Author: Kristi

NaNoWriMo Day 3

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The Words: 2044 written today. I started writing around 9:30 pm, after my youngest was finally in bed. Then, after I’d written only 500 words, my husband decided we should drive out into the country a bit to try to see the northern lights. That was a bust, and I got back to my computer around 11:15. I was able to get another 1500 words in with a few sprints on my own using Write or Die.

The Story: Darcy’s dad was confronted by an angry fellow blacksmith, who was slinging all sorts of accusations that made no sense. He was angry, though, and Darcy wonders if someone’s been feeding him misinformation. Also, the missing blade smith has been found, and the mystery has only deepened. He was beaten, buried and left for dead, but by whom? Darcy has an inkling, but it’s more of a wild guess right now.

Total word count: 29,079

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2015 – November 3rd

NaNoWriMo Day 2

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Quick Tip: (If I have these, I’ll put them at the beginning, so if anyone chooses not to read about my progress, they won’t miss the tip!) So you know how you can update your word count by typing the number into the field at the top of the website? I would suggest that every so often, you actually go ahead and check your official word count. I do this at the end of every day, because if I’m 100 words lower than I’d thought, I want to know as soon as possible. The reason for this is that different word processors count words differently, and the NaNo site counts them differently than some of those word processors. By the end of the month, you could be even up to a thousand or more words off, and if you’re just barely getting to 50k, you don’t want to suddenly find out at 11:50 pm on Nov. 30 that you’re 1000 words shy. So just copy & paste your whole novel into the field that comes up when you click on “Check my official word count” under the “update” button.

Now onto my daily update:

The Words: 2025 written today. I did a few word sprints with https://twitter.com/NaNoWordSprints after 9 pm and wrote some in between. I spent as much time talking on my region’s Skype group as I did writing. I was shooting for 1667 and went a little above that, so I’m happy.

The Story: After yesterday’s race to 25k, I had left a little bit of a mess. The story takes place over 9 days, starting on a Saturday. I’d written Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and then started into Tuesday. But then I had to write some extra I’d forgotten to include for Monday, and when I was done with that, I got the next few days mixed up and started into Wednesday, with some of Tuesday’s events.

Because it’s NaNo, I didn’t fix the mistake, but instead restarted Tuesday and left the mess to sort out later. So today I wrote about Darcy, the MC, interviewing her dad and a friend of the family, both blacksmiths, for a video that is meant to be a tribute to the blacksmith community in their area. This is the main plot, or at least the backdrop to the conflict. The actual conflict, a missing blade smith, didn’t really come up in today’s writing. But it will tomorrow.

Total word count: 27,035

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2015 – November 2nd

If You’re Struggling With NaNo…

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This video might help. I know some people didn’t have the first day of NaNo they were hoping for. I also know that seeing excitement and high numbers from others isn’t necessarily the most helpful encouragement. I wanted to share ‘Manda Whitney’s vlog about her first day trouble, because she totally gets it!

The important thing is not to give up. This is just the beginning!

NaNoWriMo Day 1

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The Words: 25,010 written today! Okay, yeah, so wow. I basically decided some time in the last week to go for a 25kDayOne. I figured I’d be writing for basically 24 hours with little mini breaks now and then. And I had this little hope in the back of my mind that maybe I’d do so well that I’d actually get close to 50k.

The main thing I learned today is that just because I can write this fast doesn’t mean I should do it too often.

Basically, I averaged 2k per hour, for the first 7 hours, at which point I realized I was fading hard. I went to bed, woke up and went with my husband to pick up some leftover Halloween candy. Got back to writing while eating my lunch, never quite got back up to the same pace, and decided that when I hit 25k, I’d call it for the day. That happened just before 7 pm.

25KDayOne

This is a screen shot of the spread sheet I kept throughout the day. I took a few notes in case I wanted to remember things later.

I’m still going to write every day this month. For at least the next few days, if I get the daily minimum done and feel like stopping, I will. I came pretty close to burning out today, and don’t want to risk it.

