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Nano 2011 Update

So last week I slacked off.

Yesterday I wrote more than 3000 words in an hour.

So I’m still immensely behind, but have not lost hope.

I am, however, also participating in an international scavenger hunt that’s attempting to break the Guinness World Record. No big deal. Just time consuming and ridiculous. And I’m planning  a January trip to Thailand and trying to figure out my career path and what to do with my life and all. You know. The usual.

But the novel just keeps getting better and better. Along with a whale, we have a psychic puffin. Clearly things can only get more awesome.

Some lovely

(via Pacing the Panic Room) If I have a wedding someday, I would like to manage the budget well enough to afford a video like this. And this is where I found Radical Face.

In keeping with the theme, how I found This Will Destroy You (aka the soundtrack to my novelling). Also. Take me to Iceland?

(via A Blog About Love and Stephmodo) How cool would it be to do this for your first year of marriage or a trip or special occasion or kids? (Aaand how much work? mm yeah)

This will never get old. This is why I need to be bilingual in French, so I can have a child who speaks French.

Nano 2011: Day 13

I was going to say I didn’t write much yesterday, but looking at my stats chart (I like keeping track of how many words I write almost as much as I like writing the words) apparently I wrote 2110. Not bad, if still under the 2847 I needed to get back on schedule.

Today, as with almost every day thus far, it took me a while to get going but I had a great sprint (728 words in 15 minutes) which kicked things off nicely. There was also a lovely go with 278 words in 3 minutes (I love @NaNoWordSprints). I’m happy to report that I’m filling in some of the holes in the first section, and the white space between scenes is growing smaller as I’m piecing things together so I can focus all my attention on the sci-fi portion of the novel (namely the  last part).

Today’s Goal: 21,671 (write 2404)
Achieved: 21,698
Words Written: 2431
Sentence of the day: What proceeded was something that seemed to cross the imitation of an octopus and a strange dance unlike anything I’d seen before.

Since I’m bored of picking a sentence every day, I would like you to pick a page # & sentence #. And if for some reason multiple people respond, I’ll pick whichever is most interesting or amusing. (If the number of either chosen exceeds the available sentences or pages (for example you choose page 60 but I only have 58), I’ll go with the last available (the 58th page).

How I feel:It’s unfortunate I didn’t get ahead this weekend, but such is life. I remain optimistic that I will finish since I’m doing a decent job of moving the story along at an appropriate (not too slow/fast) pace and catching up when I fall behind.

Nano 2011: Day 11

So I went climbing and then got Chinese food and had ridiculous conversation about snakes and wild animals and running pants and baking.
Way more fun than sitting at home upping the word count.

And I’m rather tired, and tomorrow night I’ll be out again, sooo I think I’ll go to bed and see about getting up at a decent time. Then writing. And maybe going to Target…because that’s been on my to-do list for a while.

Today’s Goal: 19004 (write 2366)
Achieved: 17.157
Words Written: 519
Sentence of the day: The room felt airy and almost weightless, like I was just imagining the space that surrounded me.

How I feel: Unexcited about how much I need/want to write tomorrow.  I just want to be done. Nanowrimo does a great job at demonstrating how one can simultaneously really love and really hate something.

Nano 2011: Day 10

Oh my gosh. Tomorrow I am going to get up early and do a 1k sprint before work. Because I did not make my goal today, not for lack of ability but because writing prolifically in a short period of time (however poor the writing is) does have an exhausting effect. And so I don’t want to write more, so I do other stuff, then it gets late and I still have words that are needed. But I push through, and write! Even though I’m zoning out, I am writing. But oh, wait. That troubleshooting issue I was working on most of the day at work? How did that get into my head? Why am I thinking about that? Bring the focus back, bring the focus back. What am I writing? About people traveling across the universe, right? Wait, what did I just write?

“But the point is that even if they are on their way, we already know that it takes a significant amount of work to resolve the users’ problem.”

I want to keep the sentence because I wrote it and it’s hilarious, but it doesn’t make any sense at all (in context). I’ll keep it for now and fix it tomorrow. And finish the day below par, but I’m so tired.

Today’s Goal: 17,500 (write 2474)
Achieved: 16,638
Words Written: 1612
Sentence of the day: But then it’s not like we expected to find intergalactic transport waiting in the backyard.

How I feel: Tired. Glad I again powered through >1000 words in 30 minutes. Wishing I’d gotten closer to my day’s target. Thinking I need to go back and finish up the first section and stop working on the plot for a day or two. Gonna be so many plot holes. And I really need to get ahead this weekend.

Also, in case you’re wondering, 16,638 words looks like 42 (ah, perfect) pages. Single spaced (double between paragraphs) with some white space between unfinished sections. So more like 40 pages. It’s starting to take longer to save the document. Ah, noveling.

Nano 2011: Day 9

Today was pretty great. I attempted my first 1000 words in 30 minutes and succeeded! (1110 in 27 minutes, even!) That was pretty great.

So not only did I get home later than usual, but I worked out AND got caught up on my word count. Awesome. I set a high goal with the intention of having plans tomorrow, but I’m not positive I have plans, and I’m really tired and need to go to bed. So, although I think I could pull more words out, I’m going to put that off for tomorrow. The scene will still be there.

Today’s Goal: write 3000 words (16,013 total)
Achieved: 15,026
Words Written: 2013
Sentence of the day: I thought the response felt a lot like laughter, followed by a short burst that reminded me of bubbles.

How I feel: Good. The story has taken unexpected turns, but these turns are making it easier to write, so not complaining. This weekend I’d like to go back and get the first section finished off, because that’s still pretty fragmented even though yesterday and today I was primarily writing stuff from the second section. (And on an unrelated note, I’m making progress on goals/to-do items in the rest of my life, so as I’m less stressed about that, I’m less stressed in general, which makes for a better experience of life all around.)