Sunday, November 8

Well, the last couple days, I've made slight progress in catching up, but no as much as I was hoping. Here's to the write-in this up-coming afternoon! And to many words written! And to characters ignoring what I have to say about them, and suddenly telling me how they met each other.

I went and surprised myself. Today I spent the day NOT writing, but being a tourist in Florida. (FYI, Usagi and Moodswing who i think used to live in Florida: I'm in St. Pete Beach at a big old hotel where a lot of drinking seems to be taking place. But what the hell. I'm still glad I'm here, and the AC drowns out a lot of their hollering.)

It was a great day, sunny, windy (not so good for the beach) and I went to visit a place called Big Cat Rescue, which takes in mistreated and abandoned wildcats: Leopards, lions, tigers, bobcats, lynx, ocelots ... you name it. Very impressive. They're pretty restrictive about letting people visit, so I was lucky to get in. And no, I didn't pet any tigers ... even the people who work there, mostly volunteers,can't touch the cats. Only the veterinarians are allowed to touch them. (Some are still pretty wild, since they were often hideously abused by idiot people who thought having a cougar or bobcat as a pet was a good idea, or people who had "zoos" ... ) OK, I'll shut up now, but it was a really good experience and I was impressed by what they do.

And I thought, well so much for getting any writing done. I lay down around 8 p.m. "to rest" and the next thing I know, it's 10 p.m. "Screw it, " I thought. "I'll check my email then get up early and write."

Well, long story short: I had been thinking about my story all day and thought, I'll just jot down some notes.

About 3,500 words later, on novel and in notes, I am now going to bed, not because I don't have more to write but because my shoulders and arms say I need a break! YAY ME!

Yeah, I'm still behind, but I feel good. Tomorrow -- writing on the beach with my AlphaSmart? I came prepared!!!!

Just put one word after another.

I'm just going to write straight through and see what happens. Two characters who were interesting in an earlier incarnation of this aren't so much right now. Hopefully, they'll become more interesting as the story goes on. Otherwise, the other two characters won't really have anybody else to play off of, half of the story would disappear, and too much of it would be rendered stoopid. Got a strong feeling I'll just stop once I crack 50,000 or November 30, whichever comes first. Not even the vaguest hope of ninjas, pirates, monkeys, or robots, either. :(

Just. Not. FEELING. It. This time. (Doesn't help I've got at least three other WIPs I'd rather be playing with at the moment.)

2009 - Black Mirror Broken - ?

Well, I didn't get as much writing done yesterday as I'd hoped. I guess that means I'm going to have to work hard today just to keep up with the standard goal (I'm so far behind my personal goal it will take a miracle to catch up in one day). And I just realized that I am not going to be able to attend most of the 28 hour write in because I made plans to host a dinner for that Saturday (what on earth was I thinking). Next year. I'll plan for it next year.

Right now, I'm watching my cats fight. It always amuses me that the smaller one wins most of the time. She's giving the bigger one hell right now. At least they are playing by the rules right now (No hissing, growling, or crying; No puffed tails; No fighting on mom).

It's not about the words, it's about the meaning - the words are just there to hold it all together.

2007 - Hands Down - winner
2008 - Natural Spirits - winner
2009 - The Queen's Own - ?

i'm hoping today to get a lot done, i'd like to get at least 2 days ahead, maybe more, since i probably won't get anything written on Wednesday, and Sunday i'm spending a girls day out with my sis and mom.
Gotta say, the beginning of week 2 so far doesn't seem any different than week one.

On another plus, i dreamt about my novel last night, and have been having a lot of daydreams about it too, which shows that i'm really getting in to it. The more excited i get, the easier it will be.

Good luck everyone!

Sarah

"She said she cried at least once each day not because she was sad, but because the world was so beautiful and life was so short" - Brian Andreas

I broke 12k yesterday, and if I can get another 2k done today, I'll be in good shape for my upcoming super-busy week from heck!

Characters are starting to create some real tension in them, and I'm about ready to throw some more oil on the fire in the story. Hopefully by the end of this coming week, I'll have 6 chracters all trying to make my hero's life miserable (and one who is trying to stay sane).

:D

Had the time to write today. Could have cracked the halfway point. But instead I chose to relax, bum around, and get drunk on a Sunday night. Only in Tokyo (or maybe not, but well not talk about that).

So instead tomorrow shall be the big halfway point day. Hopefully some of you stole my motivation and had good days haha.

Working Title: Untitled
Stress Level: 10% (Why did I think this was going to be so hard?)

I am not almost halfway done. I am not at 10k. I am not even at 2k. I am at 1,025. I have not written since day one, and all because life got in the way. When I am stressed to the max, I freeze and nothing gets done. Well, I froze. Now my kitty Myst is feeling a lot better, thank goodness, and my stress level is finally coming down some. I can breathe more now. I still have the entire damn research paper and speech to do, which is due on the 16th! I need to do that. I need to write for nano, too. I am kicking myself for not being able to just push through the stress and write, but, well, I guess that's not a very helpful thing to do. I will be at Blue Moon tonight. I am looking forward to it.

Emily W.

