NaNoWriMo 2009

Saturday

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:10:26 GMT

Another good write-in today at our usual haunt, Mo'Joe Coffeehouse downtown. It was small compared to how last year's at that location turned out, but a pretty good crowd. There were nine of us at the most at one time, though I think eleven people showed up all together. I got my standard (this year) 2,000 words, mostly because once I reached around there I just quit writing. I don't seem to have much interest in going beyond that, which might work out. My goal has always been to finish the novel by Nov 30, not just reach 50,000 words. I don't think I'll have trouble getting to the 50k...though I might just run out of story before I get there, that is a possibility. This is a very strange year, still. I really don't like my main character so far. She's just...icky. Maybe she'll improve in time, once I get to know her. Who knows? So I'm not terribly attached to her story. I actually started writing about another character, then realized that it was really too soon for that, so abandoned him, though he will come back tomorrow (story-time). It's just weird all around.

Tomorrow Steve and I are going to Starbucks to write in the morning before the Colts game.

It was a very productive day--ate breakfast, got laundry started, practiced for over an hour, took dogs for a walk, ate lunch, went downtown for write in, wrote, came home, got dinner made and ate, got another recipe made for during the week, finished laundry, practiced for another hour, and here we are. It's just after 9:00pm. If I were so motivated, I could write for another hour before bed. I love days like this. :-)

Progress: 14,591 / 50,000

Write-ins

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:29:24 GMT

Had a great write-in last night at Starbucks. Met three other NaNovelists, two of whom are actually ahead of me in word count. That didn't happen much last year, or the year before. ;-) It was a productive couple of hours. I didn't write at all during the day at work, then cranked out 2k in about an hour. So was good.

I have to write at work today, or not at all. Fortunately, I already have the word count goal for today, without writing a word. ;-)

Progress: 8,548 / 50,000

On my way...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:24:51 GMT

Beginnings are the very hardest part of a story for me to write. It takes me pages and pages of meandering around before I tend to find the proper beginning, and even then sometimes it's not until the third or fourth revision that I actually find it. Last year I spent 50k words searching for a beginning, and then this last year wondering if it was right. So this year, again, the first three days have been spent figuring out where this story starts. I think I've found it. At least for now. Judging by how fast the words came todaty, I'm at least on the right track.

It's been a slower start than last year, but I'm not writing 150k words this year. In fact, this just might turn out to be the 50k book that I thought I might try to write this year. Since long, wordy books have been easy for me, it might be more of a challenge to write an entire story in 50k words. I don't know, we'll see. I still don't have a plot. I have a backstory, I have stuff that happened in the past that needs to be revealed and worked through by the main character. But I don't know how she's going to do it, or how quickly she'll do it. I'm a little afraid that I don't even have 50k words worth of story, but that's the fun of NaNo. I remember in 2006 I got stuck around 40k words, not sure if I'd reach 50k or how, and then I ended up with 96k. I think the same, or similar, happened in 2005. For as slow a start as it's been, I'm not worried at all. I've kept to a NaNo pace, so I'm pleased with that. And I don't feel any pressure at all this year to perform. It's much more relaxing, and much more fun, so far. I hope I'm not eating these words in a week. ;-)

Progress: 6,299 / 50,000

38 hours, 37 minutes

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:29:23 GMT

Midnight tomorrow night. I might stay up and get started then. I won't be able to write much, if at all, on Sunday since we're going to the Colts game and I'll have to get some practice time in at some point. I don't know what it's going to be like juggling the two orchestras, work, and writing. But I am excited! I haven't written a word of fiction in about six weeks. I'm not exactly brimming over with ideas, but I have this feeling that once I'm able to start getting words down on the page, it'll all just come. At least I have an idea, a character, some vague plan of what I want to happen. It's nothing like last year, where I'd planned the story to death. On day one last year I think I struggled to write 1000 words the first day, even with my pages of notes and outlines. Never doing that again. I prefer it this way. :-)

38 hours 31 minutes...

Ideas for NaNoWriMo

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:17:47 GMT

Honestly, I was starting to get just the tiniest bit worried that I wouldn't come up with anything to write next month. I'm in both the Philharmonic Orchestra of Indianapolis and a chamber orchestra, and both have concerts in November. I've also started playing the Bach Partita No. 2 for solo violin, which I love, and have been practicing that a ton. So with all of that, music has pretty much taken over my life and I've given no thought at all to what to write for November. (This is not a bad thing, mind, I love the music.) But I should know myself better. Even if I'm not actually thinking about something, it is back there stewing away and it comes when I really need it. I have ideas. In fact, I have so many of them--for the same story--that I need to sort out which to use and which to save for another story. I even have a main character. Her name is Laura and I think she plays the cello. It might be her mother who played the cello, that part's not clear yet. And I think she's in her thirties, but she might be in her twenties. Again, not clear because of all the other ideas swarming around in my brain right now. It's going to follow somewhat the same outline that my 2006 NaNo novel did, in that it's a mixture of two stories, one that took place in the past and one that takes place in the present. At least, I think that's what it's going to be. That's why Laura's age isn't set. She's either the present day story of this two-fold idea, in which case she's in her late thirties or early forties. Or she's just the main character, in which case she might be a little younger, late-twenties. I tend to alternate the age of my main female character from year to year. In 2006 she was in her early 20s (in grad school), in 2007 she was in her late 30s (and a mother), in 2008 she was in her very early 20s (still in college). I have another character, Grayson, who is either in his 50s or his 80s (depending on which type of story it is). I'm really leaning toward the two-fold idea, with Laura in her late 30s. Grayson is a retired orchestral conductor, in his 80s. And there needs to be a man in Laura's life. Well, not in it at the beginning of the story. There's another gray area. There are a lot of gray areas, but it's kind of fun to have too many ideas. More fun than having none. And right on schedule, too. This is about the time I got my 2006 and 2007 ideas as well. (2008 I had the idea for the entire year.)

NaNoWriMo 2009

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:31:32 GMT

NaNoWriMo is just around the corner. :-)

Make your own Countdown Clocks

Woo hoo!

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:29:33 GMT

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