As the end of October nears, inevitably National Novel Writing Month draws closer. I hear its siren call!
But alas, given that I can't even keep a blog updated these days, I fear I'm going to have to sit this one out. I just don't have the time or energy to spare for 50,000 words this year.
There are too many people clinging to me and demanding that I feed them or change them or rock them to sleep. OK, there's one person doing that, but that turns out to be too many for me to get much else done.
Have no doubt about it, another terrible novel will be written by me in the month of November--but not this year.
However, I encourage everyone else to do it. It's good clean fun, unless your computer is really filthy and/or your novel is porn (neither one of which should stand in your way), and there's a nice "Winner" web logo in it for you if you finish.
Showing posts with label NaNoWriMo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NaNoWriMo. Show all posts
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Bah and Hooray
Bah, I say, because this is still a really poor novel full of people talking about things that might happen, but nothing actually happening.
But hooray, because according to the NaNoWriMo word counting software, I have completed 50,140 words, and that is done. I have ended the long, boring tale with the appropriate words "it could have been worse."
There's done well, and then there's just done, which sometimes is also OK.
Please note my official winner icon, and tremble with admiration.
Now to really put my full attention into Assassin's Creed. I haven't managed to complete more than maybe half of it so far, but that changes now!
But hooray, because according to the NaNoWriMo word counting software, I have completed 50,140 words, and that is done. I have ended the long, boring tale with the appropriate words "it could have been worse."
There's done well, and then there's just done, which sometimes is also OK.
Please note my official winner icon, and tremble with admiration.
Now to really put my full attention into Assassin's Creed. I haven't managed to complete more than maybe half of it so far, but that changes now!
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
I Blame the Software
I've discovered that Word 2010 on the PC counts differently than Word 2004 on the Mac.
When I word-count my terrible novel on my PC at work (on my lunch break, obviously!), it's almost 500 words more than when I word-count exactly the same document on my Mac at home (after working hours, obviously!).
I suspect it's largely to do with hyphens, since Word 2004 (at least for Mac) appears to count hyphenated terms as a single word, while Word 2010 (on a PC, at any rate) counts them individually.
I must have used a lot of hyphens. Somewhere around 500 of them, perhaps, just taking a wild guess here.
But that's only one reason this novel is so bad.
Some time ago I had put a hold on a book at the library called How NOT to Write a Novel, and it would perhaps have been helpful if it had gotten to me before today. Because I'm telling you, I'm pretty sure I did most of the things this book advises against.
Well, maybe not the frequent, confusing changes in POV. But all the stuff they say to just cut out because it's boring to read? That's pretty much all the stuff I have.
The problem is, I had no story idea I cared about. Right from the beginning, I was just throwing words around to fill pages, not to convey anything about any particular idea or character. And then I got bogged down, trying to keep going along the same general path, thinking sooner or later something interesting would have to happen...but no. I should have tried shaking things up or striking off in some radically different direction (I should have actually introduced the packs of wild dogs!), but I got attached to continuity.
Continuity of dullness.
So you gotta have a story. That's what I have learned from NaNoWriMo this year.
Oh, I'm going to get to 50,000 words and technically finish the marathon. I haven't clawed my way to 42,000 just to quit now. I'll have 50,000 words of almost utter boredom, and perhaps it will somehow be a learning experience for next time.
The lesson will be "don't even start unless you care at least a little bit about something that is going to happen in that darn story."
Also, "something interesting does not have to happen. Sometimes it's just boring all the way down."
Anyway, back to the Word counting issue, my obvious concern now is, which method does NaNoWriMo use? Because I could be done about 500 words sooner if it's counting like Word 2010, and at this point, that sounds pretty good to me.
When I word-count my terrible novel on my PC at work (on my lunch break, obviously!), it's almost 500 words more than when I word-count exactly the same document on my Mac at home (after working hours, obviously!).
I suspect it's largely to do with hyphens, since Word 2004 (at least for Mac) appears to count hyphenated terms as a single word, while Word 2010 (on a PC, at any rate) counts them individually.
I must have used a lot of hyphens. Somewhere around 500 of them, perhaps, just taking a wild guess here.
But that's only one reason this novel is so bad.
