NaNoWriMo WINNER!

Yes, it is official! I have won the 2008 NaNoWriMo! Here is my prize:



My story didn't turn out exactly how I had hoped, but like I said before, I can always edit. WOO HOO!

Word count 11/29

My word count for today is 47,809. I am 27 words ahead of the pace and only 2,191 from winning tomorrow. I am pretty relieved but I am disappointed in my novel and by the fact that I was unable to make my characters into heinous wastes of skin. They just plain refused to be horrible people. It was very frustrating. I'll have to work on them in the editing process.

Word count 11/28

Two more days left! My word count for today is 45,561, one more ahead of schedule. I am glad this is almost over. It has been extremely stressful this year. I'm exhausted.

Word count 11/27

Happy Thanksgiving! I didn't write yesterday because I was a day ahead. I did write tonight. My word count for the day is 43,379.

I sketched out the rest the story and will be following it to the end. It is a little too coincidental for my taste but I have to get it finished then fix it. There are also a couple of twists whose impact will also have to be fixed. The story didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it but I still think it is pretty good for coming with something out of whole cloth.

I can see the end now. I am 6,621 words away from winning. I don't want to jinx it.

Word count 11/25

Word count for today is 39,047. I made my goal today and am thinking that I may write more tonight, so I will hit 40,000 soon!

I decided to let my characters do whatever the hell they wanted. They were fighting me every step of the way and I had it!

***UPDATE***
I wrote more this evening, jumping a day ahead. My new word count is 41,140. I now have to start wrapping this book up before I have a nervous breakdown. Thursday is Thanksgiving and I don't know how busy I will be over the weekend so I really wanted to work ahead.

Word count 11/24

I had a really good day today. I used word sprints to get to my goal in a little over an hour!

Word count: 37,040 a little ahead of schedule. I wrote 2,565 words today.

I am feeling good, but last night I was unable to sleep. I was up until 4 a.m. I feel like I am in the manic stage of a manic-depressive episode and I know it is because of this novel. I am caught up now and I feel good about it, but this weekend was certainly a hair-raising experience. The word sprints are working and they are allowing me to not over think my novel, just to write it. I have a new direction one of the characters is going on and I think it is going to be interesting.

Word count 11/23

My word count for today is 34,475. I didn't have a 10,000 word weekend, but I had a 7,743 word weekend and I caught up with where I am supposed to be. So if I stay on track every day until the end of the month, then I will win.

I have been writing on my couch instead of being in my room downstairs. I really needed the change of pace. I am not sure where I will end up writing tomorrow, but the couch worked out well. I have had various and sundry dog and cats laying on me, helping me with my creative process. It has been nice.

One thing I did to facilitate meeting my overall word count goal was to make mini goals. I would say that in 30 minutes I want to write 500 words. This really helped me. I don't know why I didn't do it before.

Also, I let my characters off their tight leashes and they showed me a bit of what they were about. Last year when I was writing this, the story wrote itself because I didn't have a plot. I had a plot going into this and it has proved more difficult than I imagined it would be. So it is a live and learn situation. I am still having a problem with plot but I feel like I have identified what it is about and maybe I can fix it or work around it or live with it.

Plot and other terrible things

I have been thinking about plot and the creative process and I have realized that I have convinced myself that I am not a serious writer because my plots always run out of steam. If I have a really great idea for a book or a movie, I usually don't have enough plot to get it there. Because of my inability to come up with a plot I don't write. So it isn't a question of whether or not I can write. It is if I can come up with enough to get there. Because if you can't come up with enough, then it isn't a novel, it's called a short story.

Which brings me to my dilemma. I have figured out how to save my story so my main character, who I like, isn't the bad guy. I found a perfectly willing bad guy to take the fall. How do I get there now? I have the biggest block in my head. You can say that I am a block head. I just know that if I could get past the plot problems I always have then I could be a really great writer.

I am thinking that all writers must go through this. It is incredibly painful and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I read somewhere that Beethoven used to pour ice water on his head to stimulate his brain.

I will have a word count later and post it in a new post.

Word count 11/22

Word count for today is 30021, so I broke 30,000! WOO HOO!

Word count 11/21

Word count for today: 26,732. I am off the pace by 1,052, due to acute animal distractions. I am aiming for a 10,000 word weekend this weekend and will hold myself to it. I have nothing scheduled and all the time in the world to write. There is no excuse.

Word count 11/20

I am still one day behind but at least I am only one day behind. Word count: 25,564. I am only 4,442 away from 30,000. YIPPEE! I may just win this thing.

I had to have two separate conversations about my novel tonight, which is a NaNoWriMo no-no, but it was essential. I was having a major plot problem, but I think I am OK now.

Onward and upward!

Word count 11/19 and falling behind

I haven't written in a couple of days but wanted to provide an update on my progress. I ended up not writing at all on Saturday. Consequently, I am now 4,887 words behind. I am just getting ready to write tonight so I will see how much I catch up.

Word count for today 23351. I am 2205 behind pace. I will catch up. I had a good day, about 3,200 words, so I shouldn't have a problem catching up. Feel my confidence!

Word count 11/14 and some inspiration

Here is a quote from NaNoWriMo forum poster tessatj that really resonated with me:

Writing is a lifetime process. Even highly accomplished, respected authors have to sit down and face a blank screen again after they've been published (or won a Pulitzer). And I don't think it's ever easy. It's a matter of practice (writing and reading everything) practice (more writing and reading) and discipline.

