nanonovel

NaNoWriMo Day 7

/ Kristi / 2 Comments

The Words: 2100 written today.

I am really happy to keep making par these last two days. I am so tired today. After being sick for a week right before November started, I have had a lingering cough since then. Today my throat started hurting again fresh. I may be getting sick again, but I really hope not. Tomorrow will hopefully tell me more.

The Story: I cut short the story that started causing me trouble yesterday, the one Penny was telling about the events that took place during my NaNoNovel in 2015. That novel is still unfinished, and its events are a mystery to me (pun intended), so Penny telling the story got a little difficult. So I just stopped, ignored any need for a transition, and went right to Nathan, who had gone back to the house that Rogan took them to, planning to stake it out.

Then I accidentally skipped ahead and allowed him to make some progress at that house a day early. So I set aside what I’d written about that in favor of him returning home for the night, with the belief that the bad guy doesn’t have a reason to return to that empty house.

Tomorrow, I anticipate the plot really getting going, as long as I’m well enough to write much.

Total word count: 30,592

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: “The game is a shoe!”

And it’s time to share episode 2 of the NaNoMusical!

NaNoWriMo Day 6

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The Words: 2323 written today.

I knew I couldn’t sustain the higher word counts I’d been getting this month for long, but that’s okay. Even the year that I challenged myself to write 100k in a month didn’t yield this high of results this early. I don’t want to burn out, so this amount of words today is just right.

I had a rough day of work today. Worse than what I thought was rough 3 days ago. To sum it up, I went into work to drop something off, and was there for an hour discovering a plethora of mistakes employees had been making recently (no one was there when I went in, and most of this had happened Saturday). It was a barrage of bad, and when I got home, almost 2 hours later than I expected to, I still had to do some clean up for a while.

I finally got to my writing around 10:30pm. One 10-minute sprint was interrupted by my husband, for I-can’t-even-remember-what reason. The next 15-minute sprint was interrupted by him again, when he came to tell me that the oven was officially broken and we are going to have to get a new one tomorrow. At that point, I had about 1000 words, and just wanted to hit par for the day, so I didn’t use up any of my lead. I tried a #1k30min with the Twitter word sprints feed, and got interrupted by my son who was just trying to say good night. Poor kid. I gave up a few minutes from the end of the 30-minute sprint, but I’d reached the goal, so I didn’t care.

The Story: More talk. The only plot advancement was that Penny went to go find out if she’d received a response from Rogan’s brother yet. He’s been out of the country for a few months on an extended vacation, but with his brother’s sudden reappearance, Penny wrote him and asked him to come back to Pithea sooner than he’d planned. There’s been no word so far.

The main story this time is Penny telling Rogan and Ari about a bit of a murder-mystery that happened a few weeks prior. It’s actually the book I wrote for my 2015 NaNoNovel. I didn’t finish that story, though, and in the end hashed out a lot of what needed to happen, but never got back to it to finish the mystery. So on a day like today, trying to write about what happened in a mystery story that is still a work in progress…it sort of just fell apart. That’s when I gave up. When I come back tomorrow, I will probably be wise to just put a cap on that conversation and move on to some action.

Total word count: 28,492

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2017 – November 6th

NaNoWriMo Day 5

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The Words: 8743 written today.

I decided to really make use of my day off. I work only about 20 hours a week, but those 20 hours are generally spread throughout Monday-Saturday, and I can be needed any time from 9am until 11pm on those days (or midnight on Fridays and Satrudays). So I highly value my Sundays off.

I came up with a plan today. My husband and I have been binge-watching Girl Meets World recently, since I came down sick and started from the beginning of the show on Netflix (we grew up with Boy Meets World and loved the continuity from that show, but hadn’t finished GMW yet). We’re in the final season, and have been enjoying watching it together. So I told him I would write 1500 words, and then we’d watch an episode, and we’d go back and forth like that, see how it went.

We went through 3 cycles of that, and then it was time to make supper. I helped him get supper started, and then wrote some more. When I realized how close I was to 25k words, I decided that would be my stopping point.

Then I validated my word count, and it came in over 1000 words higher than I thought, and I remembered that I hadn’t been counting all of my words, just my sprints. But I’d written some between sprints… anyway, the point is, it was a great day!