Some time ago I had put a hold on a book at the library called How NOT to Write a Novel, and it would perhaps have been helpful if it had gotten to me before today. Because I'm telling you, I'm pretty sure I did most of the things this book advises against.
Well, maybe not the frequent, confusing changes in POV. But all the stuff they say to just cut out because it's boring to read? That's pretty much all the stuff I have.
The problem is, I had no story idea I cared about. Right from the beginning, I was just throwing words around to fill pages, not to convey anything about any particular idea or character. And then I got bogged down, trying to keep going along the same general path, thinking sooner or later something interesting would have to happen...but no. I should have tried shaking things up or striking off in some radically different direction (I should have actually introduced the packs of wild dogs!), but I got attached to continuity.
Continuity of dullness.
So you gotta have a story. That's what I have learned from NaNoWriMo this year.
Oh, I'm going to get to 50,000 words and technically finish the marathon. I haven't clawed my way to 42,000 just to quit now. I'll have 50,000 words of almost utter boredom, and perhaps it will somehow be a learning experience for next time.
The lesson will be "don't even start unless you care at least a little bit about something that is going to happen in that darn story."
Also, "something interesting does not have to happen. Sometimes it's just boring all the way down."
Anyway, back to the Word counting issue, my obvious concern now is, which method does NaNoWriMo use? Because I could be done about 500 words sooner if it's counting like Word 2010, and at this point, that sounds pretty good to me.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Yay! Boo!
My video game is here! This is not going to be good for my stupid novel, which I hate. Fortunately, I suppose, I have to share the game with my husband, so I won't be able to play it nonstop.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Bad Idea! Let's Do It!
You can't always go around thinking it's a bad idea to do something, just because it's not a very good idea.
Also, procrastination is a wonderful way to come up with interesting ideas for things that you could be doing besides writing a novel.
For example, I decided I should probably cut my hair. With sewing scissors. Without getting the hair wet first. In the bedroom, over the carpeted floor. Without a towel over my shoulders or anything.
Are you aware that hair clippings are really itchy when they get inside your clothes? Are you perhaps familiar with the term "hair shirt" in the context of a somewhat uncomfortable garment? Me too!
Oh well.
I just wanted to trim the back a bit, it's not like a major style shift, so no biggie. It was starting to look a little mullet-y, because the back was getting quite a bit longer than the sides, and I decided the back should come off. Immediately. Just to about the same length as the sides, you know. Again, no biggie.
I've never cut hair before, and don't have any hair-cutting scissors, but whatever. My hair is only really thick and slightly wavy, so it's not as if there's anything to throw off the cutting line of an inexperienced hand using sewing scissors and no mirror.
And you know what, it turned out OK.
I mean, no one would think I went to a professional, but I don't think anyone's going to notice that I just horribly mangled my own head, either. I think it made a not-big-enough difference that anyone else will even notice, but got rid of the shaggy-looking tail that was starting to bug me.
Win!
So remember, just because it's not a good idea, doesn't mean you shouldn't do something.
Actually it does mean that, but it doesn't mean you won't get lucky and have it turn out OK after all.
Perhaps this is a good lesson for writing.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Everything Seems So Tainted Now...
It's funny how quickly one project can make you start seeing other things in a new light.
For example, I'm chugging away on this novel writing project, trying to get to 50,000 words by November 30 (about 18,600 so far), and today while writing an email, I had to remind myself that more words was not necessarily crucial in that context.
Because when you're aiming for a word count, all your normal habits of trying to be concise and find just the one right word for something go right out the window. Maybe normally I would say "unlikely," which is nice and to the point, but for NaNoWriMo, "not very likely" is much better. Three times as good, in fact!
So I was basically looking for the long way to say something to someone in a business email, which is not normally the recommended approach. My work emails tend to be probably longer than strictly necessary or desirable anyway, because I always want to explain everything in great detail, the better to avoid having to send another email later.
Fend off follow-up questions by smothering the person with information the first time, that's what I say.
It may not always be perfect for work, but it's an advantage in unreadable-novel-writing.
For example, I'm chugging away on this novel writing project, trying to get to 50,000 words by November 30 (about 18,600 so far), and today while writing an email, I had to remind myself that more words was not necessarily crucial in that context.
