I hit my wordcount goal of the day!

Congrats! I've been struggling the past two days, feeling like I'm moving at a snail's pace. I need to write fiction more often than one or two months out of the year.

I'm at 4050 on day 2. Last year I set a daily goal of 1800 words, which was slow and steady, but it worked. Trying for 2000 words a day this year's NaNo (and hopefully a plot too)!

Here's my brief passage from today:
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But what she was missing was time -- four minutes to be exact, she knew it from her watch. Thinking of it, she looked down at her watch to see if it was working. It read 6:23pm. She preferred her grandfather's old bronze wind-up watch to the digital LCD kind everyone else wore. Her grandfather gave it to her as a present on her thirteenth birthday, and Sammi wore it nearly everywhere. She thought it had a sort of steampunk appeal. Maybe it was just acting up, it was an old timepiece after all. She tapped the quartz face gently a few times. Sammi went to the atomic clock web site to see if her watch was off. 6:24:33 pm in her Pacific time zone. Things were fine, her watch read 6:23:53, not very far off at all.

====================================
Shari
2008 NaNo - Project Green WIN
2009 NaNo - Time Jumpers

I am very pleased to be at over 6,000 words. I am definitely on track for success. I havent finished writing yet tonight so I am hoping that I will end up close to the 7,000 mark.

My Blog: http://hankfrost.blogspot.com/
My Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxjrVZlCFzU

Happy with being over 5k so far. I wanted to be a little bit higher, but I feel like it's a good start. I am hoping to knock out a good chunk of words tomorrow night.

I am definitely satisfied with my wordcount so far; it should help give me a bit of breathing room when I invariably fall behind because of school or something.

I don't think I'm quite done for the night; I'm considering trying for 9k before going to bed (as I don't have class tomorrow). Congrats to everyone so far!

2006: Overly-Complicated Polygon of LURVE - failed
2008: The Tender Kiss of Apathy - won
2009: No Boundaries - we'll see

Honestly, I'm -barely- hitting the limit too! I'm at 3,396 words, and I'm only there because I've spent the last six and a half hours writing. I take forever, not because I'm a slow typer, but because I'm use to thinking out what's going to happen next. I also don't like the same word over and over again (I use 'seems' a lot, for example, and I try not to), and occasionally I attempt to not use a certain common word, like 'is'. XD I've usually been about trying to be a good writer - quality over quantity - but for NaNoWriMo, I have to really throw that all away.

Also, I have tons of homework due tomorrow. Oops. *must get on that*

I'm really proud of this little piece I came up with today! Some of the phrases I put in there really made me think twice about adding them, but they bring out my main character's personality flawlessly, I believe.

---
“Maybe, indeed. I will consider.” My lacking response was enough to bring a smile to his face. His expression brought some inner joy to me but impressing him brought me little profit. Yet his smile was different – different than that of generals and messengers and other such people who grinned to be in my favor. Idiots. Morons. Disgusting, slobbering dogs, all fighting over the same, imperfect scrap of meat. Did they not think I could see through their act? I was as, if more, intelligent than any of them. They begged to me like the rich beg to the poor; rudely and indecent as it was.

I'm on track and stoked. Only one major point of view change, some serious discouragement and my characters doing crazy things.

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I think my favorite passage is too scandalous to post, so we'll go with option two.

Jeff leaned on me as he hopped into the ER. He was a hot, hurting, sweaty, topless mess from all the effort. I plopped him into a chair and brushed his leg causing him to scream. As I spun around his hand got caught on my belt. Jeff swiped open the trench coat giving a free show to the sniveling 8 year old and his parents sitting across the way. Mom moved with lightening speed, managing to smack her husband upside the head before swooping down to cover the kiddo’s eyes. I quickly closed up shop and double knotted the belt.

