Last Day!

Well, today marks the last day of NaNoWriMo 2010. It's been an awesome month for me and many others in my region. Several have reached 50k and beyond, however there have been some who were struggling for one reason or another. It's hard trying to find ways to keep everyone motivated. I'm hoping that I will see everyone participate again next year.

Since finishing my own novel, I've gone back to fill in the blanks of several parts of the story that I felt needed to be fleshed out. I'm already getting a head start on the editing. I was even considering what I want to do for a cover. I still haven't really figured out a title for the book yet. I've already gone through the first three chapters (well, I had to break up the story as best I can into chapters), trying to revise and enhance some weak spots. This is my first time ever editing a novel, so all of this is a learning experience for me. I'm learning a lot of new things when it comes to writing in manuscript format. A lot of this stuff I've forgotten since grade school English class. It's a nice refresher.
I actually find editing my novel pretty fun to do. I get to envision my story and the characters even clearer now that the words are all out on the paper. It definitely helps me to figure out what might be missing. Doing a little each day is helping me find new things in the story. So far, with the current manuscript format I've done, I have over 200 pages. Not bad for a 50k novel. It's amazing what margins, spacing and 12-point Courier really does.

50k Goodness

I finally hit 50k as of yesterday afternoon. It was a very long and tiresome road the entire way through. I'm not going to stop writing, though. I feel as though I left a lot of things out of the story that I wanted to tell/retell. I'm not going to delete the words I've written, though. I'm going to be adding new words in red letters. December will be the time for deletions :)
At least now I can really relax on my 3k wordcount and just concentrate on getting the recommended 1667. The main bulk of my story has been told, so now, it's just time to go back and fill in those details (or rewrite them in red). This will sort of be my pre-editing to December's editing. Won't that be fun...

Part of me regrets not having a full-blown outline. There were times I was stuck as to what I should be writing next. I wanted to tell everything, but I kept getting overwhelmed to the point I just get writer's block. I can understand why people outline, but it seems almost 99.999% of the time, they end up pretty much deviating from the intended outline and writing something complete different than intended. That's certainly not a bad thing, but I think it's good to have that outline there for reference, at least -- just in case you get those sudden moments of writer's block of trying to figure out what sequence to tell next.

NaNoWriMo 2010 has been a success so far hitting 50k, but I'm going to enjoy every day of it all the way to the very last day and continue writing to my heart's content!

NaNoWriMo 2010 - Week 2

I can't believe it's still only week 2 of the NaNo madness. It really seems like it's been longer. I suppose that's both a good and bad thing. So far, things have been going well with my story. I'm meeting and exceeding my daily wordcount quota. At this rate, according to the website, I will finish approximately on November 16th. I think this time I will keep writing even after I've met the 50k goal. I will just relax on the daily wordcouts a bit. The words are starting to flow more easy now since I've reached one of the exciting points that I've been anxious to write. Now that I'm at the 30k mark, I can lay off the extra "fluff" and actually start writing the rest of the story with ease without the fear of finishing the story before I reach the 50k mark. I only have about 13k words left to go before I hit 50k, so I can definitely start revealing more exciting things quickly now.
As for the story itself, it's taken a completely different turn from what I originally planned. I noticed this was a common thing for everyone in my writing group, also. It's funny how after all those long hours of planning, you end up writing something totally different! I suppose that's a good thing. In my case, the story got flipped upside down and sideways. One of the main characters of my story is now blind. I never even planned to have a blind character in this story, but it seemed to work out perfectly and really make him my most favorite character in the story now!

Being an ML has been great, also! I'm not as nervous as I was in the beginning. Planning the write-ins have been smooth for the most part. My only concern was figuring out where to have them. People have made some great suggestions, and it's really hard to pick one. We ended up having two writing sessions per week: one on Sundays and another (shorter) one on Tuesdays, where we do wordsprints. The write-ins and wordsprints have been extremely helpful for everyone. I'm trying to be a good motivator for everyone who might be lagging behind in their wordcounts. I'm really glad to see that everyone's progressing. Best of all, there have been some great friendships that have come out of these meetings! It would be great to do these sort of write-ins all year round, even after NaNoWriMo is over.