Because when you're aiming for a word count, all your normal habits of trying to be concise and find just the one right word for something go right out the window. Maybe normally I would say "unlikely," which is nice and to the point, but for NaNoWriMo, "not very likely" is much better. Three times as good, in fact!
So I was basically looking for the long way to say something to someone in a business email, which is not normally the recommended approach. My work emails tend to be probably longer than strictly necessary or desirable anyway, because I always want to explain everything in great detail, the better to avoid having to send another email later.
Fend off follow-up questions by smothering the person with information the first time, that's what I say.
It may not always be perfect for work, but it's an advantage in unreadable-novel-writing.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Not Gettin' It Done
I suppose I might as well be doing NaBloPoMo as well, right? Let's undertake every challenge that comes along, why not?
I am so not getting caught up on the novel right now, but...but...tomorrow! Possibly! If I can think of anything that could be happening.
Maybe a pack of wild dogs! That'd add drama.
You know, it's not ideas that are hard. It's ideas that aren't terrible that are hard.
I am so not getting caught up on the novel right now, but...but...tomorrow! Possibly! If I can think of anything that could be happening.
Maybe a pack of wild dogs! That'd add drama.
You know, it's not ideas that are hard. It's ideas that aren't terrible that are hard.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Coming in With a Whimper
This is going to be a tough NaNoWriMo for me. Due to web development classes and free movies the past couple of nights, I didn't really get started on the first of the month, so now I'm lagging behind.
Which is tough since I really need to build up a good lead before the middle of the month, in anticipation of the release of Assassin's Creed: Revelations.
We're not traveling for Thanksgiving, so I have that long, long weekend to just lounge and write for hours, but writing will be competing with lounging and playing a video game for hours. (No, I cannot just wait until December to start playing. Bite your mental tongue for even thinking such a thing! I have multiple, competing top priorities, and they're just going to have to work it out somehow.)
Plus, alarmingly, I've still got very little in the way of actual ideas for this thing. In my prior two attempts I had a sort of general sense of what was going on to start with, and took it from there, and wound up with...not literature, but at least stories that progressed and had stuff happen based on other stuff that happened previously. You know, like in a story.
This year, I really don't have any idea what's going on, and I'm afraid I'm just going to wind up with a series of random incidents. For 50,000 words. Only 47,000 to go!
It's gonna be the best series of random incidents ever, though. If all else fails, I'll just have the main character play Assassin's Creed for 30 or 40 pages. Write what you know and all.
Which is tough since I really need to build up a good lead before the middle of the month, in anticipation of the release of Assassin's Creed: Revelations.
We're not traveling for Thanksgiving, so I have that long, long weekend to just lounge and write for hours, but writing will be competing with lounging and playing a video game for hours. (No, I cannot just wait until December to start playing. Bite your mental tongue for even thinking such a thing! I have multiple, competing top priorities, and they're just going to have to work it out somehow.)
Plus, alarmingly, I've still got very little in the way of actual ideas for this thing. In my prior two attempts I had a sort of general sense of what was going on to start with, and took it from there, and wound up with...not literature, but at least stories that progressed and had stuff happen based on other stuff that happened previously. You know, like in a story.
This year, I really don't have any idea what's going on, and I'm afraid I'm just going to wind up with a series of random incidents. For 50,000 words. Only 47,000 to go!
It's gonna be the best series of random incidents ever, though. If all else fails, I'll just have the main character play Assassin's Creed for 30 or 40 pages. Write what you know and all.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Move Along, Now
If you're contemplating NaNoWriMo this year, you may want to check out the blog SF Novelists, where James Alan Gardner has an occasional series underway called The Skill List Project.
See today's post on plot flow for helpful tips to keep your story moving.
It suggests, broadly, that every scene should either be a result of, or stand in contradiction to, a scene immediately previous. Either Scene A happens and causes Scene B, or Scene A happens and then Scene B threatens to throw a wrench in the gears of whatever A has suggested is going on.
There are obviously other things you can do for artistic effect, but that seems like a good, straightforward way to keep basic forward momentum going.
Good times!
See today's post on plot flow for helpful tips to keep your story moving.
