NaNoWriMo 2011

Here we go again for another round of NaNoWriMo! I'm an ML again this year for my region, and it looks like there's going to be a large turnout -- perhaps larger than last year! Our kickoff party is this Sunday. I'm really looking forward to meeting old and new WriMos.

As for me, I'll be writing Flameseeker, which is book 3 of my trilogy. I've already outlined and I'm very excited to write it. This will be my first-ever trilogy. I can honestly say that I didn't think I'd make it this far in my writing. I never thought I'd be sticking with it for so long. There are so many stories I want to tell, and so many that have already been written, they're just waiting to be edited. That's always the painful and tedious part of things. I really have NaNoWriMo to thank for all of this. I don't think I'd be writing now if not for the opportunity.

Good luck, everyone on their NaNoveling!

~10k Left

I feel myself nearing the 50k finish line, and yet, I'm feeling myself slowing down. It's becoming harder to write. I've felt this way for a few days, now. I feel as though the story is winding down prematurely, which is what I was afraid of. I ended up creating a battle scene just to draw out the inevitable. Whether or not it'll see the final version is a different story. I  have about 10k words left (according to the chart, I should finish by Aug. 15th), and now I have to figure out what to do with it. I hate adding filler. Especially when it requires me to ramble on about minor things about the story. I think all the 'fillers' will end up being battle scenes -- or enhancements to existing ones. I have to do something soon. I predict the story will be finished in 45k words, which was about the same amount as Firebrand. There is so much story I do want to tell, however; especially since I have a larger cast of characters.

I guess we'll have to see how things go. I'm getting nervous about this! But a little nervousness is good, right?

Halfway Point!

Well, just a little over halfway done (26,762). I've also reached the mid-point of my story. Things are going very well. Did I mention how much I really love the cabin feature? It's been one of the high points of my NaNoing adventures. It's very motivating to have others around you, bouncing ideas and motivating each other to keep going. I really hope something like this will be implemented during November's session, as well.
Onward to 30k!

Summer Camping Madness

I can't believe August is already here and so is round 2 of Camp NaNoWriMo! I have to say, I'm loving the bells and whistles OLL added to the website. The cabin feature is really awesome and fun! I chose to be around people who write in the same genre (fantasy). It's been really motivating and fun to write alongside fellow NaNoers in my cabin. The bugs are still being worked out of the system, but so far it's been nothing to major that it rendered the feature unusable.

Currently, I'm a little over 17k words. I've been writing this story like crazy because I've been so excited and eager to start on it. Firebrand is still being beta-read, so I've had to push back the release date till sometime near the end of August, perhaps. I will be relieved once the first book of the trilogy is finally released and I'll be hard at work with the edits of book 2 by then. I plan to write Book 3 in November's session. After Camp NaNoWrimo, the next big writing event will be GothNoWriMo in October, in which I plan to write a prequel to The Necromancer's Apprentice which will be told from Daggax'iylion's point of view. These are the planned projects for the remainder of 2011. Who knows what I'm going to write in 2012!

Ready for August

Well, I finally made time to validate my novel (again) so I can collect the winner goodies, and wouldn't you know, it made my wordcount go down a thousand words! I don't understand it... Did they change the validator since I used it before? I didn't add or delete any words. Anyway, it made me a little nervous to see that, but I still got over 50k words -- 50,342 is the grand, final total.

In the meantime, I'm hard at work planning out my next novel for August's session. The excitement is happening all over again. I hope to see more participants in my area, and maybe we can do a little more this time around.

I'm also hard at work trying to get my book published before the end of the month. The book will be available in paperback format, first, then I will be spending some time converting it to eBook format.

Good luck to the rest of the NaNoers! Only 5 days left to go!

Camp NaNoWriMo July 2011 - 51,483!

These past few weeks have been pretty busy between writing and real life happenings. But I'm glad to say that I managed to still get my 3,000+ words-per-day goal, regardless. I love maintaining this steady discipline. It's helped me a lot with my writing and working towards a worthy goal. Well, as of today, I've finally reached the goal (and then some!) of 51,483, according to the wordcount validator. This is actually the most words I've written in a NaNoWriMo event since I began in 2009, so I think it's a huge accomplishment for me! Now I have a few weeks to clear my mind and get ready to do it all over again in August. I've already decided on the story I want to tell for the August one -- it's going to be book 2 of Firebrand. I am planning on releasing book 1 towards the end of July, so look for the announcement on the website!

Now, I think I'll take a nice, long, well-deserved nap...

Weekend Camp Wrap-Up

It's been such an awesome and productive four days. As of today, after reaching my daily wordcount, I'm currently up to 12,105 words. I have 37,895 words remaining according to my Camp NaNoWriMo stats. At this rate, if I keep this steady pace, I should be done in about 20 days or so. That's usually around the time I've been finishing my previous NaNoWriMo challenges. On Saturday, I hosted our first Camp NaNoWriMo write-in. Only one person was able to come out, but we made a lot of progress doing 15-minute wordsprints. If you're ever falling behind in wordcounts, I've found that doing 15-minute wordsprints for an hour will get you back on track faster than you realize it. If you write at least 250 words every 15 minutes, you will get at least 1000 words in an hour. Sometimes it's good to set a goal to help you stay focused and on track with your writing. That's one of the things I love about NaNoWriMo -- the competition makes you commit to a goal and stick with it.

I've been reading other blogs and tweets from other NaNoers. Some people already have over 20,000 words! It's amazing that they can write so much in so few days. It's definitely great and inspiring to see everyone's progress through this event. And just think, in less than a month, I'll be doing it all over again for August's session (yes, I'm that insane)!

Thanks and welcome to the new followers of my blog as well as Twitter. Here's to hoping for a successful week 2 of Camp NaNoWriMo!