I've been considering trying out Script Frenzy in April. It would be a great opportunity to finally write out those scripts for some graphic novels I've been putting off on drawing these past few years.

Onward to week 3!

Progress Update

Day 4 has been a success so far. So far I have 13,336 words so far. I've been keeping up with my daily 3k+ wordcount, which is a good thing, though I've found it difficult at times to really get into a good writing flow. I've been cutting it pretty close to meet the goals each day, but I've had to force myself to stay disciplined in that aspect. I hope the upcoming write-in will get me a little more creative and motivated.

My problem is that I know the story I want to tell, however, I know that if I tell it too fast, then it will be well below 50k when I'm done, and I would rather have the story unfinished at 50k than tell the whole thing and try to think of 'fillers'  just to meet the wordcount. I did something similar to last year's story whenI managed to meet the wordcount then just finished it with a 'summary' on how it ended. Of course, I intend to go back and fill in the details of that later once I get the time.

Overall, things are going smooth enough for me to keep up with this sturdy trend of wordcounts and story pace that I won't fall behind, nor will I run out of things to write about. I am eager to tell certain parts of the story, but I want to spend enough time building up for it first. I'm sure I will be doing a lot of trimming when it's all said and done, though.

Onward to day 5 and beyond!

The Final Hours!

NaNoWriMo is quickly approaching in a few hours. Today's kickoff party at Barnes & Noble went very well. There were six of us in total who showed up, but there are more people in the region who are participating. I will be going out tonight to partake in some midnight NaNoWriMo as I meet and greet another fellow writer in the area. I think this will be a fun adventure! This will be my first-ever NaNoWriMo in which I actually wrote on November 1st. Last year, I started about 12 days into it.
As I await the final few hours, I'm doing some last-minute preparations and outlining for when the madness begins. I'm so nervous and excited! Good luck, everyone on NaNo 2010!

Last Week

So now we've arrived at the home-stretch for when NaNoWriMo officially begins in less than a week. I'm really not too nervous about writing my project. What I am nervous about is me possibly undertaking this ML position head-on. This year our region has a few newcomers to the scene, and I want to make sure their first experience is enjoyable so that they would be inclined to want to do it again next year. My greatest challenge so far has been trying to coordinate with everyone's schedules so that these meet-ups will cater to as many as possible. Of course, I would also like to schedule more than one meetings per week if possible to cater to those who have weird schedules but really want to participate. It's a difficult endeavor to tackle alone, especially when you have your own schedule to keep up with, as well, but I will just hold my breath and hope for success next month!

Outline Revisited

It's about time I revisit my NaNo outline again. I was looking around for some Novel writing/outling software to see if any of them would be of use to me, but it's taking me quite a bit of time to play with the different software and learn how to even use the things! I'm not sure if I even need one. I just wanted to try and see if it makes the writing process that much smoother, or does it cause more harm than good. My idea of 'outlining' has been writing down notes in Notepad/Wordpad. I know that's probably a horrible way of doing things, but then again I'm a weird person with a weird way of organizing my thoughts. I like to venture out every so often and see if there are ways to make things easier.

So far, the two programs I've tried have been yWriter and Storybox. I wanted to try and get yWriter on my eeePC since it uses a Linux environment, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to install software on that computer. Despite me having my eeePC for almost 2 years now, I am still Linux-challenged. The Windows version of yWriter looks very intimidating. There's just so many places to put information, it almost looks a little too organized for me. Storybox looked like a neat little program to try, but again, I was left with the same thing. So many places to fill in the blanks and not really sure how to fill them in properly so I don't get confused.

I would like to check out LiftLift and FocusWriter (though I think the latter is more for when NaNoWrMo actually starts) next and see how those are. It would be really good if these programs came with a sample file with the information filled in so I can get a general idea of how to do things. I tend to learn things faster when there are templates/samples so the program interface doesn't seem so intimidating.