It suggests, broadly, that every scene should either be a result of, or stand in contradiction to, a scene immediately previous. Either Scene A happens and causes Scene B, or Scene A happens and then Scene B threatens to throw a wrench in the gears of whatever A has suggested is going on.
There are obviously other things you can do for artistic effect, but that seems like a good, straightforward way to keep basic forward momentum going.
Good times!
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Not Feeling Fictional
November is coming up, and t'will be National Novel Writing Month once again, and I'm sitting around not having any inklings of ideas.
You can't start writing until November 1, so it's obviously OK not to have really fleshed anything out in mid-October, but in the past I at least had some loosely connected notions I'd been mulling over, and a kind of "here's where things will start" plan.
Now, I've really got nothing. Just not feelin' the inspiration. I'm feeling as if I may not get around to doing it this year, although I'll only be busier next year, so I kind of might as well go for it now.
I'm also concerned because the next Assassin's Creed comes out in November, and that will be very distracting. Veeeeeeeery distracting. Just thinking about it is distracting. Ah, to be climbing tall buildings right now!
Plus, there's all of this knitting to be done. It turns out I got way more yarn than I needed, but I wanted the free shipping that came with a $50 purchase!
Also, I'm a terrible judge of these things. It's like the time I needed to order an ethernet cable, and after considering the available lengths, decided 50 feet sounded about right.
Indeed. About right for when I need to take my computer out of the apartment and around the corner of the building. Which, you never know.
Be prepared by overestimating your need for everything, that's my motto.
This is why I really feel I should have about 8 or 10 novel ideas in mind if I'm going to tackle NaNoWriMo.
Eight or 10 ideas, 50 feet of cable, 20 balls of yarn, and a video game. That's preparation.
You can't start writing until November 1, so it's obviously OK not to have really fleshed anything out in mid-October, but in the past I at least had some loosely connected notions I'd been mulling over, and a kind of "here's where things will start" plan.
Now, I've really got nothing. Just not feelin' the inspiration. I'm feeling as if I may not get around to doing it this year, although I'll only be busier next year, so I kind of might as well go for it now.
I'm also concerned because the next Assassin's Creed comes out in November, and that will be very distracting. Veeeeeeeery distracting. Just thinking about it is distracting. Ah, to be climbing tall buildings right now!
Plus, there's all of this knitting to be done. It turns out I got way more yarn than I needed, but I wanted the free shipping that came with a $50 purchase!
Also, I'm a terrible judge of these things. It's like the time I needed to order an ethernet cable, and after considering the available lengths, decided 50 feet sounded about right.
Indeed. About right for when I need to take my computer out of the apartment and around the corner of the building. Which, you never know.
Be prepared by overestimating your need for everything, that's my motto.
This is why I really feel I should have about 8 or 10 novel ideas in mind if I'm going to tackle NaNoWriMo.
Eight or 10 ideas, 50 feet of cable, 20 balls of yarn, and a video game. That's preparation.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Items of Note
If any of my legions of followers were students to whom I've talked about PubMed, which I highly doubt any are, I would tell them "read this post over here from Scicurious."
I would tell them this as a means to prove that it's not just geeky librarians who think PubMed is awesome. No, PubMed can actually help you get stuff done in your actual career! Someone with a science career says so!
I'm filled with a feeling of warm fuzzy validation.
In other PubMed news, the Krafty Librarian passed on this NLM Technical Bulletin update reporting that the NCBI Journals database, currently closely linked to PubMed, is to be retired. I greet this news with some trepidation, because I use the Journals database all the time, mainly to look up ISSNs and journal abbreviations while I'm a-catalogin'. We like to have those abbreviated titles in the catalog, you know, since people tend to have citations with that format, and it's easier to be able to just copy the citation as written than try to figure out what the full title is.
Although I use the Journals database to find out what the full title is sometimes, too. I'm gonna miss you, Journals database! Sniff.
This information will now reportedly be available in the NLM Catalog, which I do not use all the time, but apparently will in future.
I look forward to getting to know you, NLM Catalog. I totally won't be judging you with against an astronomically high standard set by a departed love or anything, either.
In completely non-PubMed news, I completed 50,004 words on my National Novel Writing Month project last night, so, yeah, I think we can all agree that as someone who's been proven capable of typing a specified number of words within a defined period of time, I'm pretty much the absolute zenith of awesome right now.