The Story: Well…I’ve been doing a lot of rehashing events from my very first novel, and I did do some more of that today. It’s been a lot of dialog between 4 people, and very little showing what they’re doing while they talk. I know this is mostly filler, and that it can’t stay in the story. And it’s not even the kind of filler that at least teaches you something about your characters or your story. But I don’t care. Because what it is is filler that has been so much fun to write. I have just been having so much fun having one or two characters share a crazy, fun, or surprising story from the past, and letting the other one or two characters who didn’t already know the story react.

But most of that has come to an end now.

Nathan has just left to stake out the building they visited in the previous day’s writing, the one where Rogan woke up. He’s hoping that Vin (the man who “saved” Rogan) will show back up and he can get a lead on what’s going on.

Total word count: 26,169

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2017 – November 5th

NaNoWriMo Day 4

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The Words: 4109 written today.

I didn’t get to any writing after midnight last night again, and I worked today. I didn’t get started on my writing until 9pm. The first word sprint with @NaNoWordSprints on Twitter at that time was a #1K30min (30-minute sprint where people push themselves to try to write 1000 words). I got 1700–the entire daily goal in one sprint. It was a rush!

My husband came in then, and we put our daughter to bed. A few shorter word sprints later got me to the word count I have, 5 minutes before midnight.

The Story: Rogan, Penny, Nathan, and Ari go to where Rogan thinks he was when he woke up the previous day.

Ari stumbles across a discovery that shakes Penny to the core. They decide they should not stick around this place, because of the danger involved.

(If anyone is following along with this, I know it’s vague, but I need to avoid spoilers.)

Total word count: 17,426

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2017 – November 4th

NaNoWriMo Day 3

/ Kristi / 2 Comments

The Words: 3682 written today.

I didn’t get to any writing after midnight last night, like I like to do to get a jump start on the day’s writing. And I had a rather rough day of work today, that followed me through supper time. (I work from home for about 70% of my job, so I worked from home, but the work kept going after I’d quit for the day and ate supper. That isn’t normal, at least not to this degree, but we’re finishing up a long project…like, 1.5 years long, and it’s down to minor bugs and issues that we’re starting to stress over.)

I told my husband that I wasn’t sure I was going to get my words in today during supper, not because I didn’t think I’d have time later in the evening, but because I wasn’t sure my mind would be in the right place. And because I wasn’t sure if work would keep following me. Let me be clear about something though–I was already ahead of par going into today, by 3 days, and I’m aware that is really good. But I’ve always liked to still get at least the normal 1667 words in each day, no matter how far ahead I am, because I know there will be a day (usually later in the month) when I just can’t. So I store the extra for those bad days. I didn’t want to use some of that extra on day 3.

Rather than wait for after my daughter went to bed, I decided to take the hour after supper, before she went to bed, to steal away and see what I could get done. I had my husband’s blessing, so off I went. I got to the Twitter word sprints feed that I love so much just as one sprint leader was signing off. The next one didn’t join right away, so I started up a 10-minute sprint on my own. Two total 10-minute solo sprints later, a sprint leader came along and said we were doing a #1K30min (30-minute sprint where people push themselves to try to write 1000 words). I got 1500, which was fantastic. The others on Twitter kept going with another #1K30min, but I needed a break. My fingers were tired after that.

The Story: Nathan and Penny, finally alone after Rogan first showed up out of nowhere, take some time to discuss the situation. Penny goes through a range of emotions over the recent developments.

Then we move on to the next day, and Nathan and Penny meet back up with Rogan and their team leader Ari to decide how to proceed with the mystery about Rogan that has presented itself.

Total word count: 13,317

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2017 – November 3rd

NaNoWriMo Day 2

/ Kristi / 4 Comments

The Words: 3830 written today. Last night after midnight, I wrote 772 words with my Neo right before bed. Then this evening, I sat down at my laptop and did a few word sprints with @NaNoWordSprints on Twitter. Forgetting for the moment that I had 772 words locked away on my Neo (I haven’t taken the time to get the cable out and transfer them yet), when I had reached 2800 words, I decided to round it off to 3000 on my own.

The Story: I didn’t want to try to remember where I’d left off in the storyline yesterday, so when I started writing on my Neo, I went over to the other storyline. This one is a sequence of letters from Vin, the title character, to a pastor that he knows to be a good man. Vin is going through a crisis of sorts, as he attempts to gain enough power to bend the world to his own morality. Because the pastor is the one who taught him about that morality, he’s pouring his uncertainties out into letters to the man, over the course of time. So far, he’s questioning whether or not lying to his great-grandmother to get her to give him some family heirlooms (so he can sell them) is stealing. And he’s musing about how difficult his father is to please, while the man himself is a pretty terrible guy.