NaNo Prepping and ML training

Since finishing GothNoWriMo, I've been getting focused on my NaNoWriMo story again. I have to refresh myself with the plot and characters so that I won't run into blocks along the way. I'm also trying to figure out what would be the most effective (and less stressful) way to go about writing 50,000 words. Last year, I wrote everything in OpenOffice with little to no pre-planning done. Not only that, I started NaNoWriMo when it was nearly 12 days into it! I spent many long nights trying to write 3k words just to catch up. I actually enjoyed writing that much in a day, and I tried to do it again for GothNoWriMo. It defintely takes a lot out of you in the end, though. I know 30 days seems like more than enough time to shell out 50,000 words at the pace I go (I mean, I managed to write 20k in about 8 days, after all, even though I really didn't meet my 3k word counts per day at times).

In addition to the Thanksgiving holiday, so many other things are happening in November that's going to distract me. I'm still trying to figure out how I managed to do it last year. I think it was the motivation I got from the write-ins. This is my first year as a ML for my region and I'm hoping to be abel to schedule more write-ins because I think that's what really kept me motivated to keep writing and make my daily 3k wordcount, no matter what.

Unfortunately, I've not seen or heard from any other MLs in my area, so I might be the only one. I'm very nervous about that because I was hoping to learn some things from the veteran MLs, but it seems I'll be on my own for now.

On a lighter note, I went on a shopping spree for my swag in celebration fo finishing my GothNoWriMo story! I still have to get No Plot? No Problem! and will get all my ML gear in order in time for the kickoff party and beyond.

20,048!

Finally! I've finished GothNoWriMo with 20,048 words! Granted, this novel will be undergoing some heavy reconstructive surgery in December, I managed to get all of the story down on paper, at least. This was a great experience for me to be able to write a gothic-themed novel. I've spent these past nights listening to "The Crow" soundtrack on repeat just trying to stay in the dark mood. I will have to definitely say that Daggax'iylion is my favorite character of the story. I think for next year's GothNoWriMo, I will be retelling the story from his point of view this time.
 Now that that's over, it's time to prepare for NaNoWriMo! I will be raiding the OLL store sometime this weekend. I need that totebag and journal now!

WriMotivations

So there are three things I plan to get out of the NaNo store before November hits: The tote bag, pen and a copy of No Plot? No Problem! I think if (and when) I manage to finish (and win) GothNoWriMo, I shall reward myself graciously as I prepare for the big NaNo in November. I'm going to be writing every chance I get to keep up with the daily 3k wordcounts and finish the novel well in advance. I don't want it to be October 29th and I'm just barely finishing it. I need at least a week or two to take a breather from all that writing and get mentally prepared for the 50K challenge the following month.

I know it's not Christmas yet, but I'm feeling the spirit of Christmas already. It's my favorite time of year! It just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I can't believe Christmas is only two months away -- and 2011 is only 3 months away!

As my current GothNo stands, I've reached one of my favorite points in the story when Jasmine is about to meet Dagg for the first time. I think from here it will get much easier to write. I was struggling trying to build up to this point, now the main part of the story can be told to my heart's content. This story and my November one will be victims of the December editing month once it rolls around.

WriMo Madness!

So GothNoWriMo started, NaNoWriMo got the site update, and I'm writing up a storm to try to catch up to my daily wordcounts already. This weekend has been busy for me having gone out of town for a day and now that I'm back it's been full of more distractions to try to get any sort of writing done. I am planning to take regular trips to either the library, coffee shop or bookstore just to get some peace and quiet to write! I thought I would actually find some use for the writing space I made in my room (which took over 6++ hours to clean!!), but it's just not working. I either have to wait until after 1-2AM when everyone is in bed, or I just have to attempt to write through all the noise and interruptions, but it's really aggravating!

I don't mind writing late at night sometimes, but there comes a point where my mind just shuts down, even when I'm on a creative roll where all the words just seem to flow endlessly. I really hate it when I have to stop because my brain decides it's time to go to sleep.

