National Novel Writing Month 2012

God dammit I am still behind although I do write more each day. Topped 8K last night, hoping to keep up production, maybe worry less about little details and just get the words out.

Okay. I just started this whole thing not really knowing how to write a novel and I'm trying to figure out not only how to get to the word count by the end of the month, but how to get to the end of the story, y'know?

It sounds like your story is more "plotty" than mine, at least so far. Yesterday I felt like I didn't know where I was going, and I was faffing around a little describing stuff and letting my characters talk but without any real drama manager overseeing things. By compressing the timeframe and really spelling out where I have to get to, I'll write a little smarter.

Hopefully.

And Bill, glad to see you're still plugging away. If I had your schedule there's no way I would be able to do this.

One of the things NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty advocates is sketching out any scenes you may not have time to finish, then going back and properly fleshing them out after November 30th. I think he weighs finishing the novel/reaching 50,000 words above all else, so YMMV and all that.

I already know I'll be doing this to some extent and actually already have. I'm driving this sucker forward, so nuance and detail are sometimes taking a backseat to blowin' things up.

I am having the opposite problem - I am seeing my story ramp to its conclusion almost too quickly. I need a side plot... list of unanswered questions from background research... aha! Demon from hell falls in love with gangster, is spurned, frames him for participation in cop-killing and laughs as he's later gunned down by the feds. Yes, because what this story was missing was a Mob/Hell love story.

A man (or demon) walks into the room with a gun!

My personal goal is to get this to the end by the end of the month. Word counts are what's making me put my butt in the seat to write.

Right now I'm trying to make every reader fall in love with this kid, so when I kill him halfway through, you're really going to want to figure out who did it.

I rejiggered today, and I'm happier with my outline now. My second act is still sketchy, but I'm building in all sorts of stuff in the first half that will hopefully pay off.

That's EVERY SCENE. It's the 1930s Kansas City organized crime scene mixed with "a wizard did it".

I FINISHED MY LAST PROBLEM SET AND I HAVE NEXT WEEK OFF.

I predict my word count by the end of next week will be at LEAST 500 words, guys!

I've managed to be fairly consistent so far....

13,400 now. Last days were a busy. Sitting here trying to figure out how I want the next scene to play out in my head.

I added a big honking section today -- almost a story within a story -- in which the main bad guy is introduced (he is very bad and should feel bad but actually feels great), bringing my total word count to 17,113.

My only concern is this section is written in the third person and the rest of the story thus far has been from the first person perspective. The shift may come across as awkward. If so I might move entirely to the third person just to keep things consistent, even though having to rewrite existing scenes from first to third person is not exactly a prospect that makes my socks roll up and down with excitement.

WOOOOOOOOOO I am so happy right now. Pounded out 3,000 words today and as long as I can manage at least 2K per day I will finish on target. Almost at 12,000.

It didn't even feel like 3,000. I'm rollin'.

I feel like the tortoise, slowly plodding along while all these bunnies streak past me.

See you all again in a day or two!

I'm only a part-time bunny. Remember, I wrote a whopping 12 words three days ago.

Tonight I was slightly above pace with 1824 words. The first hour or so of writing was tough because I was working on a scene that was all images and mood, the kind of thing that requires subtlety and nuance. You know, the opposite of what you get when you're banging out a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.

Still, I'll take it!

And here is the first sentence of my novel:

A snippet of my work in progress:

It took four days for Crandy to be fully repaired and returned to Leyton. A technician with the manufacturer, Metallidogs of Belville Plains, arrived at his office mid-day and unpacked the automahound. The creature lay motionless on the floor as the man slipped three pneumatic condensers into slots on his underbelly. It would take about five minutes before the metallic companion was fully charged.

Letyon cringed. His affection for Crandy was boundless, and he abhorred seeing it in an unpowered state. Fortunately, he had been spared the sight of the damage inflicted on the hound during the airship crash. Pieces had been found scattered among the remnants of Section 351. Scattered among the bodies.

“He’s good as new,” the technician chortled, oblivious to the anguish Leyton was feeling. “In fact, we replaced so many parts, you might as well call him new.” The man’s obnoxious smile disappeared the moment he realized Leyton was glowering.

Mallint, watching from across the room, sensed the awkwardness of the exchange. “That’ll be all,” he waved at the man. “We’ll let you know if we have further problems.”

They sat quietly after the technician’s hasty exit, watching Crandy rejuvenate: first an ear twitched, then an eye opened, then the other, then the head rose. The hound climbed to its feet, front paws first, and looked around. The survey stopped at Leyton, and then — a glorious sight — his metallic tail wagged excitedly. The creature bounded toward him and Leyton found himself burying his face into its artificial fur.