If you don't hit 50,000 words, that doesn't mean that you aren't meant to be a writer. It just means you didn't hit 50,000 words. Most artists -- whether writers, actors, or visual artists -- went through periods of rejection, failure, and frustration. The ones who eventually made it were the ones who kept at it.

This random message made me feel better.

Word count: 14,453, one word better than my goal for the day. I am hoping to have a 5K weekend and I am going to shoot for it, but if I don't, I am still going to keep plugging away. I want to challenge myself but not make myself crazy. I have a pretty good idea of where I am going with the story, so I feel pretty confident in it.

Word count 11/13

12,313 words. A little above my target, which is good. Writing was easy tonight.

Word count 11/12

10,023 words today, slightly ahead of schedule.

I haven't been making a big deal out of writing after my freakout from the other day because I committed to this and it is really ridiculous to cry and moan about it. This is the business we have chosen!

Anyhow, I have been thinking about what happiness is and how excruciatingly painful writing is for me and how this can't possibly make me happy. Then what can? Maybe I have to wallow in the pain. I am afraid that every time I sit down I won't be able to come up with anything. That is my fear. I stop writing in my journal because I run out of things to say. The truth is that sometimes life is very boring and sometimes I don't want to talk about my feelings. I think I have grown out of that navel gazing somewhat. So I stop writing for a while to refresh my thoughts. I go run, or I sew, or I make a bracelet, or I knit something and it is refreshing and then I come back to writing after a while.

Maybe this is how it is for me.

Word count 11/11

It's 11/11! My word count for the day is 7824, right on schedule.

The painful reality

I had a horrible writing night last night. I think I wrote 20 words. This is after I went upstairs to complain to my husband and to whine that "maybe I wasn't a writer." When I think about all the accomplished people, the thing that sticks out is that they worked hard to get where they are. How do I work hard to achieve success? By writing. But why is it so horribly painful? Excruciatingly, terribly awful. I am proud of what I write but getting there is like having my teeth pulled without novacaine. I actually had a dentist who filled a tooth without novacaine once when I was young.

Anyway, I am determined to do this year's NaNoWriMo. I am at approximately 3342 words. I didn't count last night's abomination. I did some math and determined that I have to write 2222 words a day until 11/30 to achieve 50,000. This is only an extra 555 more words a day.

I can do it. I will check in later with my word count.

Word count for Monday: 5565, so I am one up on my count (was to be 5564). I feel pretty good about writing tonight. I worked halfway through, then took the dog, and came back and finished. If all writing sessions went this easy!

Writing habits

A couple of posts ago, I talked about coming to terms with my writing habits and goals. I want to be a novelist, but am unsure if that means not having a day job? It would be really great to be able to travel for weeks at a time, but maybe I need the discipline.

I received The Writer yesterday, and there was an article titled "Writing on the Fly," by Sandra Hurtes. In it, authors talk about how they fit their lives around their writing. This excerpt stood out for me. Hurtes is talking about Stacy Sims, a Cinncinati writer and Pilates studio owner:

With two day jobs she's emotionally invested in, finding the time to fit her writing job in isn't easy. "I don't have an expectation that I will write every day," she says. "Except for revising my play, I haven't had time to write in two months." She reconnects with her writing by going away for short periods of time and writing nonstop. That means spending enough time with her character that they "tell me everything I need to know," she says.

She advises writers, "Don't waste time on unhealthy habits. like spending your time thinking about how you are not writing! Thoughts are energy and they can keep us stuck."

I think this is helpful and addresses the first part of my problem. The second part of my problem is more insidious and has to deal with the emotional aspect of writing. I have the following problems:

• Don't have anything to say.
  
• Am terrified of writing.
  
• I find it incredibly painful.
  
• Don't think I know enough about plot.

Even as I wrote those words, they sounded wrong. Am I really terrified? I don't know if I would say that, but I do feel anxious. I don't know what the answer is. It feels good to write about it though.

AWOL

I have been AWOL for the last five days but now am ready to get back into writing mode. According to my schedule, I should have 11,669 words written by the end of day today. I have 1,161, so I am 10,508 behind. I will have to add to my word count on a per diem basis. If I am not caught up by 11/15, I will have to revise my day-to-day totals.

And I am off to write. I will be back later with a word count.

OK. I wrote all night. I am at 3342. Still five days behind, but I feel pretty good. I am inspired for the future.

Word count 11/2

1,161 words total. The time changed last night so I am really tired. I came to a conclusion about my writing habits, but I will write on it later.

Word count 11/1

I have been trying to use the official NaNoWriMo website and it is really, really slow. So slow, that I can feel my frustration level rise. Instead of dealing with that ridiculous mess, I am going to post my word count on here. 673 words today. I am supposed to write 1,667 a day and I am already behind, but I am very tired and will make it up later.

Writing is incredibly hard and I am going to have to come up with some tricks to keep me focused on the task at hand. Or I could figure out how to solve my problem. I will work on it this month and blog about it.

NaNoWriMo begins

Today marks the start of National Novel Writing Month wherein the participants write a 50,000 word novel by Nov. 30. I have signed up and will do it. I'm pretty excited. I have had a story bumping around in my head for a couple of years. It will be nice to let it out on paper.

Also, I have looked back at this past year and all of the blown-off deadlines and I think that I have finally found something to get me motivated to send my book out and realize my author potential. My husband, Tim, is going to collaborate on a book, that will most surely be published, with a co-worker. Talk about motivation! So while I am immersing myself in word counts while being in the writing zone, I am going to finish my sample chapter and send my book out. It would be terrible if my non-writing husband had a book published before me, a writer. To be fair, I have had several articles published, but I have always wanted to be a novel writer. What better time than now?