I'm loving the new NaNoWriMo site, also! I am going to be getting some new swag from the shop. I especially love the tote bags. It'll be perfect to carry my little laptop in. I'm such a sucker for bags. I have no idea why. The new pens look awesome too. Since I've been made a new ML for my region, I really want to try and contribute something to the cause since I haven't done so yet.

In addition to catching up to my GothNoWriMo novel, I just got a new art commission that I will need to start on ASAP. The work just never stops!

GothNoWriMo - Character Interviews

I decided to do something new and different for the upcoming GothNoWriMo event in just 3 days. It seems to be common practice to do character interviews of some of the main characters of a story to help flesh out what the characters are all about. I decided to give it a try, and it's certainly helped a lot with my story's character development. Whether I'll do this for NaNoWriMo as well, is uncertain. This was pretty time-consuming just for 3 characters! I have many more planned in my NaNoWriMo story. Regardless, this was a very neat exercise. The interview questions were taken from one of my writing group member's interview exercise. I guess this will be the last of what I will (be allowed to) reveal about my story until GothNoWriMo is over.

 

Daggax'iylion

1. How would you rate your looks and intelligence?

"My intellect far-precedes my looks. A necromancer's life (and sometimes undeath) is comprised of most things that are considered 'unsavory' by those who do not understand the Art. So many centuries of practicing the Art has taken a physical toll on my Human body as a result. My Draconic form is far more pleasing to my eyes in comparison to my weaker disguise. My own vanity and self-consciousness is far from important at this point, however."

2. What skills set you apart from everyone else?

"Dragons of my type possess many inherent skills that set us apart from the lesser creatures. We are stronger, wiser and live longer than any other creature, just to name a few. Coupled with my mastering of the Art of Necromancy, I am considered a powerful force by many."

3. What is the greatest accomplishment and your greatest failure to date (prior to the beginning of the story)?

"My greatest accomplishment was mastering the Art. I have surpassed many legends and even those of my race who have delved in the Art for centuries. As for failures, I live on perfection, thus I have not failed in my work. There is no room for failure especially when dealing with potent magic, lest you are a careless fool."

 

4. In what kind of family were you raised? How were you treated by your parents?

"Knowledge of my parents remains cloudy. I do know that I had two parents at some point, however. Upon hatching, a Dragon is immediately taught survival. There is no time for love and affection as most lesser creatures seem to exert to their young. Only a few months after I hatched, my parents were slain by hunters, and I had been forced to survive on my own as a result. Survival is instinct. This is what my parents instilled in me during those brief few months."

5. What is your life ambition?

"I have become old and tired, and yet, there is still more I wish to see and do in the world. I want to extend my life beyond my Twilight years -- perhaps even become an immortal. I have become vain and determined in my work. I do not wish to see it all fade away upon my death. My work will live on -- in some shape or form."

 

6. What role do you see yourself playing in this group (group of characters in the story)?

"I will be this girl's master and she will serve my every whim until she pays off the blood debt she owes to me. Her blood will be shed in the work that she does for me. She is but a weak creature, but I will dominate her, and perhaps train her in the Art, if she shows the interest and intellect for it. I will also be a worthy adversary to Banin Solanum and his accursed band of hunters."

7. What is the worst thing that has ever happened to you?

"I was foolish enough to allow my student to assist me in the creation of a particular potion which consisted of the extraction of blood from a subdued vampire. She, of course did not properly ensure that the creature was secured on the examination table prior to performing the extraction and it jumped out and attacked her, nearly biting her and the chaos that followed made a mess of my precious lab as a result. It took weeks to fix my lab again."

 

8. What is the best thing that has ever happened to you?

"That would be the day I mastered the Necromantic Art. I had surpassed many century-old legends and masters that preceded my existence. I have now become living proof that such a feat is possible. I have achieved my greatest power."

9. How do you feel about this group (story group)? How do you feel about other members in the group?

"Jasmine is a peculiar girl whom I've begun to grow fond of. She respects my authority and fears my dominance. She has made an ideal test subject for my many experimental spells. It intrigues me just how resilient her body is. Banin Solanum and his accursed dragonslaying band, the Hemlock Hunters have been nothing but a thorn in my side since they took up residence in my territory. They underestimate me to be nothing more than a feeble old Dragon who is on the brink of death; however it is their very ignorance that will weave their own deaths."