The majority of the words were about Rogan. He’s in the house of his team’s War Games leader, a man that he really likes, so that helps his current situation a bit. That man, Ari, has been filling Rogan in on many huge events that have taken place lately. I may have gone into too much detail, especially considering that if this book is ever published, the reader would hopefully already know about a lot of these events. But boy is it good for some easy (and fun) word count.

Total word count: 9635

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2017 – November 2nd

NaNoWriMo Day 1

/ Kristi / 4 Comments

The Words: 5805 on day 1. I started right at midnight with the midnight sprint, and got to 3458 before stopping for the night/morning. Then this evening, despite already being past par for 2 days, I wrote for another hour and a half.

All of this writing, minus the very first 10-minute sprint that I did to get warmed up, was done alongside the Twitter feed of @NaNoWordSprints. I can’t stress enough how motivating it is, and how helpful it can be to have someone else setting time goals and starting times! If you ever find yourself struggling to just get writing (and put aside distractions) or to write quickly without stopping to think a lot or to edit, I suggest checking out that newsfeed (even if you don’t really use Twitter).

The Story: I’ve still been uncertain about who my main character was going to be up until I actually started writing. I think it’s going to be Rogan (names will be changed for the sake of spoilers). I started this story reminiscing about Rogan’s first date with the woman he loves and has recently started a relationship with. We’ll call her Penny. Then, a mission for his militia had him down for a few days, but we get to watch him go find Penny to let him know he’s all right.

Unfortunately, things aren’t always what they seem.

Total word count: 5805

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2017 – November 1st
And in honor of November 1st, the first episode of the NaNoMusical!

Daily Writing Check-in: October 26, 2017

/ Kristi / 4 Comments

Words/Time: 136 words of writing practice

During the last few weeks as NaNoWriMo approaches, I get to my evening writing time and work on NaNoPrep right up until midnight, when I stop and blog about how much I got done. I’m calling it quits 40 minutes before midnight…and I haven’t done any actual prep. And the 136 words were written last night, after midnight, so I count them for today.

I started coming down sick today. My daughter has been sick for a few weeks (mostly shook it, but still has a sore throat), and my husband has been sick for 4 days, so apparently now it’s my turn. I am having some serious joint aches, along with sore throat, and my brain is a bit muddled. Prep will not happen today, and most likely I’ll feel even worse tomorrow. I hope that’s all, though, because I do still need to do a good amount of prep work, and (when I’m not medicated as I am now), my fingers hurt too much to type.

The 136 words, though, were a pretty big deal, so that’s something. I wrote them starting with a writing prompt from this site. The word I used was “correspondence.” I had recently wondered if my protagonist could write a letter to his favorite person (a very wise man) right before the climax, and if that could make the climax better. I hadn’t decided 100% to do that, though, so I decided to see what that letter would look like.

By the time I’d reached the end, I had another sudden moment of realization (I’ve been having those a lot while working out this story, and it’s incredible!). What if the protagonist has been writing letters to this wise old man the whole story?

See, without getting into too much detail, because I want to go lie down, way back in the day, I had thought this story would be told through journal entries by Vin (who is currently the protagonist). I figured other things would have to be mixed in there too, a sub-plot that was more normal prose, but it made sense. But when I started outlining, I forgot (or maybe just figured I didn’t need to do it that way). I got through a page of broad outline and realized it was just too much detail. Not just in my outline, but it would be too much detail in the story. Way too much happens in this story to tell it all, but that’s okay, because a lot of it has already been told in other stories. So why rehash it, just because it’s a different point of view?

So I went back to the journal entries idea, and it started to feel better again. But then this morning, I thought…letters to the wise old man, instead of journal entries, and suddenly–it felt great!

There’s just one problem though…I don’t think he can be the protagonist anymore. These letters are going to be more introspective than anything exciting or action-y, and I don’t want the story to drag. So I think that sub-plot I mentioned above will need to actually be the “main plot,” with these letters being every 2nd or 3rd chapter.  I have no idea about the flow yet, but something like that maybe.

And the biggest issue with that now is that I’ve spent the last several weeks getting to know Vin, which is totally fine and necessary. But I have not outlined the other plot at all. At all. I know very broad strokes about what happens, but no clue at all what fills between those. And I can’t stress this enough–I am not a pantser. I don’t need a super-detailed outline, but I need a little more than what I know.