Crandy was back.

Aw, I'm jealous. My story doesn't have any mechanical dogs in it.

Here's my lovely little excerpt, done through a minor character's eyes.

One third of the way through the month. More than one third of the way to 50K. On pace to finish two days early. I'd like a bigger buffer, but its better than no buffer at all.

After a week full of epic inactivity on the writing front, had a 3200 word burst today to take me to 11372. Hoping to get another big push tomorrow to 15k.

I've got three major set-pieces planned, but still haven't made it to the first one. Introduced a new character and I'm just having too much fun playing with the interactions between him and my protagonist to rush.

Nice work to everyone who's managed to stay on pace and on task so far!

On Monday, I took my father to the ER. While there for nearly 7 hours I wrote a paltry 1,500 words. I would have written much more if not for all the screaming. (Not my father, his issues are much more silent.) For the next 4 days I wrote nothing. Worried as doctors ran tests and running errands for him, my hours outside work were unproductive as far as writing. When I did try to write, my thoughts were scattered.

Today, he had surgery to repair nerve damage in his spine, determined to be the root of nearly all his ills. 2,000 words while he was in the OR. Another 2,000 since I've been home after getting him settled into recovery. And the day is not yet done. If I can get another thousand words, I'll be back on target even though I missed 4 days. And tomorrow has been cleared for writing.

Would have put down more words today after D&D, but I wound up collapsing unconscious for about four hours due to a week of sleep deprivation. So a little behind the power curve, but catching up over the long weekend.

I've just figured out a ridiculously clever in-joke that no one will ever get but me for a character name.

OH WELL!

P.S. 1500 words AND CLIMBING.

I've been plodding forward at a steady rate.
I'm feeling a little bit happier with my current writing than my writing from the beginning of this month.
Not that I've looked back at it or anything, I've already forbidden myself from doing so.
I'm a little worried though, and I think someone else said something along the same lines earlier, that I'm running through the story too quickly. I think part of that is due to the way I was writing last week and part of it is due to poor planning before NaNoWriMo started. Normally I plan the hell out of everything before I write but I figured that might be one of the reasons I can never finished a project.
Hmm.
I guess I'll have to redo my outline and possibly rethink my story (within the bounds of what I have written already).



But hey, we're now a third of the way through NaNoWriMo!
For everyone that has stayed on track, congratulations!
For everyone that is working to catch up, you can make it!
Let's do this!

Yesterday we flew to Tampa, then drove down to Anna Maria Island. We're now staying in a condo, a block from the beach, with a heated pool. I still managed my usual 2000 words.

Habit, bitches. Get it. Writing is about developing the habit of writing.

I'm staying in this condo (which has five bedrooms) with my in-laws, my brother-in-law and his wife, her mother, and her brother and his girlfriend. That's too many people in close proximity for my comfort level. So far I've warned my father-in-law that I'm going to be anti-social and write every day for a few hours. The others haven't noticed.

The big question is whether to drink and write, or not. When I was in my twenties I experimented with the romantic notion of having a glass of bourbon next to me while I wrote, and I was never happy with my inebriated thoughts the next day. I think I'm going to try and write in the mornings, before the temptation to drink starts.

I should be writing now.

Yesterday I only got in about 1,000 words but that's due to going to a 7 p.m. showing of Skyfall, finding it sold out, then having to kill three hours with a friend waiting for the 9:20 showing instead. I got home at 12:30 and decided it was too late to finish up the day's word count.

Today I may try my first run of the month, depending on how my Achilles tendon feels. If I decide not to I'll start writing this morning. If I do run I'll start writing early in the afternoon.

Short version: I should still stay ahead of the pace today despite falling short yesterday. It's all James Bond's fault.

Wrote 3,055 words today, with 23,005 overall. That's a little under a three day buffer, so the inevitable sense of panic/dread is being held at bay for now.

I also wrote the latest scene in third person and I'm unsure on how much I like it. The tone feels flatter, as if I can't jump into the character's mind in the same way. I may go back and rework it in first person to see how it compares. That's breaking one of the big NaNo rules but I think I can spare the time for it tomorrow.

A small snippet of dialog from a scene between the protagonist Ethan and his friend Scott. The scene is from Ethan's perspective:

We got into his car and as he started the ignition I turned to him. “Why are you helping me with this?”

“Read my mind and find out!”

“You know I can’t do that.”

“Not yet, at least.” He pulled out onto the road. A light drizzle was lazily starting to fall and he flicked on the wipers. “Eeth, you’re my friend. I care about what happens to you and right now you’ve got some Big Shit going down. Did you hear the capital letters there? Big Shit. I want to help. Plus this is totally weird and I like being in on the ground floor. It’s like win-win for me.”

