not sure if I already posted about my giving up.
I gave up. XD
you are doing better than me. I’ve got 5,000 words on an aborted story that I don’t feel like writing in that way, 3,000 words - same story, except 3rd person instead of 1st POV.
and then only 1,500 words on the story I actually want to finish. 1,500 words that I’ve retyped three times and are imo extremely finely polished and make for an exceptionally strong start to a story, but they still don’t go anywhere.
also got a 12,000 word outline that I could start fleshing out, but the story is too grim for my mood at the moment
I started 10 days late though, forgot November was Nanowrimo.
(Damn it. I knew I would sleep until after noon if I let myself fall asleep.)
Sigh. Last night, I only got to 11,626 words when I finished up Chapter 3, which is easily the shortest chapter and tyhe one I dislike the least so far. However, Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 should be fine and quick even though I don’t know much about Ireland outside of what not to write about it thanks to the Oireland TVTropes entry. I’m going to try to get 15,000 words tonight. It should be easy if I don’t get horribly distracted (despite the fact that I’ll probably buy you know what to day and have to thus walk for at least 45 minutes back and forth, huzzah).
I wasn’t aware of the last two, but the “official” book from the contest mentions the first thing.
You did not.
Thank for you telling us so that we may not forever add your name to the wall of shame alongside of Qrazy, though.
Wall of shame! Wall of shame!
There is no one else to blame!
I finally put up an excerpt on my NaNoWriMo profile page.
Excuse the lameness of the prose. For the most part, I’m just shitting out as much as I can manage, with the intention of going back and rewriting everything later.
EDIT:
(Ugh. Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten…)
So, despite being only at **12,287 words **presently, I’m actually a surprisingly good and optimistic mood about this. Considering how easily Chapter 4 is coming out and I’m only like a third of the way through it, I can hit **15,000 **words with Chapter 4 alone at this rate. It’s nice to write a character whose thoughts and feelings I can display without giving plot away; also, one who arguably isn’t insane.
Now I just have to think of a name for Chapter 3…
Oh.
I thought this was supposed to be a personal peptalk from he to you. I was about to be insanely jealous.
Now I can just go back to ignoring you as I contemplate just starting up another account if I can’t get into my other e-mail by tomorrow. I’ll probably do it even if I can at this point…
If Neil Gaiman personally contacted me to offer his encouragement, I would quit writing and spend the rest of November charging people for the right to touch me.
(…Touch you where?)
Okay, so we’re at 13,**721 **words when I excise 9 words for Chapter name placeholders and scene changes. That’s a pretty good pace considering I’ve decided to break Chapter 4 up into two chapters now, meaning I technically know what will happen in the next two chapters now. I’m still going to try to get to **15,000 **words at or around midnight, but I’m gonna take a break now.
It’s been quite funny having my villainous, isolated protagonist interact with someone’s whose a lot more like an average person and someone he needs talk to and thus can’t be (actively) rude to. Oh, it will be fun corrupting Conor…
You should have the average guy be a Frank Grimes sort of character, who lampshades the ways that the fictional universe tolerates the strangeness of the more colorful characters in the story.
(Hunh. I don’t feel abysmally tired for once.)
Hmm…I’ll take that under advisement, but that doesn’t really work in this scenario since in this (series of) book(s) because the superhuman aspect is a lot more low-key–that’s actually the main problem I’ve been having with my main series of books of the past couple of year: whether powers should be public knowledge or do the whole “Masquerade” thing. It’s annoying that I still haven’t decided with that, so even though this might be connected to that, I’ve just decided not to have come up here (as a problem that requires any public acknowledge and government intervention).
Hell, as it stands now, of the two character’s talking, only one knows that both of them have powers & he might be insane while the other is actively in denial considering how “pragmatic” his powers are; in addition to that, I’m currently writing the encounter as one where the “denier” thing my protagonist is some American prankster his friends set-upon him. That’s probably what’s made this current situation so amusing.
Anyway, about an hour ago (before I took this rapidly extending “break”), I began Chapter 5 and am now at **14,535 **words even though I’m not even half done. I’ll see how much I get done before I leave in the morning, especially if I can manage not to get all the distracted for once. Gonna take another half hour of this “break” and then try to get back to writing.
Just broke 30,000. According to the official graphy statistical thingy (jesus, I need a break), I should be at 31,666, but I’ve been bad the last couple nights.
Actually, following the pace I originally intended to go at, I’d be done right around today. Oops.
(Meh, you’re still ahead of everyone else. Hell, I’m not sure anyone else besides the two of us is even doing this anymore. So congrats.)
So, in being worse than goodm0urning (and most people alive) when it comes scheduling, I just finally blew through past 15,000 words as of 10 minutes ago. I think I’m still fine, though, since I’m not going anywhere next week like I had maybe planned and I typed about 1,500 words in about an hour, though part of that is the only part of fiction I’m comfortable writing currently is dialogue (and the most dry exposition of a competent plot).
Of course, I have something of an excuse about only now getting around to this despite wanting to be past it a while. I had another project I was working on for two and a half hours before I basically collapsed again this morning since I was up for 27 hours yesterday for…some reason. Still, rather lazy of me, but whatever.
Regardless, I now sit at **15,885 words **after getting rid of some excess due to fixing a bunch of omissions from before and then that last part I just finished typing. Currently I’m on Chapter 5 still, so at this point I can probably easily just get to 20,000 words with I’ve planned out up to Chapter 6. I have to think beyond that though…
Chapters… how quaint!