The Story: I’ll be honest. This story went nowhere good in 25,000 words. I barely got to the actual plot. Most of what I wrote was just showing what life is like at a reenactment. If I decide someday to try to do something further with this story, the first thing I’ll probably have to do is figure out how to break some of that up throughout the rest of the story so the main plot and conflict start sooner. The blade smith, Shawn Mallory, did finally go missing, though, and the MC, Darcy, has started doing video interviews with the different blacksmiths at the reenactment, at the behest of one of the older smiths, so they can compile a tribute to a retiring smith and the community he’s fostered in their region. (Yes, the word “smith” or “blacksmith” came up a lot just in this paragraph. Imagine how the rest of the story sounds. But that is the focal point of the story, so that’s just how it’s going to be. It’s easier when they have names, but I figured trying to include them all here would just be more confusing.)

Total word count: 25,010

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2015 – November 1st
And in honor of November 1st, the first episode of the NaNoMusical!

NaNoWriMo Tag

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I’ve been seeing this on WordPress over the last week, so I’ve decided to join the party. It’s really just a way of procrastinating, but it sounds like fun to answer too. These questions were originally posed by Kristine Horner in a YouTube video, but I don’t do videos. I’m only barely a blogger, really. So anyway, here are the questions with my answers:

1. How many times have you done NaNoWriMo?
I have done NaNo 5 times before, with the first being in 2007.

2. How did you first find out about NaNoWriMo?
The admin of a fanfiction forum I was part of, specifically fanfiction for Ragnarok Online, mentioned it in October 2007. I will always be grateful that she made that off-hand comment about who was going to be participating, because it’s opened up a whole world to me.

3. What was the name of the first novel you attempted with NaNo?
It was called “Outcast,” it was fanfiction, and it was the best thing I’d ever written. It’s still one of my absolute favorites, and will be revisited and adapted to the world I’ve created for my series of novels eventually.

4. Give us a 1 sentence summary of what you’re writing this year.
A loud, obnoxious blade smith disappears during a historical reenactment, and the daughter of a neighboring blacksmith begins to suspect foul play when she notices the suspicious behavior of some of the other reenactors.

5. What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever been given?
Don’t edit the crap out of your writing. I’ve read so many articles and blog posts by writers who make it seem like a manuscript will never be ready. It will always need another draft. While it’s true it will never be perfect, just maybe it doesn’t have to be. That’s given me a lot of freedom in my current revision of my first novel to not feel like I have to keep going for another 2 years, editing it to death and probably losing my voice at the same time.

6. Did you ever take a year off from NaNo? Why?
Yes, I skipped 2008, 2010, and 2011. 2008 was mostly because I didn’t have any ideas for what to write and didn’t know how to coax inspiration at the time. I was also wishing I could transition from fanfiction to original fiction, and it wasn’t working out. The other two years were mostly because having a baby (in 2010) and then young toddler (in 2011) along with homeschooling an older kid made me feel that doing NaNo would be too overwhelming. Add to that the same “lack of idea” issue from 2008, and I gave those years a pass. Though I spent at least half of November those years thinking “maybe I could still jump in.”

7. What’s your biggest inspiration when figuring out what to write?
All sorts of things. I don’t know if I can narrow it down. Song lyrics, a movie I watched and thought, “What if this were different?” Some random thing someone said, or something that came out during free writing. My husband also makes a great sounding board, and helps me break through blocks in planning sometimes.

8. Read us the first sentence from one of your novels.
“Thousands of years ago, the world was much more technologically advanced than it is now.”

9. Why do you love writing?
It’s so much fun to develop these random ideas into something real. Something that’s outside of my head. Something I can share with someone. There’s just something about letting the thoughts spill out that is better than keeping them swirling around in my head. It’s become such a part of who I am that I don’t think I would be the same if I couldn’t write anymore.

(My plan to write 25K words on the first day took a bit of an unexpected turn around 7 this morning when I realized I had no choice but to get some sleep. I haven’t stayed up all night in quite a while, and apparently I can’t do it anymore. But I’m still on target, and if you want to check my progress, you can do so here.)

Why do they call this a “tag” anyway? I thought it was because we’re supposed to tag others to do it, but I’ve yet to see anyone tagging anyone in these posts. Feel free to share your own answers to any of these questions.

NaNoWriMo Eve

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NaNoWriMo has been on my brain since September. I’ve been posting about it since September, planning my novel throughout the last month, and talking about it enough to drive some family members nuts. And now it’s here.