And now I’m sick.

I will take advantage of every medicated few hours where my fingers don’t hurt to try to find this plot…well, except when I’m binge-watching Stranger Things with my husband tomorrow. In that way, and that way only, maybe this is a good time to be sick. (Unless I get really sick and can’t even enjoy the show.)

Seriously, this post is crazy long for how little work I did, and the fact that I’m achey and ready to lie down. I think I got an adrenaline shot remembering my excitement this morning. It’s going away now. Time for bed.

For anyone out there who is participating in NaNoWriMo, feel free to check out my series of tips and tricks for the month, and also to add me as a writing buddy! (Let me know you came from here, and I’ll add you back!)

Daily Writing Check-in: October 25, 2017

/ Kristi / 2 Comments

Words/Time: 1.5 hours of NaNoPrep

So I finally went back to my outline for my NaNoNovel, “Vin.” I changed a few things that were decided during my recent musings, made it through a few more plot points, and then I was struck with a sudden thought. It was one of those, “This is a plan I had years ago, it’s been set in stone, but now suddenly, it makes perfect sense to change it a bit to be connected to this story!” moments. I’m sure you’ve had them too. But, once again, it wasn’t just a definite yes. There were questions, reasons that it might not work.

So now that I have realized that talking directly to Vin can produce such clarity, I went right to him. I may have yelled at him a bit for lying to me yesterday (because this new idea went directly against something he said yesterday). But we were cool again by the end. So that killed an hour and a half, but honestly, I’m having a lot of fun with this type of prep work.

For anyone out there who is participating in NaNoWriMo, feel free to check out my series of tips and tricks for the month, and also to add me as a writing buddy! (Let me know you came from here, and I’ll add you back!)

Daily Writing Check-in: October 24, 2017

/ Kristi / 2 Comments

Words/Time: 2 hours & 15 minutes of NaNoPrep

First, I spent 45 minutes finishing my conversation with Vin. By the end, I had a much better grasp on something that need a lot more explanation than I’d taken the time to come up with. I even had a (possibly) brilliant idea for the climax of the story, which I jotted down with a question mark to muse on, because as brilliant as it might seem, it’s way out of left field and potentially makes no sense.

And in fact, today, I added a little more to that question–something that makes it actually possible…but more musing is needed. Meanwhile, I still have an outline that’s barely started.

So I opened up my timeline and…promptly realized that some of my entries there were really skewed. I thought I’d solved all of this in previous weeks, but there I was again, back to tinkering with my timeline for an hour and a half.

Now let me just say, this is not just the timeline for my NaNoNovel. This is the timeline for 6 potential novels (some drafted, some just solid ideas) that all intertwine in a way that used to bring me glee, and now gives me a headache. There were 2 events (both related to that climactic moment I’m hoping for) that needed to happen in a certain order, but were way off.

Then while fixing those, I realized that two other events (neither directly related to “Vin”) happened in an order that made me very sad. So I moved some things, aged one character a bit, shortened a stretch of time, and lengthened 2 other stretches of time, just to make sure that one of my overall main characters was able to experience a particular moment (a happy moment…she deserves a happy moment).

This involved a lot of shifting groups of events this way or that, until I was satisfied with where everything was in relation to each other. In the end, there are a few things that unintentionally ended up in better position than I’d had them in, and I’m pretty happy with the timeline, I think. If I need to make changes in the future, I think they’ll be small changes.

(By the way, if anyone reading this could use a good timeline program, I highly recommend Aeon Timeline, which is what I use, and the reason I was able to shift my events back and forth so much. Though frankly, I still use the original, as opposed to Aeon 2, because I prefer the way you can see all arcs stacked on each other, as well as which people are involved, at the same time. If this is possible in Aeon 2, I haven’t figured out how.)

Though NaNoWriMo is now about a week away (so all of the other NaNo blogs out there tell me!), I am feeling a little more confident right now. If nothing else, my timeline should provide a decent outline if I run out of time to make the normal outline. And I do think I’ve hit on a way to break through any blocks (it might not work with every story, but for some reason, it works with this one), by just going right to the source and asking Vin himself. It’s really coming together, and I’m starting to get more excited to write this than I thought I’d be.

For anyone out there who is participating in NaNoWriMo, feel free to check out my series of tips and tricks for the month, and also to add me as a writing buddy! (Let me know you came from here, and I’ll add you back!)