For a while, I was writing chapters. Now, I’m just writing whatever chunks of story pop into my head and titling them by subject. My genius will not be organized numerically.
Good way to keep writing for as long as you feel up to it, even if you’ve exhausted your current idea: skip to another part of the story, or the point of view of another character, and proceed from there. I find that it’s a good way of freshening it up.
I’m currently rallying to save my shit. Over the past four days or so, I fell behind, the lowest point probably being around 4,000 words below par. I’ve cranked out 2,225 words so far this morning, and I intend to keep going for at least another 1.5 hours or so. I’m in the midst of a big, three-part chase sequence, so I’ve switched from the chase-ee to the chaser in a bid to keep it going.
EDIT:
Fucking A. With about half an hour to go and after writing 4,086 words, I finally beat today’s par, back on pace to finish on time.
Or, if I keep up the pace that I was at tonight, I could finish even sooner!
And that will never happen!
I found out the trick was to have a boring class. Wrote a little of 3k words in this morning’s class which brings me up to 38k.
(Oh, you’re still in this Valaris? I wasn’t sure since that’s literally the only third time you’ve posted here.)
Long story short, between going to the doctor and falling asleep several times between both today and yesterday, I’ve only managed to get to 16,525 words, but, eh, that’s also partly because I’m trying to finish a certain part of my other project still. I can easily get to at least 20,000 words by tomorrow since I’m still only a Chapter 5 and barely passed the half way point of that.
Oh, before I forget again, since goody did, I figure I’ll link to my “page” on NaNoWriMo since I decided to just make another account after signing up back up on Friday; I can’t wait for my other e-mail to get reactivated or whatever since that probably won’t happen until December, though I do have to wonder what username I used before it The Damned wasn’t taken. Or maybe it was without the underscore… But, hey, a monopoly on similarly named accounts is always a good thing.
Anyway, that synopsis is old. Not that it’s changed. I just think I’ll try to see how it works writing a longer one. I decided to post a longish excerpt form Chapter 2 since goody’s excerpt is a lot longer than I was expecting. Unlike him, though, my prose is fairly boring dialogue rather than anything majestically descriptive.
Feh. Figures. I only start bother with chapters because you and Missing Person mention it despite not bothering the first two times I did this thing, only for you to both abandon me.
Scandal! Outrage! Intrigue!
Oddly, I think chapters are kinda working me for now/still, though. I just need to think of a title for Chapter 3 still, but I think I’ll just call it “Because I Love You” for now; Chapter 4 will obviously be called “Cold Shoulder” and Chapter 5 well, we’ll wait until that Chapter ends.
3,720 words per day to finish, eh?
That’s doable. Helpful hint: mixed beverages with caffeine in them will keep you perky enough to write and make you not give enough of a shit to edit.
Story sounds cool, by the by.
EDIT:
I added you as a writing buddy. If you do not reciprocate, I will consider it an insult of the highest order.
EDIT #2:
Ironic way to kill a character: have him spend two days running from a hitman, only to die from exhaustion, dehydration, and lack of electrolytes.
The Damned: Yes and no. I don’t count because I started mine a week before November started. This was a personal project and it just happened to coincide with this shindig. I just spent some time out of town and didn’t bother updating much.
goodm0urning, you make me and my writing habits feel incredibly slacker…y. I’ve only managed to eek out 1 or 2,000 words a day here and there. Bloody study abroad.
(Grr…I just noticed that I had omitted “to” in my horrible excerpt before “turn”. It’s fixed now. [/+1 word count]
Also, I added goodm0urning.)
So, since I those medical aspirins I had to take two of yesterday ended up knocking me out, I didn’t really get to type much this morning. Hell, I didn’t wake up until afternoon–such sloth.
Still, I’ve managed to get up Chapter 6, which will be as short as Chapter 3 at this point, after having to break Chapter 5 into two chapters again (Chapter 6 being the latter half of it now) due to how much dialogue there was inside Conor’s house. Ugh. Such talking Irishmen. [/hypocrisy]
Anyway, at 18,914 words as of about 20 minutes ago. I should easily be able to hit 20,000 words at the end of this chapter, which I’ll try to do before I leave to spend potentially at least 2 hours walking 7 miles (possibly twice) tomorrow. I promised myself that by time I finished Chapter 6, I’d have better grips on the next couple of character’s abilities, especially since there’s going to be another fight in Chapter 8, as well as where things are headed; next stop, Korean Catholic nuns.
is still kinda tempted to research things like Krav Magra
Also, there’s something more morbidly humorous I realized while typing this last chapter: I suddenly decided, spur of the moment, that it had began to rain as soon as they had stepped outside the house…only to remember that I think Dublin has experienced serious flooding this past month or so. This story starts in November of this year at present. I’d like to think I won’t piss too many people off with that…
If I do, I guess I could intentionally start having Conor and every other Irish character use an “Oireland” accent and distract people with that.
Oh, right. You and goody “cheated” by starting a bit early. I had forgotten that. Your “cheating” I mean.
You “cheaters” you. [/pluralize]
Yeah, doable.
I don’t drink caffeine, though. My body is fucked up enough as it is, as are my sleepy habits, to add that to the mix.
Thanks. That means a lot coming from you, Mr. Professional Writer.
You’ve been added as my likely to remain solitary “buddy”.
I’m going to assume this is something you did in your story because, sadly, I have no way to steal that incorporate it in Elementary. Maybe for my other story though. Though assassins don’t really show up there until like…book five.