21 posts tagged “writing”
Well, I did it!
My NaNoWriMo novel is "finished" with a word count of 50,024. (The last two words were "The End".)
It was a long road, but it was actually more fun, and if I may say, easier, this year.
The "congrats note" from Chris Baty, which is always inspirational:
So it's official.
Our word-counting robots have analyzed your November novel, and they've delivered their final, binding assessment: Winner.
You did it! You did it! You did it!
This was, without a doubt, one of the hardest years on record for NaNoWriMo participants. At some point in the literary marathon, most of your fellow writers fell by the wayside. They lost their books to work, to family, to school, and to the hundreds of other distractions and interruptions that tend to shutter creative undertakings like NaNoWriMo.
But not you. Not this year.
This November, you set out with the ridiculously ambitious goal of bringing an entire world into existence in just 30 days. When the going got tough, you got writing. Now you're one of the few souls who can look back on 2007 as the year you were brave enough to enter the world's largest writing contest, and disciplined enough to emerge a winner.
We salute your imagination and perseverance. The question we ask you now is this: If you were able to write a not-horrible novel in 30 days, what else can you do? The book you wrote this month is just the beginning.
From here on out, the sky's the limit.
Thanks to all who have cheered me on along the way. ^_^
Woo! I WON!
48,382.
It took me a long time to get around to finally writing tonight. But there it is- another thousand or so words. All Matthew's point of view tonight. Tomorrow I'll focus on villain stuff.
But now, I gotta sleep.
Word count is now 46,506. It's about 150 less than where I "should" be, but that number is pretty negligible, so I'm going to ignore it and call it a night.
Epilogue is written! So, now comes some fill-in scenes. I need a lot more dangerous stuff to put in, because I decided rather late in the story who the villain would be, and didn't have time (or so I thought) to go back and insert villain scenes. So I'd been writing like the scenes were already written. BUT, now I have some time, because the story is "ended" so that'll be my project for days 29 and 30.
And then, on the evening of November 30th, I'll input the whole of this rather ramshackle and more-disturbing-than-I'd-anticipated story into the NaNoWriMo word counter, watch it go up to 50,000 (or above... hey, it could happen!) and then gather my super-sexy WINNER certificate. YAY!
You know, when I start writing just after watching Pushing Daisies, my "voice" sounds a whole lot like Jim Dale. Neat.
We're into the fourth and final week of NaNoWriMo. There have been ups and downs, and times when I let myself think the destructive "This story sucks, I should just stop," and there have been other times when I've realized, "Yes, this sucks, but it's also only the first draft. It could get better." And I've kept on writing.
I'm not celebrating yet, but being less than 900 words away from today's goal of 40,000 puts me into thinking that, yes, I really can and will do this. By November 30th, I will have written a 50,000 word rough draft to a full story; beginning, middle, and end.
Tonight we're going out to eat with some friends, and then going to see the movie Hitman (YAY, assassins!) And then I'll come home and write at least 900 more words. Sunday will see me sliding well into the last 10,000 arena, and hopefully this last and final week will be a breeze, right to the finish line.
Writing a novel on a tummy that seems like it will be full of turkey and stuffing for at least the next two weeks is HARD. I don't care if "they" say tryptophan making you tired is a myth. "They" are wrong! For the tired, I have it.
I love the dreams I've been having. I've not only helped Neil Gaiman give a writer's workshop (there were even fairies in attendance!) but the other night I met up with Chris Baty in a bookstore coffee shop. Wouldn't it be funny if he happened to dream of running into some random NaNoWriMo author? Fun stuff.
Right now, my word count is 36,927.
And I'm off to go scribble more. I go. I go. Look, how I go. Swifter than arrow from Tartar's bow.
Just to make things "exciting" I've decided to fall behind a bit today. My wordcount is 31,111 (it should be close to 34,000 by now). 'Cause, you know, it's just no FUN to be all ahead and stuff. Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
But really, my slight problem is that I came up with a new plot twist. And I'm going back to the beginning and weaving it in there, slowly. It presents a whole new twist, and a new character (still being formed) and will provide my Aisling with the DANGER element she needs. This is much like knitting a new color of yarn into an already-almost-finished sweater. Just 'cause I decided the pattern was a bit boring, needed some oomph, ya know?