Jasmine

1. How would you rate your looks and intelligence?

"I'd like to consider myself modestly attractive. I never had the opportunity to experience the admiration of another man before to ensure these assumptions, however. I am smart, but not nearly as smart as Master Dagg. He seems fond of me enough to teach me his ways, however, and that makes me happy."

 

2. What skills set you apart from everyone else?

"I love to cook and I can confidently say that I am quite good at it. I have been known to cook the strangest of dishes. I like to be creative when I cook and create my own recipes. Master Dagg is especially amazed at my skill because likes the way I prepare seafood dishes (which is his favorite type of food, by the way)."

3. What is the greatest accomplishment and your greatest failure to date (prior to the beginning of the story)?

"If I had to name just one accomplishment, it would certainly have to be the day I perfected mother's famous Rose Petal Cake recipe. I discovered that the secret ingredient to making it so savory was not using roses at all, but apples! My greatest failure was the one time I accidentally burned dinner for the family because I so wrapped up in my reading that I completely forgot about it."

 

4. In what kind of family were you raised? How were you treated by your parents?

"I had two, hard-working and loving parents who provided for me and my sister. We all worked peacefully and productively on the family farm everyday. My father tended to be a bit more protective of me because I was the youngest."

5. What is your life ambition?

"I would like to travel the world someday. I have spent most of my life growing up on the family farm; therefore I am very interested in what else the world has to offer."

 

6. What role do you see yourself playing in this group (group of characters in the story)?

"I will be Master Dagg's loyal apprentice, eager to learn more of the Art."

7. What is the worst thing that has ever happened to you?

"When I was younger, I had consumed some wild mushrooms which grew regularly in the fields around the farm, and it caused me to fall deathly ill. I had misunderstood my sister's explanation on which mushrooms were allowed to be eaten and which ones weren't. My unfortunate condition caused quite a scare for everyone that day."

 

8. What is the best thing that has ever happened to you?

"That has to be my eighth birthday. Daddy got me the cutest little black kitten, which I named Periwinkle."

9. How do you feel about this group (story group)? How do you feel about other members in the group?

"Master Dagg is a very powerful man -- and Dragon -- whom I respect highly. I despise Banin Solanum and the rest of the dragonslayers, as they seek to kill my master in cold blood."

  

Banin Solanum

1. How would you rate your looks and intelligence?

"I am extremely handsome and not too modest to admit it. My witty charm and charismatic guise defines every woman's fantasy. My physical strength an intellectual prowess defines every man's aspirations. My mind is just as deadly as any sword. I am defined as a true leader."

 

2. What skills set you apart from everyone else?

"For many years, I have hunted and successfully slain powerful Dragons who have threatened and ravaged our homeland. My deeds are known and feared by Humans and many creatures alike. Having the qualities of a natural leader, I took up that role in the established and well-known company of warriors known as the Hemlock Hunters. I am what every man strives to be and more."

3. What is the greatest accomplishment and your greatest failure to date (prior to the beginning of the story)?

"I do not value my accomplishments more than another. Accomplishment defines success and success is what defines me. I am my own greatest accomplishment. There is no room for failure, else I would not be where I am today."

 

4. In what kind of family were you raised? How were you treated by your parents?

"I was born and raised in a large noble family. I was the youngest child of seven siblings, and thus I was regularly ignored and underestimated by them. It was stereotypical thinking for the youngest son to be the weakest. My parents were more focused on the success of my elder siblings; however, little did they realize I would be the one to surpass them all."

5. What is your life ambition?

"I seek the greatest ambition above all -- knowledge."

6. What role do you see yourself playing in this group (group of characters in the story)?

"I am the leader of the Hemlock Hunters. I will do as I have always done since I took up this position and seek out and destroy this threatening Draconic menace that resides in our beautiful country."

 

7. What is the worst thing that has ever happened to you?

"Like all things, the worst thing that usually happens to a hunter is when his prey manages to escape. That translates to failure. Did I not mention before that there is no room for failure?"

