Cheers for Team Digory! We can do it, guys! (and gals)
I just hit 40k last night and I'm hoping to get to 45k today...I'm not sure if I'll have enough time though since I'm going out of town for the week. I'll do my best to help the team though! Keep it up everyone!

I belong to a different category here, the group of the Unashamedly Behind. I had a friend here for a week and didn't do any writing while she was here. My wordcount is 11,400 and my story seems sappy and boring. Truthfully, I'm annoyed with my plot immensely, and I'm losing motivation to write.

Ah, well. What happens happens. I must say though that the NaNo plot dares are looking very tempting. It would be better than quitting, but I don't want to completely deviate from my original plot. I liked how it was going before I lost my steam.

And even though they now have a very big heavy hitter in their ranks *coughmecough*, Team Digory is VERY close! So it's still anyone's game.

Oh my, is this a "plot twist"? How exciting!

Come on, TEAM DIGORY!!! Let's catch up!

We're finally through week two! For the first half of that week, I admit I sort of started to lose my steam. But then, about halfway through I caught a second wind and started writing like mad! My word count isn't as crazy as some of yours, but I'm still pretty happy with it.

Anyone care to share some amusing/random things that have happened in your story for the sole purpose of adding words? Here's some of mine:

- I discovered that one of my characters is prone to seasickness.

- Another character turned out to be an avid reader; he keeps a mini-library on board his ship.

- Yet another character is apparently very fond of white-flesh peaches.

-And, my personal favorite: my characters decided to give their horses names. The conversation went something like this:
Character 1: "What should we name the beige one?"
Character 2: "Sandy."
Character 1: "Sandy? Why Sandy?"
Character 2: "Because she's a girl, and she looks like sand."
Me: *headdesk*

Keep it up, everyone!

With my novel, I have six or eight instances where I wrote

"with a few subpoints below: decreased spending, OTHER POINTS,"

"post office on PLACE",

"ASSOCIATE OF SCIENCE degree"

"JOHN 3:16" (I am very ashamed to admit that I'm not sure the Bible verse I wrote in my novel is John 3:16 or not but I didn't want to take the time to look it up.)

"Was this XXX church?"

"Aisley and Kyle had just gotten out of their early morning class MAKE SURE DAYS ARE CORRECT"

"his class was BEGINNING FILMOGRAPHY"

"they were on I-90 heading into the sunrise (CORRECT DIRECTION?)"

All of the capitalized stuff is highlighted in yellow because I'm not sure if my details are correct but I don't want to take the time right now to figure it out. I have no idea if Beginning Filmography is a real college class or not (I'm betting it's not) but I don't want to look up what a logical class would be for the guy to take. And I don't want to go through my entire novel to make sure that all my days line up correctly. Aisley and Kyle have certain classes on certain days and there's a certain number of days until the election but I don't feel like counting it up and making a time line so I know all the days are in the right sequence (I am certain that I have left out certain days at different points in my story.)

I like how we're all learning about our characters as we write. It makes them seem more real.

narnian_at_heart, I'll also insert comments into my story - especially when I'm on a roll and can't get the words out fast enough. Then, if an idea for a tangent or new chapter appears, I'll insert it into my manuscript in brackets and bold to catch my attention later, when I'm scrolling through it and have time to develop new ideas. So my current draft has comments like

[the engineers love the challenge, and this forms the foundation of the communication betwork used in later years]

or

[Molly and Jenny can be flower girls]

right in the middle of the narrative.

Speaking of timelines, sometimes I use them and sometimes I don't. This story alternates between a present plotline and the recounting of past events, so (to keep things straight in my own mind) I have constructed a table placing events in the proper order, with the approximate ages of the main characters. (It was one of the things I did late in October, whilst waiting for NaNo to start).

By the way, it's interesting you should happen to choose Interstate 90. It passes very close to the town in which I grew up. So I can say from experience that (in general at least) heading east on I-90 leads into the sunrise.

'Tis looking better all the time to reach 50k during tomorrow's event.