As it's my first year, I didn't want to set too high of a goal for daily word count, but so far I'm hitting the 1900 mark pretty solidly. (: 1903 November 1st and 1940 November 2nd (I'm writing this after midnight, so. Yeah.). Hm. In terms of my best part today, let's see what I'm pretty pleased with.

It's probably this, nearing the end of the first chapter or so. (:

-/*\-

Would she be a nobody?

Jen was already a nobody. No one cared that she was around. Sure, they knew of her. "Oh, yeah, Jennifer - she's that one girl in that class, right? She's really smart. Kind of pretty." That was the story of her life. Ghosting through life, people only saw her walking around campus or in the library, sitting and studying something. People knew of her as a bit of a bookworm; only go to her if you have a question about some obscure history subject that she would only know. Something ridiculous like that. At times, Jen enjoyed being the nobody. She enjoyed that no one really knew what was hidden deep inside of her.

Hit my goal of 1700 a day. I'm sitting pretty at 3,630 at the moment.

Favorite passage of the day

“Yeah,” Lyss drawled “I know we’re early, but we figured we’d just fuck around till everything was set up and everyone was here.” I still wasn’t used to Lyssa’s habit of using four letter words so readily in conversation, but the photography student didn’t appear to care.
“Sure, do whatever you like. I’m Christine, by the way. I’m the photographer for today, but considering this gi-normous camera around my neck you’ve probably already figured that out.” She grinned at us. I was just standing there like a lump. Remember when I said I was just going to ignore the whole being a lesbian thing? Well…that’s just gotten a lot harder.
Lyssa popped her gum, which she wasn’t supposed to be chewing in here in the first place. “Yeah, I kinda figured. I’m Lyssa and this dazed and confused person here is Shea.” I finally blinked and stopped gaping at the woman standing before us and nodded.

Juan: You do realize that talking about your characters that way makes you sounds schizo right?
Me: Why yes, yes I do.

Writing: Making me sound like a schizo since 2003.

Woohoo! As of midnight, I was right on track at 3395, and now (about an hour later) I'm at 4493, well on my way to completing today's goal.

Yeah, I just screwed myself before going to bed, though. I don't know how it happened, but my story suddenly turned horror in the first chapter. Now I have to go to bed. I may leave the light on. The scary scene is a little too long to post here, but let's see if I can get the worst of it (and let's face it, it's probably much scarier in my head than I could possibly articulate on paper. So yeah, it's going to be a rough night.) Keep in mind, it's a dream. A really freaky dream.:

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"Then something began pecking at the surface from behind the wall, almost like a baby bird escaping from its egg. The very sight of it sent a jolt of fear through Jim’s body that made him cry out loud. He had no idea what was lurking behind that wall, but something in the very pit of his stomach told him that whatever it was was terrible, something he should avoid at all costs. He forgot to breathe as the surface broke open and two fingers wrapped themselves around the edge of the hole. They tugged and clawed at it until a larger piece broke away. Then there were more fingers, then a hand, and then two hands that were covered in blood as the crimson stream continued to flow around them. The pushing, pulling and clawing became more violent as the hole outgrew the perimeter of the patch. The whole wall shook under the force until finally, the opening was large enough for the beast to climb out. Except it wasn’t a beast. It was Patti, covered in blood and looking languid and frail with her blood soaked hair hanging in front of her face. She twisted her body out of the hole and allowed herself to fall face down onto the floor, where she lay there for a moment and breathed heavily.

Almost instinctively, Jim wanted to go to her and help her, but that same feeling of dread that warned him of something terrible now warned him to stay away. He was torn, not knowing which feeling to follow until Patti began to move again. She raised herself up on her elbows with her legs sprawled out behind her and attempted to crawl toward him. She didn’t have the strength to move very far, only a few inches before she looked up at Jim with feral fear in her eyes, opened her mouth inhumanly wide and screamed."
---------------

My Live Journal Account http://brandy-bean.livejournal.com/
Feel free to friend me!