“You’re a good friend.”

“We can’t hug in a moving car.”

We need more people updating. Update, people!

I finished today's session with 2,342 words written and have officially passed the halfway mark with 25,347 words total. Bulk writing has never been difficult for me but I may start weeping at the quality when I re-read this sucker on December 1st. Hopefully not.

I felt better about writing in the third person today but I still prefer first person. I may switch back when I work on the second draft. The one complication is there are scenes that need to happen that the protagonist simply wouldn't know about, so I'm left with having to either mix first and third person perspectives or mixing multiple first person perspectives (which would probably be confusing).

This sounds like such a neat project, it's a shame I joined the forums two weeks into it.

ClaireDeLune, its never too late to start.

Here's my update: rough day on Sunday, fell short of daily goal, but I made up for it yesterday with a single 2K word chapter that I'm happy with (plot-wise, at least). So I'm still on target.

The great unknown factor for me right now is this: on Friday I got picked for a jury. The trial starts today and is expected to last 5-7 days. (A boring civil suit, by the way, nothing sexy). I know that being on a jury entails a lot of time sitting around waiting. And I'm bringing my laptop with me. So this is either going to be very, very good for my NaNoWriMo goal, or very bad. I'll know more today. Just because I'm sitting around doesn't mean I'll be able to focus on writing.

Beyond that, I'm finding this month much easier than when I did Camp NaNoWriMo in August. I did make 50K then, but it seemed much more of a struggle. This may be due to the fact that I'm now writing the second half of what I started then, and I have a pretty clear sense of how I want the pot to proceed.

But I also think the easier time this month is simply due to being "In shape." I am starting to realize that writing fiction is very much like exercise: I dread the 'work' of it, but when I do it regularly it gets easier and easier.

My plans for all day writing Sunday fell through. Now I'm sick. Plus, family drama! I wish it were a source of inspiration for writing, but the story I'm writing won't be helped with passive-aggressive family stupidity.

If all the evidence were to point to suicide, I don't see any reason for the police not to close the case as soon as possible. I suppose it would depend on the credibility of the person claiming it was murder. Possible solutions - the person who thinks it was murder doesn't take their suspicions to the cops, and/or the police (or someone on the force) is involved with the murder/cover-up.

I had a friend who committed suicide. The case was immediately treated as such, the cops interviewed family and friends and then waited for the medical examiner. When the ME confirmed cause of death and ruled it self-inflicted, the case was closed. Took about 3 days total for all the paperwork to finish (at least on the police side - the insurance and other stuff took months). No one was claiming it was murder though.

I go by The Wire. If a case looks like a suicide, why would you ruin your stats for the month by turning it into a stone cold whodunnit? So if the police are satisfied, then the only place for the family, or some member of the family, to turn is a PI.

Yesterday was slow going because while I was writing in my little corner of the condo, suddenly everyone decided they needed to be here too. Oh, and the owner's mother is kind of deaf, so she had to make a phone call for her and shout everything she was saying on the phone as way of translation. That was a boon to concentration.

I topped 25k yesterday, but I'm nowhere near the halfway point of my story. I've already said that 30k should be my halfway point, but it just keeps getting longer. I want to go back and cut out all the shit, but as a good WriMo, I will not edit until finished. So it looks like this is a 60k+ book. Now I'm thinking I'll just keep up the 2k/day pace into December for as long as it takes the book to be done.

I fell a little behind but should be caught up today. I added an excerpt of my book to my profile, and found the thing where you can word validate.

15,572 words. 30 pages. This unwieldy thing is officially the longest piece of fiction I've written since my 110 page play Icebox in college.

This <i>thing</i> is starting to pick up speed nicely. We're barreling along to the first major set piece of the story, and I'm gaining a better sense of my characters and the book's structure with every passing day. It's been really satisfying to see my writing ability seem to get better as each day passes.

Participating in NaNoWriMo was a fantastic decision to have made. Doing it on the heels of my first play in a long time has re-energized my passion to create things - whether it be characters or worlds. I was rusty for a great deal of Much Ado, and it took me a long amount of time to really feel comfortable on stage again. I've been rusty for at least 9 out of these 13 days of madcap writing in November as well. It has taken me 15k words and 30 pages to feel like I'm knocking rust off of my imagination, but that rust is coming off in huge chunks now damn it. For the first time since the the first day of this project I feel like I'm going to hit 50k words, and afterwards I know in my heart that I'm going to keep writing, and keep acting, and keep stoking this creative fire.

Look out Imaginationland - Citizen Dick is back in town.