*goes to add a couple thousand more words to Team Polly's count*

Oh cool! Thanks for that info about I-90. I got the information about it from a book where I-90 goes through Colorado. Well, my two MC's are going to Colorado so I was like "Hey, I'll have them drive on I-90!"

Anyway, I'm changing that part a little bit to where they're just heading into the sun because now, they're leaving later in the day. About ten AM or so.

I've almost reached 35k!! Woohoo!!!

Various amusing things have happened in my story that I added on various whims. For example, Wheel of Fortune becomes a plot point...

“Andrea is ridiculously good at [Wheel of Fortune puzzles],” Anna said. “I can’t compete with her normally; she is way above my level. So I told her she is not allowed to shout out the answers, and must knock on the table when she has an answer. Also, if she’s wrong, she has to eat a jalapeno pepper.”

“I hold myself to that rule, by the way,” Andrea said. “So far, I have had to eat 17 peppers on account of incorrectly solved puzzles.”

Also, the fourth wall is broken numerous times over, and even the narrator has gotten snarky:

After Anna hung up, Andrea looked over at Andrew, who by now must have been completely and utterly weirded out by her. “I am so sorry!” she apologized profusely. “I must have completely and utterly weirded you out with myself.” Way to repeat my words there, Andrea.

Which, by the way, I should mention that, easily, the craziest thing to happen to my story is the aforementioned Andrea. Somehow, I ended up making her into the single craziest and most insane person I could imagine, and added in an anime-and-video-game obsession to boot... as a result, she practically writes herself. And the people around her...

Anna’s attention was suddenly distracted by the video games lying on the ground. She picked up one and held it up to the man’s face. “All right, mister, we will settle this with Mario Kart! If I win, you must release her nephew, wherever he is!”

...

“Ha! There you have it, mister! Now you see the true power of Andrea Sears! Now, hand over Anna’s nephew, or else!”

...

“And shouldn’t you be asleep? Don’t you have school tomorrow?”

“It’s okay; as long as I have a cup of coffee and a bottle of Mountain Dew, I can go through class on one hour of sleep.”

“Andrea, I do not think it is legal for people to give you coffee or Mountain Dew.”

I also have moments filled with nothing but various anime references that no one would get, but whatever. Nice word cruft. Though there are some fun moments, such as when Andrea ends up quizzing Andrew on random shoujo anime characters to see if he knows about the girly side of anime...

Ah well, fun stuff. By the way, if you want to read the entirety of the adventures of Andrew, Anna, and Andrea, feel free to give me a PM.

Fun stuff, stardf! Andrea sounds like quite the character. (Please pardon the pun).

...For example, Wheel of Fortune becomes a plot point...

In last year's story, Erik finds himself a contestant on Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? - a show he's never seen before. It turned out to be a rather bizarre dream sequence.

I've also referenced Avatar: The Last Airbender as well as a 1970s-era made for TV horror movie called, appropriately enough, Gargoyles.

And a verse from the old Pink Floyd song "Learning to Fly" practically screamed to be included as well.

Pop-culture references are always fun.

“Andrea, I do not think it is legal for people to give you coffee or Mountain Dew.”

Erik is often seen running around with Dew - largely becasue he swore off coffee thanks to an adventure he had when he was younger (the Port Carcinoma adventure, for Ditto Story readers).

A few notes regarding tomorrow's Night of Writing Narnianly!

The event will kick off at 6pm CST in the Narniaweb Chat Room. Unless anything changes, we will be meeting in the Games and Blogs room. Please keep note of that, because you will not be able to see members in the chat room unless you go into that room directly!

From 6pm onward will be just introductions and word wars. At 8pm CST the event will officially ramp up. This is around the time where most of the really fun stuff will happen, so that's the time you're going to want to make sure you can be there for. There will be contests, pep talks, word wars, and even a giveaway or two. I won't reveal too much, only that one involves something that will get sent in the mail.

The Night of Writing Narnianly will officially continue until 12pm CST, but of course people are welcome to stay and war as late as they wish.

