NaNoWriMo 2015

NaNoWriMo Day 21

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The Words: 65 words written today. I’ll be honest–I just wanted to be able to say I’d written more than 0. My husband and I, who are away from the kids this weekend and staying in a hotel, went to an escape room with a group of friends this morning.

When we got back to the hotel, I was too tired to much besides nap. Then we decided on a whim to do a different escape room (the first one had been planned for a week). That room started at 8:30 pm, so I figured I’d still have time to come back and at least get a half hour of writing in. But we ended up talking to the room’s owners for a long time afterward. Probably close to two hours. It was really great; we talked about what we liked about their rooms, about clues we’d missed (though we still escaped with 2 1/2 minutes to spare!) and about lots of other things.

When we got back to the hotel again, it was 11:30, and the hotel wifi wasn’t working on my laptop. Took my husband and I some messing with it before I could get online, and during that time I managed to get 65 words in before midnight.

The Story: Ummm…Jonathan has reason to believe his apprentice is involved in things and is still on his way to go find him. Not a lot happens in 65 words.

Total word count: 74,700

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2015 – November 21st

NaNoWriMo Day 20

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The Words: 3496 written today. Most of it was after midnight, trying to get ahead of my word count for the day. The rest was in the hotel room, trying to make it to my goal for the day, since I don’t know what the next two days will bring.

The Story: Jonathan went forward with a plan on his own to figure out if it was someone from their team who had copied the page from his book, and came up empty. Now he’s on his way to talk to his apprentice, who he’s hoping can provide any kind of clues as to how someone even got into their shop.

Total word count: 74,635

day 20

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2015 – November 20th

NaNoWriMo Day 19

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The Words: 3504 written today.  I’ve got to stop pushing it so close. I think that two weeks of only writing about 2000 words per day has allowed me to become too lazy. If I didn’t get to writing until 10 pm, I could still make it with no real rush. But now that I’m trying for 3333 per day, I should really start to take this more seriously.

I can’t even really guess how the next 3 days are going to go. My husband and I are taking our kids over to my parents’ house for a much-needed weekend away. For the last few months, things have really picked up in my life, at work, with my extended family, and even to a point, in my own home. I’ve been feeling completely overwhelmed by life in general, and it’s stressing me enough that I can feel myself wearing out physically and emotionally.

We’re not going far, but we are staying in a hotel for a few nights. That alone is enough to make the writing hard, because not only can I not get away to my own room, it’ll be hard to focus when I just want to be spending time relaxing and vegging out. But on top of that, we have some activities planned for the weekend–an escape room on Saturday and a concert on Sunday evening. So my main goal will be to write anything, because I don’t want to skip a day. If I have time for 3333, great; if not, I’ll survive.

The Story: I’ll try to explain this as briefly as I can: Missy’s dad was a blade smith who was somewhat famous for making quality weapons with unique designs. He kept extensive notes about everything he designed or even just everything he knew about smithing, in a hand-written book. Missy, who decided not to become a smith herself, passed the book on to a friend, Jonathan. The paper that she found in a previous day’s writing is a hand-written copy of a page out of that book. Though she has no claims on the book anymore (it’s technically Jonathan’s), she didn’t like the idea of someone making copies for presumably monetary reasons.

After a tense moment in which Jonathan didn’t appreciate thinking Missy was accusing him of something he didn’t do, they’ve come to realize that someone else has in fact broken into where the book was kept and copied at least that one page. So now Jonathan, Missy, and Missy’s husband are working on a plan to figure out who’s been doing this.

Total word count: 71,139

day 19

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2015 – November 19th

NaNoWriMo Day 18

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The Words: 3406 written today.  I’m very sleepy, but I pushed myself to get the words in, finishing only 10 minutes before midnight. There’s one thing in particular that I used to do almost every night time last year that I haven’t done at all yet this year. I would write at least 500-800 after midnight, so that when I go to the writing the next day, I’d have a dent in the word count already. It was a mental trick, because in the end, I was still the same amount in a 24-hour period, and in fact the same amount in an evening. But it helped. I might try that tonight.

I know why I haven’t been doing it though. It’s because I haven’t been feeling the same drive as last year. I’m still shaking off the near-burn-out from that 25KDayOne. I’m getting more into it again though. I guess I shouldn’t have tried to deviate from my beloved Pithea, with Missy, Drear, and all of the other characters that I’ve “known” for 10 years. Now that I’m back to writing about them, I’m feeling it again.

The Story: So far, I’m realizing that Jonathan isn’t really the main character of this story. At least, not the primary main character. Missy is. Missy was the main character of the first novel I ever finished. She’s the focal point of a lot of the stories I’ve written or have ideas for in the Pithea world. And though in this story, the conflict revolves around Jonathan, so far there has been a lot more Missy than Jonathan.

That being said, I think he’ll be very close behind her, once he gets a chance to get back into the story. I think it’s because she’s the leader of the team, and so far the story has mostly been about showing her and the rest of the team move out of the building they had occupied for at least 6 months, and gotten comfortable in.