Last year, the first year I had this blog, I posted daily updates about my progress through NaNo. I posted about my word count for the day, as well as when or how I’d gone about writing them. I also shared a little about the progress of my novel, though since that novel was one I hope to publish someday, I was vague about some of the details.

I plan to do the same thing again this year. I am not trying to inflate my ego or shame anyone who may not have as many words as I do (assuming, of course, that the month is going well enough for either of these to be applicable). I’m sharing my daily progress for anyone who may be curious about how others go about doing NaNo, or how others fit the writing into their lives. And so I can share anything new I’m learning about NaNo or writing as it happens. I’m also going to share because I like being able to look back a year later and see how the story shaped up. Or remind myself of those new things I learned along the way. And because I’m already in the habit of posting here every day that I’ve done some writing work.

Now and then I may even offer more tips (on top of the many I’ve already shared) that I didn’t think about until the month started, or that I’ve just picked up myself. However, I know some people get annoyed when people post about their word count often, so if you’re one of those, by all means, don’t read my posts over the next month. I won’t be offended.

I plan to spend all day tomorrow writing, from midnight to midnight. I’ve never done this before, usually just stick to the midnight sprint (get as many words in from midnight until you go to bed) and a normal day after, but I decided to try it. I’ve often wondered if I could pull of the 50k1day, but I don’t want to exhaust myself physically, mentally, or creatively. 2000 words per hour could easily do that.

So I’m aiming for more like 25k words, but even then, I’m not going to stick to it strictly. This will be my last chance to try something like this until Nov. 1 falls on a weekend again in the year 2020, so I’m going for it. I’ve created a spreadsheet that I’m going to update hourly with my word count, in case anyone feels like checking in at any point throughout the day.

As for the rest of the month, I usually keep my head down and focus only on my writing during November, but last year, I was involved in a Skype chat group for my region. The mutual encouragement in there (and word wars) was a great new depth to NaNo that I really enjoyed!

Please feel free to add me as a writing buddy. Let me know you came from here, and I’ll add you back. If you need encouragement throughout the month, give me a shout somehow and I’ll do my best to provide some!

nano word count totalAre you ready for NaNo to begin? Do you plan to do the midnight sprint tonight?

Daily Challenge Check-in: October 30, 2015

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Words/Time: 37 minutes fleshing out the minor characters for my 2015 NaNoNovel. After I spend a little time with the main characters and their family, I’ll be back to the outline.

I’ve officially decided to write all day, midnight to midnight, on Nov 1. I’ll be setting my goal for 25k in one day. I’ll be tracking my progress here in case anyone wants to look in: 25kDayOne Google Docs spreadsheet

Daily Challenge Check-in: October 29, 2015

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Words/Time: 40 minutes working on the outline and fleshing out some characters for my 2015 NaNoNovel. I’m bothered by how unprepared I still am, with only 2 days until NaNo starts. For now, I think I’ll set aside the outlining and focus on the characterization. I have so many similar-level minor characters that I need to keep straight (for myself and for the reader) so I’m going to work on making them each unique. I’ve been known to start with a partial outline and work on it during the day when I couldn’t be writing anyway; that’s likely what I’ll be doing this year. Only problem is, this being a mystery novel, I need to have my clues and certain events straight before I can do much writing. So basically, I have a lot I still need to do before midnight comes on Saturday.

My NaNo Survival Kit

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I figured with NaNoWriMo drawing ever closer, I’d share my own list of items that I’m collecting for my November survival kit. Some are ready to go, some I still need to get ready.

1. Laptop – Though this one seems easy, I’ve been using a temporary replacement for my good laptop, because the good one needed a new keyboard. It’s been fixed and ready for a week now, but I haven’t taken the time to swap out the temp one yet. The keyboard was down for a month or so, so I need to set up the good laptop and make sure it’s ready to go for November.

2. Outline – I haven’t even started on this yet. I’ve got a partial timeline done, some character work done, and a decent synopsis. Plus lots of notes on dialog and minor events that will shape the setting. I plan to do nothing but outline during my writing time until either the outline is done or November starts.

3. Notebook, pencil, & eraser
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Though I prefer to write longhand, I learned years ago that there was no time for that during NaNoWriMo. In fact, I rarely write anything longer than writing practice by hand anymore, even outside of NaNo. Still, having a notebook or two available during NaNo is only smart. For those times when I’m out and can’t bring my laptop, but still have a little time to write (Thanksgiving events being the most prominent example). Or for the possibility, however unlikely, that my laptop crashes.

