gazer: I totally remember that avatar.

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I'm very, very behind. I knew this would happen- we are SO busy. But hopefully next week when things are "slow" and normal again I can do some catching up. Just be around for Word Wars when I need you to be. J/k

I didn't quite get te 10k I was planning in getting yesterday... But that's understandable as my Grandmother had some unexpected health issues that required me and my mom.

I am going to try and get to 15k today, though. Happy writing!

My novel is going pretty well still. I just hit 17k and I have to head to work so no more writing for several hours. I'll probably be doing a late night tonight in order to finish my daily work count.

Keep up the good work, guys!

I need word wars!! My word count is so low. If anyone is up for it, I'll be in chat for the next two hours more then likely. Thanks!

"And yes, pirate sci-fi is a genre." - From today's NaNo site clip

So many people are roaring ahead on their word counts - great job! And there's still plenty of time left even if you've fallen behind.

...i'm doing fanfiction...

Hooray for fanfiction writers! And today's pep talk email from Mercedes Lackey talks positively about writing fanfiction - you can concentrate on characters and plot even if you're not up to creating an entire universe setting. Not to mention all the Star Trek, Star Wars, and other fanfictions out there. Of course, there can be complications as far as publishing, but she points out it's still an excellent way to get some practice.

I'm tempted to cut ahead, just so i get out of this part and to the main plot of the story! But i don't really like that idea, either.

I salute your discipline, and usually write the same way. But this morning I woke up with a new idea that will drive my main plot, and I could barely get the words down fast enough once I fell out of bed. But it led to a quick 1700 words of a future chapter now "in the bank."

And those of us in the US and Canada get an extra hour tonight in which to write...

"And yes, pirate sci-fi is a genre." - From today's NaNo site clip

Haha.

Hooray for fanfiction writers! And today's pep talk email from Mercedes Lackey talks positively about writing fanfiction - you can concentrate on characters and plot even if you're not up to creating an entire universe setting. Not to mention all the Star Trek, Star Wars, and other fanfictions out there. Of course, there can be complications as far as publishing, but she points out it's still an excellent way to get some practice.

Yeah, i found it quite serendipitous that a day or two after i switched from original fiction to fanfic, that pep-talk shows up in my inbox. Probably one of the more encouraging pep talks i've ever gotten.

I salute your discipline...

Well, i ended up doing it anyway - just about a chapter, but i'm pretty eager to get the characters out of their current situation and onto the next place. I might return to it later in November, or save it for later. I'm pretty much certain that if this ever gets finished (and i really, really hope it does), it will take me a lot longer than a month to do it.

Bad News: I didn't write anything on my NaNo yesterday or today.

Good News: Today I had the most marvelous scene/dialogue/plot twist/motivation-for-character/line/idea!!!!! I'm really stoked about it, because it answers all these plot questions I had for the story, and now everything makes sense!!

Bad News: The above revelation was not for my NaNo novel, but another book I was writing in October.

What to do, what to do?
Anybody up for word wars to keep me on track? Because I see myself slipping, slipping, slipping away from what I should be working on... *needs motivation* *needs inspiration*

Finally! I'm caught up! I at long last have the time to indulge in posting on NarniaWeb!

Whew, this has been absolute roller coaster ride since day one. I did pretty well the first day with 2.5k, except I didn't like how it turned out, and I scrapped it the next morning and started over. I know, I know, doing any editing is flying in the face of what NaNo is about, but I just couldn't help myself. I know I can churn out 50,000 words that make me cringe in one month, but what I don't know is if I can write a 50k novel in a month that I'm a little bit proud of. Besides, I was leaving out key characters and elements and forgetting about the heroine's dog (sorry, Rorie), and couldn't keep all the plot elements in my head. Just what I deserve for making this story as complicated as I possibly can. And trying to write on about two hours of sleep.

So into the draft file it went, and I started over the next morning afresh. And then I wanted to scrap that, too, and by that time I had 5.5k I didn't want to use. Yay.

After having a talk with Mom about it—she could tell it was driving me (more) insane, bless her heart—and not being able to sleep at night for thinking about it, I gave myself a little pep talk, resigned myself to the fact that there was no way I was going to write anything I was completely satisfied with in one month, and told myself to take it easy, take it slow (plot wise) and just write. And now I have sticky notes (whoever invented those, thank you) all over my work area, with elements and characters and things I need to remember scribbled all over them, and one in particular with the words, "Simplify, simplify, simplify!!!" on it. That one's helping the most.

And I'm actually starting to enjoy myself. Granted, NaNo and I have a love/hate relationship right now—I hate having to write subpar scenes in a story I really love and want to do justice, but the act of writing it out is really helping me understand it better and I'm coming up with all sorts of angles and mini-plots and scene ideas. And I'm loving that. I think I'm starting to understand the charm of NaNo. I know I'm going to edit it within an inch of its life come December, and I doubt very much of this first draft will make it into the final product, but this stepping stone is doing heaps of good for the story as a whole.