This event is for NaNo writers, although all other NWebbers and writers are of course invited to come in and observe. All I do ask is that if you do not actively plan to participate in the NoWN, tomorrow night may not be the best night to just hang out in the chat room and have random conversation. I'm anticipating a moderately large group, and it will be difficult to keep things moving along in an orderly fashion if everyone isn't of the same mind.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow night, y'all! I've fallen a bit behind in my writing, so I'd like to go on record by saying that I would like to go for the big 10k tomorrow. Yes, I am insane. But if you guys can write and write and write and get to 50k during the event, I am determined to use it to my own motivation and get my NaNo back on track!

See you then! Feel free to PM me with any questions you may have, although I will warn you that I will be gone all day until 4pm CST, so I may not get back to you until later on in the day.

This is one of my favorite parts of my novel:

Aisley called Peter.
“Hi, Dad.”
“Hey, Aisley what’s up? I thought you’d be back from your class by now.”
“Dad, please don’t freak out, OK? Promise me you won’t freak out.”
“OK, I promise.”
“OK, so Kyle and I were coming out of our class to see cops who tried to arrest us for falsifying documents and perjury. We ran and dropped by our houses to pick up stuff. We’re now about 30 miles out of town and heading east on I-90. I really don’t know where we’re going or when we’ll be back. But we’re taking this information elsewhere. Scott ratted us out.”
“OK, go wherever you have to go and just check in with me a couple times a day and let me know what you’re doing. I have an interview right now so I kind of need to run. Have fun, kiddos. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” and Peter hung up.
“Wow,” Aisley said.
“What?”
“Didn’t you hear all that? He was just like whatever. I expected him to totally flip out!”
“Well, you’re a responsible adult. I’m a responsible adult. We’ll be great! This is a great adventure!”

The next day was Wednesday, a mere 16 days before the election. It was going crazy again with debates, interviews, advertisements, question and answer sessions, and polls every day. National news was going out to lunch with it all lately. Seriously, why can’t a war or something take their attention for awhile? I’m getting tired of this, Aisley thought one day as she walked out the door of the library after a conference call class to a team of photographers and reporters.

Hey, everyone!! I have been too busy writing and chatting and living and goofing off to come and post in here. (Tell me *why* did I have to start watching a BBC period drama in between every 100 words?!)

I am really excited about tonight!! I am afraid I won't be able to show up until 8:30, as we have a Bible study tonight. Maybe I will be able to spend a little time with you right at 6:00, but dinner will probably be a higher prerogative with my family than word count.

I am very happy with my story. It is:
a. being nice,
b. solving lots of problems,
c. moving along,
d. giving me a *plot* (don't know what those are)
e. making my characters so very much what I want them to be (almost; what I really mean, is that I love them)
even though I am not putting the kind of effort into the story that I would like to!

And the reason I haven't been able to put the effort in, is because I am reteaching myself how to type. My family is sort of obsessed with doing things the best way, not the most common (at least, my brothers are). So, I am learning to type with the Dvorak layout of keyboard, because it is more logical than Qwerty. This past week was really hard. I went from about 60 wpm on Qwerty to 15wpm, having to think for every letter. Now I am at 35wpm, and it isn't painful! Still pressing backspace a lot, but then, I do anyway. I am getting to be glad I persevered, because there isn't any other time when I will type this much.

And the ironic part, which I have to keep telling everyone, is that I wrote the most exciting part of my story at the lowest point of my typing speed. I kept thinking, this car chase has to be the slowest in the history of the earth. My brothers read it (and can I say I don't know a thing about cars?), and said it was alright/pretty good, except for one line which he couldn't remember.

I put in chapters yesterday. I didn't have any last year, so they are a little foreign to me. But they look nice!