2007: Deep In The Dark
2008: Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast
2009: Twelve China Cups

Keep finding all kinds of distractions such the, um, FORUMs. So I am here instead of writing. Like I should be. I'm making word progress only becuase my characters have decided they don't wnat to do the dramatic stuff - they would rather go the beach. So I've written three beach scenes. Maybe it is me! But they had better get into some TROUBLE soon!

I have fallen further behind than 'just a little', but it is in part because I have been prioritizing school work, and that has to be. Some of the writing that I hope to do in the next few days is going to be for school and nano, double win! And in a few days, we have the 24 hour tour which i hope to jump on Saturday eve and some of Sunday morning to up my pitiful word count.
Write on!
Nell

"The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected." Swedish proverb

Just passed 10k words, making this the longest thing I've ever written in my life. Several more hours sitting at the coffee shop will hopefully get me all caught up by the end of the day.

I went online to update my word count. That was 2 hours ago. I should never even get close to the internet until I'm done for the day. Hopefully I'll get in another 2,000 words today and be a little closer to where I should be.

I've introduced a few new characters, and the bad guy has already been mentioned, but we don't know yet about all the problems he will cause.

Gotta get back to real writing now.

Had a glitch earlier this week, but a little research put the fire into the storyline. I am glad for some great uninterrupted writing time this week, so I have been moving along great! I know there are a lot of busy times coming for me in November, so I am thankful to get a running head start. I actually hope to break 25K in the next day or two. Yay!

Good luck to everyone!

Anne Tyler Lord

Well, that was interesting.

Apparently one of my characters (Elise) wants to spend her lottery winnings on creating a genetically engineered pig with wings. Not necessarily so that it could fly. No, she wants to be able to make pork buffalo wings. Weirdest thing about this? She's the Jewish character. I have a feeling that a pork buffalo wing would NOT be kosher.

Embrace the Crap!

As a person who grew up Jewish, let me just say - Jews (generally) LOVE pork and bacon. Like, more than other people. Yum.

It's on, now!

Excellent, then this is perfectly in character for her! Thanks for the tip.

Embrace the Crap!

What a GREAT thread! Pork, large cat rescue visits, Mist is feeling better (and therefore so is Emily), Ariake didn't get to the 1/2-way point just yet.... so many good stories, just in our daily thread!

My writing is limping along. I am behind, but only by 666 words. A miracle considering I am still sick, have tons of pain, am behind in my paying work, and am sleeping 12-14 hours per day.

I even did the dishes tonight. And cooked dinner. Wow. Now for homemade fudge (thank you Sapphirestar, for introducing me to the Betsy-Tacy series where they are always making fudge - so so easy and contains nothing I'm allergic to!).

Serena Mira Asta

Visit my blog! Forces Of Nature
Never place a period where God has placed a comma.
- Gracie Allen, 20th century American comedian

Just wanted to chime in and say Happy ML Appreciation Day! Hope y'all are feeling appreciated :)
13,333 is in sight...

I've been warring on and off all day (well, since I woke up around 11 or so) to try to catch up. The plot, if you can call it that, is starting to actually take shape, which is good.

Hopefully I can hit 11k, because that's the only way I'm letting myself watch Thursday's Daily Show and Colbert Report that I missed!

Well, it only took 10,000 words for my characters to finally win the lottery. They haven't posed in front of the giant novelty check yet, but they will soon.

Didja catch that? I hit 10k!

*happy dance*

I also don't feel like my story is so crappy anymore, either. Well, it is crappy. But I took advice from someone in the "NaNo Ate My Soul" forum and decided to "embrace the crap." So... what I wrote may be crap, but it's my crap and I love it. Yay crap!

Embrace the Crap!

YAY! Keep going! That giant check is waiting for them! (and for the record, wow is Elise nuts).

As for me, I struggled with writing all afternoon, pretending I wasn't watching football and messing around with various things (like solitaire) until the Chargers game came on at 3 and I gave up all pretense of not watching. It was Phillip Rivers versus Eli Manning in the battle of the 04 NFL Draft. And the players who wanted to play for the Chargers beat the players that didn't. :) On that high, I turned off the tv and got some writing in. Megan has learned more about her coworkers, is about to join a project team at work, and may have found friends in former football player Darren and gossipy coworker Allison. Still not sure how Jake is buying her shoes though, since I spent FAR too much time on the appetizers and ended up skipping the actual meal from their date.

"You can get away with stuff in real life that you can’t get away with in fiction." -Robin McKinley

Ok, finally ready to update. I had a weird day, writing, playing with the kids, going to a movie (saw This Is It, totally worth the price of a ticket.) Then hubby decided to put Gone in 60 Seconds (also a good movie), so yeah, struggled with adding words. I'm sort of at a block, but not ready to call it writer's block. But yeah, still a day ahead. yippee!

Oh, and I see another Elise. My MC is Elise, she's also 11 years, maybe 12, i still haven't decided. So far she's been whisked away to another planet, made a couple new friends who want to help her get home, and is now looking for the guy responsible for her being there so she CAN get back home. Oh yeah, and Simon is with her, trying to get home as well, and interestingly enough so is Kokopelli. Even though he's a god, he's still stuck where the Great Spirit put him, so he's a bit of a castaway as well. As I said, not sure how to progress right at this point, but not really a block. We'll see how things go tomorrow.

"You gotta go on and be crazy. Craziness is like heaven." - Jimi Hendrix