The story, such as it is, isn't quite finished yet, so I'm continuing to work on it and hope to wrap it up by the end of the month with a few thousand more words and some additional dramatic fighting, wordy dialogue, and possibly some gratuitous nudity and cursing, because I didn't get around to that last time.
I may also throw in a reference to PubMed, just to tie things in with the other news items of the day.
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I would tell them this as a means to prove that it's not just geeky librarians who think PubMed is awesome. No, PubMed can actually help you get stuff done in your actual career! Someone with a science career says so!
I'm filled with a feeling of warm fuzzy validation.
In other PubMed news, the Krafty Librarian passed on this NLM Technical Bulletin update reporting that the NCBI Journals database, currently closely linked to PubMed, is to be retired. I greet this news with some trepidation, because I use the Journals database all the time, mainly to look up ISSNs and journal abbreviations while I'm a-catalogin'. We like to have those abbreviated titles in the catalog, you know, since people tend to have citations with that format, and it's easier to be able to just copy the citation as written than try to figure out what the full title is.
Although I use the Journals database to find out what the full title is sometimes, too. I'm gonna miss you, Journals database! Sniff.
This information will now reportedly be available in the NLM Catalog, which I do not use all the time, but apparently will in future.
I look forward to getting to know you, NLM Catalog. I totally won't be judging you with against an astronomically high standard set by a departed love or anything, either.
In completely non-PubMed news, I completed 50,004 words on my National Novel Writing Month project last night, so, yeah, I think we can all agree that as someone who's been proven capable of typing a specified number of words within a defined period of time, I'm pretty much the absolute zenith of awesome right now.
The story, such as it is, isn't quite finished yet, so I'm continuing to work on it and hope to wrap it up by the end of the month with a few thousand more words and some additional dramatic fighting, wordy dialogue, and possibly some gratuitous nudity and cursing, because I didn't get around to that last time.
I may also throw in a reference to PubMed, just to tie things in with the other news items of the day.
.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Eagerly Awaited NaNoWriMo Update 2
So I've been neglecting all my blog reading and blog writing and personal correspondence, so I have no idea what's going on on the internet, but you'll be happy to know that I continue to churn out thousands of ill-considered words on a near-daily basis.
I am currently at 41,600, which, as those of you with a good head for numbers will observe, is getting pretty close to the 50,000 word goal. Since I have through November 30th, I'm feeling reasonably good about my chances of finishing this marathon, barring ill fortune or sudden, violent boredom with my story and characters.
Let it never be said that I cannot rapidly produce large quantities of questionable prose in response to some arbitrary challenge. I think someone may conceivably have said that once, and I am sure proving him or her wrong!
Take that, imaginary detractor.
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I am currently at 41,600, which, as those of you with a good head for numbers will observe, is getting pretty close to the 50,000 word goal. Since I have through November 30th, I'm feeling reasonably good about my chances of finishing this marathon, barring ill fortune or sudden, violent boredom with my story and characters.
Let it never be said that I cannot rapidly produce large quantities of questionable prose in response to some arbitrary challenge. I think someone may conceivably have said that once, and I am sure proving him or her wrong!
Take that, imaginary detractor.
.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Late Night Ramblings
I would just like to say that parents are junkies, according to this article that theorizes that people choose, often repeatedly, to become parents (even though research suggests children don't actually make people happy) because children do make people happy, but in an intense, yet rare and unpredictable way that keeps a parent chasing that child-love high despite stress, ill health and personal expense.
I would also like to note that dialogue is a word-goal-having writer's best friend. I have said this before, but I really cannot stress it enough--just have some characters talk about stuff and the words will pour onto the page! And yeah, they may have boring and obnoxious conversations that, if you overheard them on the train, would make you want to punch yourself in the ear to avoid listening to them, but that is irrelevant when the goal is wordiness.
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I would also like to note that dialogue is a word-goal-having writer's best friend. I have said this before, but I really cannot stress it enough--just have some characters talk about stuff and the words will pour onto the page! And yeah, they may have boring and obnoxious conversations that, if you overheard them on the train, would make you want to punch yourself in the ear to avoid listening to them, but that is irrelevant when the goal is wordiness.