2008: Mosaic - Won
2009: Familiar Footsteps - In progress

I got to 5000 tonight. I'm sitting at 5415 at the moment. By midnight I'd like to have 7000. The next day Id like to hit 8800 if not 9000 words.

"She fell to her knees and began scraping the snow away. Her fingers began to burn from the intense cold. She uncovered the red bird from the snow pile. As she went to pick it up the bird jumped from the ground and flew up and away. She tilted her head to follow it, but she was torn from her slumber once more. "

I HIT 6K! My goal was to do two thousands words a day but I ended up only doing 1,800 something. But my second goal was to finish the chapter and hit that 6, and I did those two, so I'm happy. I HIT SIX THOUSAND, YAY!

My favorite part out of what I wrote today was a tiny paragraph towards the end, because it introduced my MC's boyfriend (who's 17, the MC is 15.) I just like how I worded it, really, and I'm excited to start writing from the bf's point of view soon.

"And at a pace almost as fast as the flickering images that Erin had gone through when she sought out her cartoons, his brain shot out one of a guy looking for his camouflage jacket underneath the mess by Spencer’s desk, all ruffled and in a rush and terribly calm, too calm for Spencer, who hadn’t been able to stop himself from crying.

Trevor. "

I've been aiming for about 1800 words per day and so far I've met that goal. I'm at 5236 so far today and mey try to add to that total later. Here's my favorite passage so far.

When Cindy opened her eyes again, she was alone. There was no handsome man in her living room. Only the memory of him lingered. “Well, that sure was an interesting dream.” She thought as she started for the stairs. As Cindy reached the staircase, she smelled the faint scent of the sea, of salt water and sand. “Well, that’s weird” she said to herself as she climbed the stairs. “We’re miles from the ocean. I’ve really got to stop reading those romance novels. They’re making me a little bit crazy. I’m imagining them in my living room now.”

I too am happy with my word count so far at 4701 in just 2 days. I hope to get my total word count up very high in the first week. With Thanksgiving coming along and relatives visiting at month's end is a little scary when doing Nano, and all the other things that call for my attention. To paraphrase Dori in Finding Nemo Keep writing, just keep writing...

Happy novelling all...

Congrats to everyone having so much success!

As for myself, I'm shooting to get at least 1,667 words a day, but pushing for more when I can, so that I can have a little bit of a cushion for the days when I simply can't write. And, so far, so good! As of bedtime last night, I've got 5,215 words, and I expect to hit at least 8,000 tonight.

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The little vampire with light brown hair and hiking boots stopped at a children’s play park, easing herself onto a swing as if her entire body was pained from the action. Her lips were moving silently as the toes of her boots drug in the sand, causing little divots in their wake. One hand came down from gripping the chains on either side of her hips, and her fingernail went into her mouth, not severing the keratin, merely holding it between her teeth as she thought.
Luke didn’t wonder what clearly bothered her so much. He didn’t pause to ponder the complexities of her life, and what had driven her to shun the rules so crassly. He didn’t care, honestly. He was there to do a job, and now was as good a time as any.
Stepping into her line of sight, fangs elongated and a pleased smile on his face, he gave her one second. One second to watch her full lips pop open into a round O, one second for her body to tense.
Then he attacked.
A step forward, arms outstretched, and his strong fingers reached to wrap around her slender white throat.
Her reaction, however, wasn’t something that he expected, or had ever encountered.
The girl fell backwards off the swing, and scrambled through the sand, crawling away with him, sobs ripping through her throat before she gave up.
Standing over her, he watched her curl into a ball, her hands over her head, face pressed into the sand, shaking.
Fear, he was used to. But this was something entirely different.
There was something very wrong here.

"The first draft of anything is shit." Ernest Hemingway

Rosekauai - great description there, I especially loved "Her lips were moving silently as the toes of her boots drug in the sand, causing little divots in their wake."

If you ever publish, let me know, I'd like to read your story :)

Thanks so much! I'll definitely let you know!