But now Missy is trying to track Jonathan down to ask him about the paper she found on the floor of her apothecary lab while she was packing it up to move.

Total word count: 67,635

day 18

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2015 – November 18th (Hand-writing Wrimos unite!)

NaNoWriMo Day 17

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The Words: 3248 written today.  Just a tad shy of my goal, but not bad! I went to a write-in today, where there were 3 of us writing. There wasn’t as much conversation this time, but lots of writing. All of my words came during that time.

This evening, I had another Skype meeting with my editing group. We got through the rest of the draft without any real issues. Now we’re down to broad strokes we want to discuss, which we’ll hopefully get all out of the way in one fell swoop some time in the next few months. We’re wanting to have an in-person meeting, though, because it’ll be easier to converse and discuss, since the Skype process can be difficult sometimes. So I didn’t have my normal evening writing time, but thank goodness for the write-in!

The Story: We meet Jonathan’s apprentice, Marct, as the two of them discuss how or when to start moving equipment and supplies out of the shop they’d set up in their team’s building. And later, Missy has the depressing task of gathering up her own workspace. She is an apothecary, using herbs and other ingredients to make medicines and such. She has a lot of smaller and more fragile supplies to move.

Missy is joined by a team member who offers to help. The day’s writing stopped just as this other team member finds a piece of paper on the floor that doesn’t belong there.

Total word count: 64,229

day 17

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2015 – November 17th

NaNoWriMo Day 16

/ Kristi / 4 Comments

The Words: 3426 written today.  I had a migraine most of the afternoon, and still had a decent headache going into my writing time. It actually eased up pretty quickly once I started writing, allowing me to go for a few hours and get the word count you see.

Since I put the final words into the novel I started the month with, I had to make a decision today. I’d always figured I’d just go onto another novel I had in mind if I did finish the other one early, but I started to realize some possible negative implications in doing that. If I don’t finish the second novel this month, it’ll most likely sit untouched and unfinished until next November. And I don’t like the idea of starting into an already-started novel at the beginning of NaNo (not just because it’s technically against the rules and would make me a rebel, but because I prefer to be able to start fresh). But I also don’t want to just call NaNo over for the year yet.

Other options I considered were using the rest of the month for revision, and tracking time spent, rather than words. But that’s just not as fun or exciting, and you can’t do word sprints or wars. I also thought about just writing random stuff from prompts or working on smaller stories, but I thought that would just be more difficult to keep going through the month.

So I’ve decided to start on a second novel. I have 15 days to get as far into it as I can. My plan for right now is to aim for a daily word count of 3333 words (twice the normal daily amount), in an attempt to get 50k words of it done before November ends. But since it’s an extra goal, and I’ve already had some rough times this month, I won’t be holding myself too strictly to that. It’s just something to aim for.

The Story: When I get a chance, I’ll try to come up with a proper synopsis for this story, so I can share it here and on the NaNo site. And a title, even if just a working title, because I have no ideas for one yet. For now, I’ll just dive into what’s going on.

The main character, Jonathan, and his War Games team have recently been evicted from the building in which they’ve been living for a while. They have 24 hours to vacate, and we peek in on some of the packing that’s happening. We meet some of the other members of the team, as well as the team’s leader, who is heavily stressing out over the events that led to their eviction.

Jonathan is the team’s official blacksmith (yes, more smiths), who makes bladed weapons for his teammates. He has a small set-up in the building, so he has a lot of equipment to move out. First, though, he has to contact his wife, who was away on a mission when everything happened. She’s upset that she’s unable to be there to help him pack their things.

Total word count: 60,981

day 16

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2015 – November 16th

Writing Highs

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I did something late Friday night that I want to share. The first novel draft I ever finished, “Pithea,” which I mostly wrote during NaNo 2013 has been undergoing revision for almost 2 years now. After I’d had some time alone with it, I started into a process with 2 of my sisters, wherein we’d meet every Tuesday evening on Skype and work through their notes on my revised draft. It’s more than just the writing we’ve been working on; the story is set in a fantasy-type world, and they’ve helped me work out the elements of it. As time has gone on, the story has gotten better, characters have gotten stronger, and the mechanics of the world I’ve built are clearer.

It’s been just over a year since we started these weekly editing sessions, and most of my writing time has been spent reading ahead of them and making more of my own revisions. We’re basically working from a 3rd draft, which I’ve been creating as we go. Hopefully this makes some sort of sense.

Anyway, Friday night, after I’d done my NaNo writing for the day, I sat down to get more revision done, more of “draft 3” ready so that we can work on it this coming Tuesday. And I got through the last 8 pages of the draft, which means that on Tuesday, we’ll probably finish the last pages of the draft too. Which means this revision, the most intensive one it should need, will be done!

Now there are still some things that need worked on. During our revision sessions, we passed over bigger issues that we knew would just slow us down. There were big, world-related questions that came up that we decided weren’t important to solve just yet. We will hopefully have an in-person, all-day meeting in the next month or so to hammer all of these things out. But after that, I’ll be one huge step closer to be ready to publish this thing. It’s actually scary to be so close and still have no idea what I’m doing. But it’s still better than doing nothing.