8. What is the best thing that has ever happened to you?

"Perhaps it was the day we took down the elder Red, Xarathylane. She was responsible for the death and destruction of an entire province, and the start of this accursed drought."

 

9. How do you feel about this group (story group)? How do you feel about other members in the group?

"The Hemlock Hunters thrive to this day because of my leadership. Daggax'iylion is an evil Dragon who is also one of the most formidable opponents I've faced in my career as a hunter. I do enjoy a challenge."

GothNoWriMo

Shortly after going through tons of writing space photo threads on the OLL site, I was motivated to get my own in order. I spent over 6 hours cleaning my room trying to make a nice writing space in the corner in preparation for NaNoWriMo. I managed to finish it, though I still feel totally exhausted. I do love the feeling of accomplishment! I'm also still working on the plots for my NaNoWriMo novel.

I spent some time online researching other writing contests/events going on throughout the year. Two that particularly caught my eye were the 3-Day Novel, and GothNoWriMo events. 3DN has already come and gone (and I didn't have the money for it), but GothNoWriMo is coming up in less than 10 days. This particular event caught my eye because I do have a bit of an affinity for the gothic culture. I'm still a complete newbie, however, when it comes to writing in that genre. And I'll be honest, I don't think I've read many books of the genre (I think Twilight has killed my motivation to really pick up one these days). I've had this story in my head which was derived from a D&D game I played way back when, which might make a good horror/gothic-themed story to try out for GothNoWriMo. Moreover, I think it will be a nice warm-up to do before NaNoWriMo, since my brain is itching to begin. If I do decide to do this, I'm going to try for 20k words -- a small novella, but ideal for someone like me who's just starting out and new to writing the genre.

I guess I'll have to decide something soon (and try and do some last-minute planning/outlining) -- the event is only 8 days away!

Plotting & Planning

I've been working on and off on outlining the NaNo novel I intend to do. I have pages upon pages and files upon files of notes which were a result of me being bored and/or exercising my creative juices. I still don't know how this story will end. I don't know whether or not to make it a single book or a series of books. I'm really leaning towards the former, just so I can practice writing self-contained stories. Sometimes I can be rather long-winded with my writing. I like to explain details because that's where I enjoy being creative with my descriptions. I admit it's probably one of many writing pitfalls that I'm guilty of. I really think NaNo will help me in this aspect.

It seems a lot of people in the forums are doing some sort of vampire romance story. Of course, these types of stories have been around for hundreds of years, but I think it's pretty obvious that Twilight brought the trend back. My story is going to be as far from this as possible. It'd be nice to start a new trend.

Time to get back to planning/organizing!

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My Blog of Writing Dangerously

So here marks the start of a motivation tool which I hope will help me with future NaNoWriMo events. I never understood what the purpose of a 'writing blog' stood for, and perhaps I may end up utilizing this differently than most people. This blog was really created for the purposes of expressing my adventures and experiences in the NaNo/OLL events, as well as sharing a few excerpts of my works done from these events with the rest of the world.

NaNoWriMo 2009 was my very first one I tried (and ended up winning!). 50,021 words is the most I've ever written in my life, I think. I find it to be a great accomplishment for me, and I would like to try and see about getting it all edited and published. I'm such a horrible procrastinator when it comes to that. I already know the book is bad and needs heavy editing, but by the time NaNoWriMo is over, I don't even want to think about the story or anything related to it until I clear my head... by then, I already have another story in place, ready to start planning out for the next NaNoWriMo. It's such a vicious cycle that I can't ignore, lest I wish to have another years'-worth of writers' block.

It's ridiculous what writers' block can do to some people. That is another reason for me starting this blog. I want to follow others and see how they tend to cope with the many obstacles that writers tend to face. There's something so endearing and motivating to be around others who are facing the same problems and issues when it comes to writing. While I am a self-motivator, I am also the type of person that feeds off of the energy from others. The more energy, the better, and that's certainly what I need right now to calm my nerves for NaNoWriMo 2010...