"The first draft of anything is shit." Ernest Hemingway

I am hoping to hit 10K tonight. I am very pleased with where I am at. I put down 3,500 words for Chapter 3 alone! I wont post a sample of my work here because I have it on my blog. Send me a PM if you want to read it.

My Blog: http://hankfrost.blogspot.com/
My Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxjrVZlCFzU

I want to be at 10k by the time tonight is over. It might be kind of a stretch, but it seems doable from where I'm standing. Hope my story doesn't pick tonight to stop coming to me.

edit:

Didn't want to make a new post for this. Ended up hitting my post count. Was definitely pumped going through 5k words.

I hit my wordcount of 13k! *does a happy dance*

2006: Overly-Complicated Polygon of LURVE - failed
2008: The Tender Kiss of Apathy - won
2009: No Boundaries - we'll see

Hi!

I'm a little late to the forums but I participated (and won) last year so I'm back again for the fun and madness. I go for the slow and steady approach; I make sure to hit at least 1667 words, but I usually go over to help make up for a day or two that I might miss writing.

Yay NaNoWriMo!

Excerpt:

"What do you like to do for fun?" James asked.
I paused to think. I didn't spend much time outside the house with my studying and the fact that I didn't have much money to do anything put the brakes on my social life. I also doubted he would take interest in setting up science experiments just to see if they really did work, and then what see what I could change to make it go boom, splorch, or any other more interesting reactions. I ventured out the most normal answer I could manage. "Well, I like going to the mall. Browse the discount books at the bookstore. Grab an early movie to avoid crowds and to see if I can get my own private theater. Saunter around the food court at lunch time and fill up on free samples. Make fun of the awful clothing lines and pretend the mannequins will come to life if they wore attractive clothes and then dash away from the impending mannequin apocalypse only you can't run because the mall security will yell at you which is a real bummer when you're just trying to have a relaxing doomsday scenario."
James pressed his lips together and shook a little from suppressed laughter. I wilted inside; I couldn't even pretend normal for more than a few seconds before weird fell out of my mouth. Bad mouth. Bad. I'll have time to brood over it later when James walked away from the freak that was me.
"Mannequin apocalypse?" James asked.
"I feel the zombie apocalypse scenario has gotten overdone."

I got my 7000 for tonight. Im hoping for 8800 or 9000 tomorrow.

"She used the back of her hand to wipe his tears away. “It’s going to be okay. I promise.” She caressed the side of his face looking longingly into his deep eyes. “Cause you and I” she began to sing, “I think we can take it, all the good with the bad, make something no one else has…” he rose up and kissed her. She realized that their lips had not met before this moment. The energy between them was indescribable. Her breath was taken from her lungs and her mind flooded with a white light. She felt high, almost; the passion that seeped from him in the slow fluid movements of his lips. It was soft but filled with so many emotions she felt overwhelmed. She could only deepen the kiss. She was letting every idea she ever had about him flow between them. She kissed him letting her strength fall from her and into him; he would need it more than she would by the end of this. "

I'm still on track with 6307 words just before I go to bed. I was hoping to be further ahead by now, but at least I'm not behind.

Hm, what did I write today that I was particularly proud of? I went over everything I've written and there's nothing. I mean, it's not bad (most of it), but there's nothing special. Maybe tomorrow.

My Live Journal Account http://brandy-bean.livejournal.com/
Feel free to friend me!

2008: Mosaic - Won
2009: Familiar Footsteps - In progress

I'm on track for 2000 words a day. My inner editors are kicking my butt though and dimishing some of the fun...

Here's my favorite exchange between the MC and her doctor at the womanly exam:

“Do you want the sugar coated version or the straight up?”

“I like it straight with a tablespoon of sugar please.”