[quote="Thwaite, Egg, and the History of The Goodmorning":21clq29g]
I had the nastiest cold on the face of the earth. . .
Land had got some champagne, which I'd never had, though Davey said she had it habitually at every New Year's party she went to, every wedding, and every other party where she got to wear her shimmery floor length dress with the flower on the shoulder. Land said he got it for medicinal purposes. I started laughing, and then coughing, and couldn't stop for a straight minute.
We sat around the fire, reading poetry, stroking Grey Beast, and eating cookies, until the clock on the mantle struck the hour. Then Land and I panicked, and realized we had forgotten all about everything. He ran into the kitchen to get the champagne and the glasses. I rushed to the front door, to welcome the new year, and then realized I didn't want to do it without him. Two minutes later, he called to me frantically that he couldn't find the glasses I wanted him to use. I rushed back. We ransacked the pantry, and finally found them in the linen drawer, unwashed.
At half past twelve, we broke open the champagne, drank to each others health and joy, and to just about everyone else we could think of in thirty seconds, and smashed our glasses in the fireplace. Then we ran out into the front yard to dance in the starlight. I had a scarf on, but he didn't have anything, not even shoes. I don't think anyone saw us, but the new year and the moon. They must have approved, because they gave us what we wanted that year, which was the same as what we had that night.
Great happiness, love, and tremendous colds. Land nearly had pneumonia.

Land drove better than I did, taking sharper corners and leading a hopelessly confusing trail, and even increasing speed. I sat sideways, looking out behind.
"Do you think we've lost them?" I asked, when they didn't appear around a corner.
"No chance," Land said. And then, a car burst out after us from a side road.
"It's Fink," Land said, looking back through the mirror. "He'll shoot. Hang on and get down!"
Land pressed even harder on the gas pedal. Then there was a crack of a revolver, and Egg's back window broke and crashed.
"Get down!" Land shouted.
There was another shot. I felt a pain in my arm.
"Get down!" Land shouted again, and jerked my arm down from the back of the seat.
"Hullo, Rover," I said. My vision started to close in and blur. I tumbled onto Egg's floor.
"Elisabeth!" Land shouted, panicked, his voice very far away.
"I am alright," I said with effort, dreamily. "Just my arm." I tried to lift it up to show him, but couldn't. Then everything went black.

I was totally not expecting her to get shot. That is my crowning novel surprise.

"You should have sat up here to write that letter," Peter Ascott said, not looking at me. He always told me politely that he did not approve of me nor of my inefficiency.
I smiled. "I can't write when I am under the impression that someone is reading over my shoulder, however false it may be."
That made him laugh.
"Do you want to fly at all?" he asked.
"I do," I said.
"You are well enough to?"
"Yes. Though not enough to do it on my own."
"Well, I can't very well leave. Will Land mind?"
"That doesn't matter."
"Is that the sort of wife Trowbridge married?" he said, raising his eyebrows.
"Oh. Wrong answer. He wouldn't mind."
So I flew over the Bay of Bengal.

I have discovered that I have this sneaking desire to name everyone in my story Peter. So far I have managed to keep it down to one. Though I think I considered it for every man in the book....

Slow days at work are the awesomest!!! I wrote almost a thousand words today at work because the people who came to the pool sat in the sauna half the time so I didn't have to be out on deck guarding.

Only one one hour and 18 minutes until the Night of Writing Narnianly!!

I finally hit over 10K words!!!! I'm so happy! My story is going much smoother now that I have most of it figure out. Even then it bobs and weaves with changing tides. My characters are turning out differently than I anticipated. I actually like them now better than when I first made them.
Sorry if my writing doesn't make sense. I was up all night working on my test for college today. Oy, what a killer. In other news, I'm hoping to go to a NaNo party today to celebrate the halfway mark. It should be fun if I stay awake long enough to enjoy it.

Enjoying reading everyone's excerpts and about their progress.

Another possible source for first names - and one that's a little smaller than websites like behindthename - is the Names thread right here in the Spare Oom.

Less than 45 minutes until NoWN starts - though I will probably arrive a little late.

Team Digory is once again in the lead! The thot plickens.

Last night didn't go as well as i would have liked, but things are going pretty good today. I'm definitely going to try to be present for at least part of NoWN, but we'll see.

Does anybody else listen to music while they write, or do they find it distracting? I've set up a playlist on youtube of mostly instrumental music, but with a few "wordy" songs. So long as the song isn't too catchy, it doesn't mess up my concentration too much, and it bothers me to have complete silence. At least this way i can drown out the typing going on around me.