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Friday, November 12, 2010
Novels and Values
As promised, I am writing away on this National Novel Writing Month novel (cleverly titled NaNovel in my documents folder).
I have officially passed the halfway mark (en route to the official goal of 50,000 words), so I'm a bit ahead of the game so far, although I am getting to a sort of 'well, that's fine, but I've just spent 50 pages covering peoples' car trips,' and 'so how do I fill up the rest of the pages?' stage.
But, as a colleague pointed out, it could become a post-apocalyptic wasteland novel at any time and on any page, so I shall not give up hope of something interesting happening.
Meanwhile, I was interested to hear via an email to the MEDLIB-L list that one can now download PubMed search results in comma-separated value format for handy sorting in Excel and such, via FLink. You can do a search in PubMed, then go to FLink, select PubMed under 'choose a database to start,' and select 'input from Entrez history' to get a list of recent searches which can then be saved in CSV format.
I have to confess I'm not totally sure I need this for anything, but I save a lot of stuff in CSV format from queries of our OPAC, so I'm sort of preliminarily pleased that the option exists.
Now I have to get back to work. This novel, unfortunately, is not going to write itself.
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I have officially passed the halfway mark (en route to the official goal of 50,000 words), so I'm a bit ahead of the game so far, although I am getting to a sort of 'well, that's fine, but I've just spent 50 pages covering peoples' car trips,' and 'so how do I fill up the rest of the pages?' stage.
But, as a colleague pointed out, it could become a post-apocalyptic wasteland novel at any time and on any page, so I shall not give up hope of something interesting happening.
Meanwhile, I was interested to hear via an email to the MEDLIB-L list that one can now download PubMed search results in comma-separated value format for handy sorting in Excel and such, via FLink. You can do a search in PubMed, then go to FLink, select PubMed under 'choose a database to start,' and select 'input from Entrez history' to get a list of recent searches which can then be saved in CSV format.
I have to confess I'm not totally sure I need this for anything, but I save a lot of stuff in CSV format from queries of our OPAC, so I'm sort of preliminarily pleased that the option exists.
Now I have to get back to work. This novel, unfortunately, is not going to write itself.
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Friday, November 5, 2010
Eagerly Awaited NaNoWriMo Update
You know you wanted it!
OK, so my feed reader is getting completely out of control with unread blog posts, and I still haven't gotten my average words-per-day back to 2,000 after that Tuesday night when I slacked off and went to a movie, but I'm plugging away.
I'll catch up this weekend. I'm currently experimenting with exciting ways to include words in a story, like having characters get into lengthy arguments about stupid things.
It's like real life! Also, it takes up a lot of words!
Please feel free to use this tip in your own novel.
Remember: this is a marathon. You don't have to finish up showered in glory, you just have to finish.
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OK, so my feed reader is getting completely out of control with unread blog posts, and I still haven't gotten my average words-per-day back to 2,000 after that Tuesday night when I slacked off and went to a movie, but I'm plugging away.
I'll catch up this weekend. I'm currently experimenting with exciting ways to include words in a story, like having characters get into lengthy arguments about stupid things.
It's like real life! Also, it takes up a lot of words!
Please feel free to use this tip in your own novel.
Remember: this is a marathon. You don't have to finish up showered in glory, you just have to finish.
.
Monday, November 1, 2010
To the Keyboard!
It is November! And all over the world, novels are forming, for it is National Novel Writing Month.
I am doing NaNoWriMo again this year, so please note that posting for the next month may be sporadic, rambling, nonsensical, self-involved (more so!) and infused with either wild enthusiasm or crushing despair depending on how things are going.
I've decided to aim for 2,000 words a day, which is a bit more than the 1,666.66667 per day that would demonstrate perfectly even and measured progress towards the 50,000-word goal.
I figure I will not always get to 2,000, but on the days when I do, I can be building up a little slack for the days when I don't. And then on the weekends, it will be all about making up any deficit. That, and wine.
I'm currently at 2,020--and it's time for a refreshing sleep.
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I am doing NaNoWriMo again this year, so please note that posting for the next month may be sporadic, rambling, nonsensical, self-involved (more so!) and infused with either wild enthusiasm or crushing despair depending on how things are going.