“Well we’re running out of treatment plans. At this point you can stick it out and hope the pain goes away, you can pregnant or have your uterus removed. Getting the uterus removed isn’t going to guarantee that the endometriosis will go away. But it's a commonly used option. “

My face scrunched in disbelief. “One, did you just say that I should get pregnant or get my uterus taken out? I don’t even know if I want children. I mean, I do. Someday, but not nine months and one day from now. I don’t even have a reliable penis in my life. ”

“Well penis or no- those are valid treatment options. You can always wait it out. It’s really about what you can deal with and the risk you’re willing to take. What was your second question?”

“I asked for a tablespoon of sugar, where was the sugar with that news?”

So far I've managed to keep track with my goal of being just a little over the daily minimum each day. Word count is 5288, though I haven't written yet for today. Sadly this is mostly a numbers game for me. So far I haven't written anything that's exactly worth posting, but that's to be expected since I've never written fiction before.

I actually went 200 words over my goal today. looking to hit 11,000 tomorrow if I can. (I go back to work after being on vacation, but I'm hoping I can keep up with my 2000 words a day goal, if not I've started a nice cushion for myself)

here's an excerpt from today's writing:
"She realized one of her shoes was missing and she smiled silently to herself. When he walked back in the room he witnessed her standing by the edge of her bed, her gaze stuck on her feet with a hand raised up to the smile on her mouth, her fingers dangling on the edge of it. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“I believe we have a problem, Houston” she waved her shoeless foot at him. “I must have lost it on the mountain.”
He walked over to her and kissed her exposed foot and then swung his arm under her knees and the other behind her back and picked her up
“Well we just cant let you walk around barefoot can we!” he chuckled as he carried her in his arms out the door and into the hallway. As they walked past patients and family alike they were shot confused and strange looks. He carried her all the way out of the hospital and to his car. He opened the passenger side door and set her down in the seat. He smiled at her, “I’m going to take care of you now.”
"

Still keeping up with my 2000 words per day count. I wanted to do more today, but after getting no sleep and having people over for dinner I found myself not so motivated. Happy I got in my 2k. Must keep pushing through.

Really glad to see so many people hitting their goals, definitely motivating. Keep it up everybody!

I did 2225 today! Yay! If I can barrel through the first 500, it seems to get easier after that..

Excerpt:

He poured milk into my cereal. “So… Isn’t Everest a white persons’ name?” Phew. I had avoided the you’re-having-sex-with-my-mom question that had begun taking up space in my mind.

Everest dropped his spoon into the bowl. “Do I look like a white person to you?”

“Umm, no.” Shit.

Woot! 7414 words today!

Finally wrote something worth sharing. A snip:
---------------------------------------------------------------
"Yes Koren. We have a change in plans and I need to know exactly how much weight you'll need the walls to be able to support in order to do that hoodoo that you do. And Brother, I need to know exactly how long it will take to get enough walls to hold that much weight. Finished or not we'll be starting that second floor in three weeks, and I don't aim to be the one to tell him otherwise."

It wasn't enough time, but then it seldom was. That was the trouble with working for nobles. They knew nothing about the logistics of what they asked. They didn't want to know anything about it. All they wanted was to know that their forts would be built on time. That their contracts would come in underbudget. That their orders would be obeyed without question. The only leniency was when it came to the king. He had recently laid down some new edicts. He had put a fair number of stray arcanes right out of their, peaceful, businesses with his laws.

As a result the countryside now had more mercenaries than the local gold caches and ancient ruins could support, and none of them had the funds to travel to another kingdom. Some found ways around it, doing business in back alleys and under cover of night. Others hid their talents and laid the blame for the objects they produced at the feet of different trades than the ones that produced them. You knew these ones on sight. The "blacksmiths" with no anvil. The "clothiers" with plumes of green and blue smoke rising from their workshops at night. The "shop keeps" who seemed to keep no real stock up front, but always had 'just the thing' sitting in their stock room, "if you have a moment to wait".