And in the time since then, other exciting things have happened. I finished the first draft of this year’s NaNoNovel, only halfway through the month. I was in the local newspaper (front page) with other area Wrimos, and the article even included a link to my blog! (See more about that here.) My region’s ML today shared the crocheted octopus she made for me, as a reward for being one of the first in our region to donate and contact her about it. And my NaNo winner’s shirt is on its way!

This weekend was definitely a high for writer-me.

NaNoWriMo Day 15

/ Kristi / 2 Comments

The Words: 2296 written today.  My husband’s side of the family had their Thanksgiving get-together today. We went straight from church (which was an early morning, as we were both on the worship team today) to their church, where they were hosting the meal. I wrote about 60 words in a notebook there.

Then we came home, scrounged supper, and I fell asleep on the couch. After the kids were settled to bed, I was rested enough to get some real writing done (after taking some time to gush over the article in the local paper about a write-in I attended; see the bottom of the post for more on that).

The Story: The crazy woman has been talked down, and all are safe. More than one suspect have been arrested, though no definitive answers were really given.

Then Darcy went and talked with an older blacksmith who hadn’t been around all week. He recapped the week’s events and said something that led Darcy to a disturbing revelation…at which point the story ended! So that was the “brilliant moment” I was going for, in an attempt to leave the readers in surprise, frustration, perhaps even a little confusion (though not enough to leave them with no idea at all what’s going on). But I know it would need a lot more clarity to ever work. Part of the problem is that the idea for this came to me during NaNo, but would require some real planning to pull off. Something I can’t take the time to do during November. So for now (and likely for a very long time), the story will sit as it is. But it’s done, and the month is only just half over!

Total word count: 57,555

day 15

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2015 – November 15th (I haven’t read it yet myself; I’ll have to go do that now!)

On a fun and exciting note, my very first ever write in was in the local newspaper! There was a reporter there, and she asked various questions, while also just jotting notes down while we Wrimos talked amongst ourselves. This is tomorrow’s paper, but it showed up on our porch tonight. Here’s the article:

NaNoTab pg1 small

NaNoTab pg2 small

NaNoWriMo Day 14

/ Kristi / 6 Comments

The Words: 2441 written today.  Most of it was in the afternoon, and the rest came in the evening. Mostly with another word crawl. I don’t know what’s been going on this year, but the Skype group my region formed last year, which had word wars going on nearly every evening, has been dead this year. There was some activity near the beginning of the month, mostly from new people. But not many word wars. I’m a little worried that some of the more active people made their own Skype group somewhere else and do word wars there. Maybe that makes me paranoid, but seriously…what happened to everyone? I’ve found my own ways to stay motivated and keep writing, but I’m not feeling quite as connected as I did last year.

The Story: The stand-off has escalated as the woman who was threatening Darcy’s dad with a hot piece of metal has a gun (literally out of nowhere, because the metal just wasn’t threatening enough for the scene to work). And now she has a hostage. But all hope is not lost, as another person has arrived on the scene and is trying to explain to her what he thinks is really going on around here.

Today was the point when I realized that my story simply cannot work the way I’ve written it. Not because of the lack of humor and the light-hearted take on the story I’d originally planned, but because the actual mystery and logic doesn’t work out very well at all. I will finish the story because I’m close to the end, and why not? But I don’t plan to revise it. If anything, I may considering reworking the elements that went into the motives and such, and rewrite the story from scratch. But that would be a project for another day, as I still have a lot of other novels to work on.

Total word count: 55,259

day 14

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2015 – November 14th

Let’s end week 2 on a high note, with more NaNoMusical!

With the close of week 2, how is everyone doing out there? Did you survive the week 2 blues? Are you finding a new drive? Just remember, write whatever comes to mind; worry about if it works for your story or not, or if it’s any good or not, later (or never)!

NaNoWriMo Day 13

/ Kristi / 2 Comments

The Words: 2769 written today. I’ve been working on a word crawl for several days (not constantly, but I keep going back to it). Not only are there word crawls for various fandoms, the crawls break up the monotony of writing the same length sprints over and over. Using the @NaNoWordSprints Twitter feed does a similar thing, but I can start and stop when I want to, so sometimes it’s easier to work with than the Twitter feed.

I’ve been listening to period music a lot this month, from fife and drum music to songs by Father, Son and Friends. I love how it gets me in the right mindset and provides some background noise so the room isn’t so quiet.

The Story: The wife of one of the smiths who’ve died has decided that Darcy’s dad is responsible for her husband’s death. So she has come to exact her vengeance on him, assuming that the police won’t be able to adequately prove his guilt. At the moment, she’s in a stand-off with him. She has a poker in one hand (the very poker that someone murdered her husband with) and a red-hot piece of metal in the other. She’s already stabbed someone with the hot metal, someone who tried to overtake her.

And meanwhile, Darcy is off in the corner puking from the stress. Or possibly from something else that sort of just came up in today’s writing with no real planning (and no reason for why or how it came up the way it did). It may not stay as part of the story in the future.

Total word count: 52,818

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2015 – November 13th