4. Soft, fuzzy robe & slippers – November gets cold where I live, and we keep our thermostat a little low to save money. So we tend to wear sweaters, socks, and slippers around here to stay warm. It’s nice and cozy for settling in and writing, especially since I recently got a long, super soft robe to wear.

5. Leftover Halloween candy & other snacks – This is still on the horizon, obviously, because Halloween is still ahead of us. My husband and I have grand plans to go out on Sunday afternoon and see what we can find. I learned recently that (in my town, at least) Walgreens and CVS are more likely to have good, name-brand candy in after-holiday sales than the area grocery stores, so we’re heading there first. I’ll be getting others snacks here and there, like fruit or chips, but I’m mostly a chocolate girl.

6. Full stock of coffee
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This is the first year this particular item has been on my list. I despise coffee normally. I like powdered cappuccino drinks, but couldn’t ever enjoy coffee. However, my husband got me a k-cup machine for my last birthday, and I quickly discovered that I like flavored coffee (with cream in it). In fact, I’ve become somewhat obsessed with coffee now (but again, only flavored). I discovered that one can buy variety packs of flavored coffee on Amazon, and tried it out months ago. It worked out well enough that I ordered a new box for November. I also pick up regular boxes of various flavors that strike my fancy now and then, and have some I’m looking forward to opening throughout the month. So this NaNo, I will join the majority of Wrimos who drink copious amounts of coffee.

(I’ll probably drink a lot of pop too, but it’s not as fun to stock up on in advance as the coffee.)

7. Free trial of Scrivener that will last until the end of NaNo – I’ve been trying Scrivener since May. With a 30-day trial that only takes a day away for days you actually open the program, I still have half the month left. I’ve yet to decide if it’s worth buying, but I’m going to try out using it for both outlining, and writing from said outline, this month. The time I have left on my trial wouldn’t have lasted through NaNo, since I’d be using it every day. Fortunately, there is a trial version that lasts until December 7th, specifically for Wrimos. I downloaded that, and will be using it to make the aforementioned outline the rest of this week.

8. Thumb drive – This one I still have to get. I have several thumb drives, but right now, I can only seem to find one. And it’s completely full with backed-up files. I’ll keep looking for the others (most of which are still in the original packaging and must be floating around together somewhere), but if I can’t find one, I guess I’ll borrow one. I can back up my novel to Google drive, but I want to have it on a thumb drive so it’s more easily accessible between my laptop and desktop.

9. Coloring books & colored pencils
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I was never much for coloring when I was younger, not like my sisters. A few years ago, I read advice along the lines of having something on hand to do during NaNo’s dreaded week two (or any other time during the month), when inspiration and motivation were low. Something creative, but in a different way. Painting, drawing, singing, dancing, etc. I planned to work on some scrapbooking if the need arose, though it never did. I still have scrapbooking material and could do that, but frankly, it takes a lot of time and effort to do much in that vein (and I’m not even the type to be super fancy with a scrapbook page, or to decorate a whole page just for one or two pics…I usually fit as many pics on the page as I can and do a little decorating around or between them).

A week or two ago, though, I read a blog post that mentioned coloring in adult coloring books during NaNo. I latched on to that idea pretty quickly. The idea of making colorful pictures with no real plan, no goal, just…coloring, when the stress of word counts started to get a little overwhelming really appealed to me. Or even just as a way to unwind after I was done writing for the day.

I’m not an artist, and I don’t care about blending or matching colors or making the page fancy at all. I just want to color. I bought one coloring book on Amazon, with another on its way (the tracking says it will arrive anywhere from Oct 30-Nov 17, so it’s good the other one came quickly). My husband, who never for a moment thought I was silly when I told him I wanted to get some coloring books for me (even I thought I was silly), bought me a brand new pack of 36 colored pencils, so I don’t have to use my daughter’s, which are mixed and matched from 4 different packs.

Anyway, that last item on the list got a little lengthy with its explanation. Sorry about that. I’m pretty sure this is everything, but it wouldn’t be the first time I forgot something until after I posted.

What’s in your NaNoWriMo survival kit? Are you prepared for November 1st?