I've decided to aim for 2,000 words a day, which is a bit more than the 1,666.66667 per day that would demonstrate perfectly even and measured progress towards the 50,000-word goal.
I figure I will not always get to 2,000, but on the days when I do, I can be building up a little slack for the days when I don't. And then on the weekends, it will be all about making up any deficit. That, and wine.
I'm currently at 2,020--and it's time for a refreshing sleep.
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Thursday, October 1, 2009
Write it Up
In case you decide to participate in National Novel Writing Month this year (plan ahead: November will be here before you know it!), this Mashable post, How To: Write a Novel Using the Web, may be of interest.
It lists a variety of useful online tools for organizing, researching, planning and even self-publishing your brilliant work.
It could happen for you!
Me, I'm not sure. I haven't opened the possibly brilliant thing I wrote last November since I finished it, and I never even claimed and posted my 'badge of completion,' so my follow-through is plainly lacking.
But you should do it. I'm rooting for you. So, I bet, is iLibrarian, who suggested this handy resource.
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It lists a variety of useful online tools for organizing, researching, planning and even self-publishing your brilliant work.
It could happen for you!
Me, I'm not sure. I haven't opened the possibly brilliant thing I wrote last November since I finished it, and I never even claimed and posted my 'badge of completion,' so my follow-through is plainly lacking.
But you should do it. I'm rooting for you. So, I bet, is iLibrarian, who suggested this handy resource.
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Monday, November 24, 2008
Gasp...Pant...Writing...
I am pleased to announce that I have crossed the 50,000 word mark, and therefore am officially eligible for the fame and glory that comes with NaNoWriMo completion.
I can't actually submit it for verification and claim my fabulous prize (the right to say I finished NaNoWriMo...plus the aforementioned fame and glory, of course) until the 25th, though, so I may as well go back and make a few edits. Maybe add a little gratuitous nudity and some cursing.
Sample dialogue:
"Consarn it, Ebenezer Yakbane, put some dadburned clothes on!"
I will now attempt to get caught up with my blog subscriptions.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Goals and Aspirations
Although I'm pressing ahead with National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), I'm apparently failing at National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo), which I did not officially sign up for but which from reading other peoples' blogs I've gathered is a quest to publish a blog post every day in November.
Well, see, the thing about that is...yeah, I haven't done it.
I get absorbed in my other project, and then I look up and it's past midnight, so no post that day. I could set the clock back on my Blogger account or something, but the day I resort to cheating to reach an arbitrary and fairly pointless goal is the day I...shake my head sadly at how pathetic I've gotten, I guess.
Or else it's the day I'm getting paid for it. But then, that removes the "fairly pointless" aspect from that description, since getting paid can give anything a nice, sharp point.
Many's the time I've injured myself badly on that point!
Anyway, I'm not posting every day (which is no doubt a source of great sadness and lamentation among my legions of loyal followers), and I still haven't caught up with everything in my feed reader (which is no doubt a source of great sadness and lamentation among the legions of blog authors who depend on my eyeballs for their self-esteem), but I am trucking along quite well with the novel, thank you.
Just crossed 49,000 words, and some quick arithmetical calculations will tell you that this is very close to the 50,000 words required for successful completion of the NaNoWriMo challenge.
None too soon, either, because I'm pretty much out of plot.
So that works out nicely, don't you think?
I concur. Let's have some wine.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Practically Stranded on a Desert Island
I had offsite stuff to do at work Thursday and Friday mornings, and friends to see Friday night, and mad writing to do Thursday night and today, so I have spent a relatively small amount of time at the computer lately and as a result am almost completely out of touch.
I have not read a blog post in days. I have no idea what anyone is saying about anything. I am cut off from the public discourse!
I'm totally keeping up with people on Facebook, though. That counts for something, right?
I also finished a few thousand words today, so at least it's not as if I'm foregoing blog-reading in order to stare at a blank screen and think about how I should be writing but am not. I have to say, this deadline thing is working really well in terms of motivation.
Conveniently, I suppose, I also have few other social obligations this month. There's Thanksgiving, of course, but it's so late this year that with any luck I'll be done by then.
I'll try to read some blogs later, after the fiction-writing centers of my brain give out for the night. 38,000 words and counting!
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