Yeah. It'll be cool. Coming up I've got 4 days off work (turkey day!) and I'll catch up, no problem. You'll see. It'll be COOL.*
*False bravado should not be mistaken for true and actual confidence, as the writer of this post is vastly lacking in sleep and vital nutrients.
I'm working on some back story now - whether this stuff makes it into the "novel" itself (if I rewrite any of it) or not remains to be seen, but it's good to have some background on my main characters for myself, for the story. I could end up doing one of those novels that has the point of view switching back and forth between two main characters... and in fact, that might be the only way I get some of the stuff about Matthew to come through.
Anyway, it's Sunday night, my wordcount is where it needs to be, and I have to work tomorrow. Bleh. So I'm treating myself for the rest of the evening to some reading of novels by people who actually know how to write.
Also, saw BEOWULF this afternoon. VERY impressive movie. It was damn cool just for the wicked CGI, but the story itself was awesome as well. No, of course it's not "true to the original" (do you understand Old English? I think not.) And dammit people who think the movies should be just like the books annoy me. If the movie were just like the book, we'd be reading a screen of scrolling text, now, wouldn't we? These are stories, and stories are meant to change over time and with the personality of the teller. THIS particular Beowulf story was awesome, and impressive, and I enjoyed myself greatly. Again, because Neil Gaiman rocks, and this time he rocked with Roger Avary. If you haven't seen it yet, you should. Because I WILL KILL YOUR MONSTAH!
Word count: 28,571
Still on track, still a smmmmmiiiiiidge over where I absolutely need to be. This is after having skipped writing yesterday; I did manage to catch up today.
Wow. TIRED. And, still not sure where the story is going, or if it has anywhere to go after this. The scenes I wrote tonight happen early in the story (and one of them doesn't really fit into the story at all anywhere - it's more like a flashback).
And, oh, look at that. I just had an idea. FLASHBACKS. I can do more of those - the sort which WILL fit into the story. That would actually fix a lot of the "she's got some s'plainin' to do here" bits. Huh. Cool. Okay, well, I guess I know what I'll be writing tomorrow!
Word count: 25,894!
At this point, my story is climaxing too early. I'm only halfway through, and my characters have figured everything out already. There is a little more yet to happen, but it's more like the last two chapters of a story - a post script, not something that will take the whole last half of the story to tell.
So, now comes the time when I start going back to fill in some blanks. This is always dangerous, because inevitably my inner editor rears its ugly head and demands that I start deleting things that are, frankly, pretty awful. And one of the biggest rules in this game is to delete nothing. So, I'll have to see where the rest of the story takes me. Maybe there's more that needs to happen yet. Maybe it's not almost over, after all.
Word count: 24,084
Whoa, Aisling sure found out some horrible stuff tonight. I have a very sick mind, it turns out.
Stuff I like about my story so far: I'm finding plenty to write about, and not having any problem at all making my word count goals. I'm still interested in what's happening, too, which probably means it's a good sign I'll make it to the finish line with my 50,000 words.
Stuff I don't like about my story so far: Like any first draft, it sucks. My characters are extremely two-dimensional, and the dialog is very stilted. Matthew is not the dark, attractive, mysterious guy I mean for him to be; so far, he's just been the guy who gets Aisling to the places she needs to be in order to find out more about herself. And Aisling is turning out to be a bit of a wimp... although actually, now that I think about it, that might actually work for the whole personality turn-around that is about to happen...
Which in itself is kind of interesting, really. I mean, I set out to write a story about Matthew. And now he's pretty much become the secondary character - turns out this is all about Aisling. Who knew? Sometimes characters decide the story they want to tell is far more important than any ideas the author might have, it seems.
Anyway, I wanted this story to have a rather lyrical, dark, dreamlike but horrific quality to it. Maybe it will after I rewrite it a dozen or so times. ^_^ Anyway, as all my writer-friends advise - I won't worry about that right now. Right now, it's only important to get the idea down "on paper". All that fluffy pretty stuff can come later. This is the sketch before the painting is done.
At least, that's the idea. It might just all be crap, after all.
