, my first drafts read like a movie script rather than a novel. Too much talk, and that can make for lengthy chapters. So length of chapters is arbitrary.

2006 - Ghost Coast
2007 - Children of Trinhodg
2008 - The Lastisto Ambassador
2009 - Daughters of Ashby - In Progress

In regards to chapters, I haven't been using them at all. I really don't think the pacing of my novel lends itself well to neat chapter divisions. Is it weird to have a novel without chapters? I don't know - maybe at the end of it all I'll figure out places for chapters, but I'm used to writing short stories, and I never use chapters for those.

I wanna live till I die, no more, no less. --Eddie Izzard

My 5000 word: "Pete."

Sentence: "Where's Pete?"

Not an earth-shaking sentence, but quite significant in the word count!! 1/10 of the way there. On Day 3!!!

"If you wish to be a writer, write" Epictetus
2009 Freak Squad: Wraith in Time
http://pattihaack.blogspot.com/

I have a multi-POV story so it naturally breaks up into chapters as I switch characters. I've outlined twenty five chapters, which gives me a basic target of 2,000 words a chapter to hit goal. However, I am overwriting - I closed up the third chapter this morning with almost 3,000 words in it.

Chapter four at lunchtime!

--
Dunx
Winning NaNoWriMo since 2004*.
This Year: The Kissiltur Trilogy, Book 3: Crown

[*] 2006 and 2008 were close, though

5,000 - the word was "Just" and the paragraph was as follows:

Elroy Jenkins nodded sadly. Mags knew that the older gentleman liked her. Heck, he came to the saloon several times simply to flirt and buy her drinks. Everyone in town was aware that Mr. Jenkins wasn't the courting type. He just liked to look at the pretty young women at Pete's and dream about the sophisticated, society ladies he'd left behind in New York City.

Poor Mr. Jenkins.

Portland's Ninja ML (the undercover one)
Hostess of "The NaNo Project" - http://thenanoproject.blogspot.com/
Title: Magdalena Crane, Rogue Zombie Hunter

hit 6085 so far today.

the 5000th word: "suckles."

hallo from Southeast PDX!

tiffany lee brown * magdalen23 * http://www.magdalen.com
editor, plazm * http://plazm.com/magazine/features/