Well! After recycling about 20% of that original 5.5k into the story, churning out new material and spending almost all of my Saturday writing, a word war with Queen Susan (she won ) pushed me over 10k! Woot! It feels great to be on schedule after all of this insanity.

theprincessspy, I feel for you, but your good news/bad news made me burst out laughing. Don't mind me, I'm deficient on sleep and therefore quite silly at the moment.

Hooray, wrote almost 3,900 words today!! I needed that to help catch up a little. I'm an hour and a half past bedtime... Daylight Savings Time is WONDERFUL. *laugh*

Thanks to the many people who word-warred with me today, it was really great!! Still not 100% caught up, but much closer!!

I've just passed 10,000!

Finishing up for the day. Night. Whatever.

Official word-count is 15,326 - which is pretty awesome. Unofficial word-count - counting the words i wrote for the original story that flopped - is 20,327, which is even more awesome.

But now i'm tired. And hungry. Going to eat ice cream, then go to bed.

Finally I'm back home after working (at a part-time job go figure) for almost seven hours today! Then I played hockey for two hours.

*off topic* Interesting side note, dance is WAY WAY WAY more intense than hockey. I had the most intense dance practice ever last night and I was way more sore this morning then I've EVER been the day after playing hockey. One of my friends who plays hockey (he's addicted to hockey. I think he'd die without it) was not at all impressed. He also wasn't impressed when I said that I'd choose dance over hockey if I had to. Anyway *back on topic*

I'm finally writing again and have 800 more words in order to make my daily word count. Even if I'm ahead of my word count (which I am) I'm still trying to keep up the 1667 words a day that NaNo says you need to do in order to finish on time.

Unfortanutly, I've run into a slight snag. I need a way for two of my main characters (Kyle and Aisley) to solve a mystery/partially solve it and I don't know how to logically have them do that. I have great ideas for the rest of the book but I can't get past this little part. So I'm draaaaaaggggging out the part where they're frustrated and theorizing about stuff until I finally figure out a way for them to solve it. I think I'm going to drag out Aisley's kidnapping some more. The kidnapping is 6224 words of my 17100k I have so far.

I'm considering having her or Kyle or her dad be kidnapped at least once to boost my word count.

Also is "exasperatedly" a word? As in "'Why,' asked Aisley exasperatedly." I'm pretty sure it's not but I'm leaving it in anyway because I don't know of another word that sums up how she's feeling half so well.

EDIT: I finished up my daily word count and figured out a way that will work at least a little bit to help solve the mystery. YAY

Also is "exasperatedly" a word? As in "'Why,' asked Aisley exasperatedly." I'm pretty sure it's not but I'm leaving it in anyway because I don't know of another word that sums up how she's feeling half so well.

Hmm...I don't think so. I'm no grammar expert, but I think the correct verbage would be to add "in" or "with", such as ", asked Aisley in exasperation." You gain a word, which is even better! And you can always add more descriptive words in there too, such as "In great exasperation," or "with complete and utter exasperation."

It all works!

Btw: 30k! I feel like celebrating, but I'm just tired. So off to bed...

25k! I can't believe I made half my total in a week...

I'm in the same boat with you, Rose-Tree Dryad. All of what I am writing is below second-rate, but I'm pushing on, and it's incredible all the things that pop up in the story while I'm writing it. One of my background characters is trying to push her way to the foreground because my leading lady is boring me and everyone else to death. Unfortunately, said background character has only one purpose in my plot, and that is to have a baby, and even that doesn't happen for another two books...so I'll just have to squish her down and keep her in her place.

Yup, yup. Keep up the awesome writing, people! You guys inspire me!

Blah, I've been so far behind all week! Though I'm almost caught up to where I want to be now. I'm hoping to make 12k today (I'm only at 9. :S It is doable. I've done it before. I think.) Don't know if that'll happen, but since my little brother is refusing to watch Merlin with me and thereby procrastinate, I have nothing to do but write.

Gymfan and narnian_at_heart (and a few of you others), I am totally jealous/in awe of your word counts!!! Seriously, you are all more amazing than me.

And I was pretty sure 'exasperatedly' was a word. Anyway, my Microsoft Works Word Processor dictionary says it is.

I actually fell asleep with my laptop in the middle of typing a sentence at 2am last night. I made an executive decision to go to bed even though I was 200 words short of where I wanted to be.

ETA: Oh, I forgot: I was gonna ask, does anyone have/know of a strange/really long name they'd be willing to let me borrow? Names are a big deal in my book and I need some ideas. (I have an Almost, and a Fredrick Henley Fitzwilliam, and a Zylphia, and a Birdy short for Bartholomew.)

I'm starting to realize that my characters do a lot of traveling. They've been on a ship for the first 10k words, and today I'm rejoicing because they've finally been dropped off on land. There's only so many things one can do on a ship.

The bad news is that now they've got about a month's walk ahead of them before they reach their destination. And then, upon not finding what they're looking for, they're traveling for ANOTHER . Oooohhh boy. I too am tempted to cut ahead and get to the "good parts". Traveling scenes are home to a number of deep discussions that reveal more about my characters and my world - only, it's hard to keep thinking of interesting topics for them to talk about it. I've already done most of my foreshadowing...

I'm at 12,403 at the moment, but I'm hoping to reach 14k by the end of the day. Your word counts are simply amazing, guys!