And then there were the lost ones. Shadows passing in the night. Whispered voices that didn't match the face they came out of. Bumps in the crowd that went against the flow, but had no apparent source. The smell of pipeweed on the wind in an empty back alley. Some said they were the result of a curse placed on the land. Others that these were subjects of experiments the king had ordered. All that was known for sure is that they hadn't been around a few months before. But the very night the proclamation went out about the new restrictions on arcanes, these "lost ones" began to appear. Truth be told few believed there was a connection.

After all, everyone remembered the proclamation. Remembered being woken in the night and drug from their houses to listen to the proclamation. Rememberd the sun rising mere minutes after it was done. And the first sighting of a lost one in town was just after dawn the day before. A baker was laying out his goods first thing in the morning before any customers had arrived. He was walking the pastries to the counter when he tripped over something in the center of the hall. He was sure that a hobbit or somesuch had come in early, and walked to the back to see where he was. But when he looked up he didn't see anyone there. Righting himself and the tray he didn't see anyone nearby. Thinking it a thief he checked his gold, but found it was all there. As were the pastries and his keys. He went on his way and thought nothing about it till the proclamation was made. He had commented on the bitter chill to the nights air, and reached for his pipe and pipeweed, only to find them missing. It was then that he mentioned the mornings commotion, and the stories had only increased in number since then.

But such things were always close to his mind at times like this. One never knew what a contract with a noble would bring. It was almost certainly not what you'd bargained for, but then the only ones who could afford his services were the nobles, and it was far too late to lean a new trade now.

8,562! Whoot! I finally got to exercise a bunch of dialogue. I usually do heavy description and thoughts but am awful at speech, so this was kind of nice.

On his way out the door, heading for the exit so he could grab his car and leave, Mike grabbed him. It was the first time he had even seen Mike since their fight, and the weight of his hand around his forearm stops any pretense of walking past.

“Hey… uhm…”

Spencer gave him a moment, not saying anything, and then when it seemed like the silence had gone from expectant to awkward, he shifted, only giving the lightest tug to get his arm back because at this point he just really, really didn’t want Mike to leave (three nights spent feeling friendless had tripled his stress, and Spencer was feeling a little strung out by now, if his kick at the locker was any indication). Finally, he added, “yeah?”

“Are you headed home?”

“Yeah, probably.”

“Alright,” Mike adds, and then goes silent, and they both walked out to the student parking lot without saying anything, and on some level, Spencer thought, the way Mike was behaving was ridiculous, if it was over just what he did with Amanda.

And at first, when they get to his car, he thinks that that is all there was to it, and that Mike was probably just PMSing that day, and felt like an ass afterward, or something.

Mike ends up leaning against the blue metal of the driver’s side door, all calm and cool and making Spencer feel like a moron for acting out so loudly earlier, and it isn’t until Spencer goes to scratch at the back of his head that finally Mike adds on.

“So I kind of ripped you a new one the other day.”

Spencer didn’t reply to that.

“It doesn’t even matter anymore why, I just… needed to think about everything.”

“Yeah?”

“I’ve got too much going on right now, man, and I can’t figure out what’s sticking around and what isn’t and it’s screwing with me, and you pulling a stunt like that? It messes up what I think I know about you.”

Mike looked up at Spencer at that, after staring off at nothing at a far off distance, and matched Spencer’s arched eyebrow with a shrug. It was almost disconcerting how cool Mike looked, despite the weariness of his words.

“Okay..”

“Don’t keep stuff from me, okay? Because I tell you a lot.”

“I don’t think you want to hear about Trevor and I getting it on in the back of his car..”

“Don’t give me that crap, you haven’t done anything.” It ended more like a question, and Spencer got it, it was a test.

“No, I haven’t.”

Friendship fixed.

I hit 10K tonight but I am actually slowing down. The last two days I have been making minimum wordcounts. I am wondering if the chapters are too simple at this point or I am getting a bit burned out.

My Blog: http://hankfrost.blogspot.com/
My Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxjrVZlCFzU