My word count is currently at 41.1k. I'm pretty pleased with that, and I'm hoping to bump it up significantly tonight!

@ Arwenal, I rarely listen to music when I write. On the rare occasions that I do, it's always instrumental; lyrics completely throw my concentration off. I do find that it can be a good motivator though; if I'm behind on my word count, I just open up a song that I really want to listen to, and then don't let myself listen to it until I've reached whatever word count I'm aiming for.

I don't really have anything oddball that I do to bump my word count up, but here's a few things that I've noticed about my characters as I write them....

-Robin has a tendency to punch things when he gets angry. Usually a tree or whatever happens to be close by. He ends up having a bruised hand a lot.
-Will is sarcastic. I didn't know that until I wrote it.
-All of my characters nod a lot. *shrugs*

--- flambeau

*ducks in from the NoWN since I'm not in the current word war*

Call me weird, I can't write well with music (or TV for that matter) in the background. I thrive when it's quiet. A minor exception is writing out of doors - there are plenty of distractions like a blue sky, clouds, birds, crickets, etc. - but it seems to go well anyway.

I expect to reach 50k this evening while writing a wedding for Abby's younger brother.

Sorry i couldn't stick around long - i'm not much for word wars, and it was hard to concentrate on writing with the chat window constantly updating. Hope everyone else had fun!

I got a scene with one of the most unpleasant characters i have ever had the misfortune to come across, and almost felt sorry for her. Almost.

More importantly, i reached 50k! New goal for end of month: 75k. We'll see how that goes ...

Wow. Night of Writing Narnianly was awesome. I think I got around 6k churned out, and have been thoroughly pulled out of my burned-out-feeling slump. The word wars were awesome, and the prizes were really fun! I hope we can do another one before November is over!

At 33k right now. . . WOOT! At the rate I'm progressing in this story plot-wise, by the time I would write "The End," it would probably be five hundred thousand words. At least. So obviously completing this story in November isn't exactly realistic. Oh well. What I get for biting off more than I can chew. This NaNo will definitely fall under the category of "epic fail," but I am learning so much about the story and how I want to rewrite it. I would compare my knowledge of the story before November as knowing how to drive a car, and NaNo is like a crash course in how to be a mechanic. This has been an absolutely fantastic experience so far, I'm so glad I decided to take part. Wouldn't trade it for anything.

Well, I feel like a dork for missing the NoWN. Nevertheless my word count is steadily increasing. I'm up to 14K now and steadily plodding on.

I have a hard time writing when there is not music in the background. Other noises from around me are distracting and it helps me a lot to play music. It doesn't matter if it has words or not, just music. Most of the time I do not listen to it, actually. It just plays.

I was looking back over my Pandora, what had played while I was writing tonight, and I do not remember half the songs playing. A song I really, really like played and I had no idea!

So, yeah. Music is important.

9k yesterday (the sixteenth)! Possibly my own personal best! Not exactly sure. Certainly the best this November.

The Night of Writing Narnianly was amazing! I wish we could have another one this month. (hint hint).

I've hit 40k and I beat my goal of the most number of words written in a single day!

EDIT: Over 6.2k today!!!

AND TEAM POLLY IS AHEAD BY 17K!!!!

Woot to all you awesome writers out there!!!!

I've just hit over 14K words. My story sure is picking up so writing should be less strenuous and forced now. Thank you to the people who talked me on chat tonight and helped me get such a high word count via word wars.

Keep up all the good work!!! Remember November is only half over and Thanksgiving break is next week! Don't forget to get a few words in of TG!

I love listening to music while I write. It doesn't seem to matter if it is instrumental or not, I've had Abba and Silverwind on, and Enya, and soundtracks from movies that have similar plots...

I heartily agree that the Night of Writing Narnianly was great fun. I wrote quite a bit even though it seemed like I always had the lowest word counts... I think it was the way it was all broken up into smaller numbers in my head that made the total such a pleasant surprise.

I have a similar problem with one of my stories, most excellent of Dryads. But I'm telling my characters (who HAVE to know more about the secret of the plot than I do) that they HAVE to give it up and let the MC discover the answer by the end of the month. Instead of dropping clues, they're discovering mice nesting in their mother's kitchen plumbing and I'm pretty sure the answer to the mystery is not: a mouse did it.

Thanks to Gymfan for organizing last night's NoWN...and to all those who provided prizes!

'Twas great fun chatting with the other writers. I learned I'm not really cut out for word wars, coming in near the bottom of the heap each time. Maybe it's because I'm a middle child and just not terribly competitive. Or it's just the way I write - occasionally checking an earlier section to make sure I'm referencing the right moon phase or minor character or some other such thing.

Still, Abby's brother's wedding brought my total to over 50k last night, so I'm the proud owner of that green bar.

And I woke up this morning with the way to end the story, event and phrasing-wise. So now I just have to get everyone to that point. And actually, things are falling into place nicely now.

Thanks to all those who participated in NoWN! I didn't get to do much, becuase my sister decided she absolutely had to show up and have MY computer... But when I did get it back, I got quite a boost booth in wordcount and morale. I'm hoping we can do another one, or at least something similar...*hint hint*

Oh, and where are the other Team Digory writers...? Polly's got rather alarmingly ahead lately...

ChristProclamer-- I understand totally about the computer thing. My Mom's laptop is the only one in the house that has word processing that saves, and she was on it listening to the Beatles(and celebrating the fact their on iTunes). :/

I have a question. Over this weekend while I was sick, I hand wrote everything (about 5k). It takes me forever to type things up from what I've already written, so how do get those words to count? I know that at the end of the month, I have to paste my novel into the validator, but 5k of it won't be on the computer.

Hmm. According to the stats page showing up on my computer, Team Digory is ahead. Not by much, but ...

If anyone is wondering why my word-count jumped up suddenly by 5k, i've decided to add the word-count from the story i wrote in the first two days of NaNoWriMo. It isn't finished and will probably never be worked on again, but it was written a) in November and b) for NaNoWriMo, so i figure it counts.

Now, to keep from getting totally distracted and working on non-NaNoWriMo stories.

Edit: Melian_Maia: from the official NaNoWriMo website:

How do I verify if I'm writing by hand?

Invoke the Luddite Clause!

What you do is write your 50,000 words, then have someone you trust verify that it is, indeed, 50,000 words. Then using something like the Lorem Ipsum generator, submit a file of the exact number of words of your handwritten manuscript to our word count validator.

Another option would be, type a word like "november" or a five-word phrase like "happy cupcakes are beautiful" or whatever, copy and paste it 5,000 times and then add that to your actual novel.

I had such a good time at NoWN! Sorry I had to leave abruptly last night, but my dad was bugging me to get off the computer. I just want to say thank you so much to Gymfan for organizing it, to those who provided prizes, and to everyone else who was there writing with me and motivating me to write 5477 words. I broke all my previous records last night, and I couldn't have gotten nearly that far without you guys. So thank you!

About music - I thought I liked listening to music while I write, but now I'm not so sure. I've discovered that I get a lot more done without music to distract me. I guess if I do listen to music, it has to be something I've heard a thousand times before so it fades into the back of my mind and doesn't become a distraction.

So, last night was amazing. Thank you so much for putting it on, Gymfan! I enjoyed myself heartily, got caught up, exceeded the daily demanding word count, and all in all had a lovely time with other crazy word-writing peoples. It was a great idea - certainly wouldn't mind attending again...

Story update: Last night, two things happened. I finally got past the beginning of the story. Yeah, 30K in and I've finally introduced my villain and the conflict. Took me long enough, no? Also somehow introduced was a ton of philosophic discussions:

“I drink because of the honesty it provides, Lark, if you must know. Because once you drink enough, you become yourself. It may be a self you hate, but at least it's you. When I'm drunk, I can't think clearly enough to try to pretend. I have to be myself. I don't have a choice about it.”
He's looking at his lap, and I'm looking at the top of his head, trying to find something to say that will come out sounding sane. “So,” I say softly, “the self you are, the self you become when you're drunk...do you like that self?”
“I hate him.” He still doesn't look up.

Now, can someone please tell me, how does dramatic philosophy enter my story during a word war, a time where I hardly hope to write something coherent, much less something deep. (This is also humorous because I've never been drunk in my life. So much for writing what you know.) And there's more, because, somehow, I now have quite a theme running through my story about the masks we wear around others that hides our true selves. How did this happen? I don't mind deep, but for it to get deep without my planning and permission...this is going to require some...trust.

Comments:

Yay for me!...sucks for Enzo.

I laughed out loud at this.

TPS, I believe that NaBloPoMo (which I tend to accidently call NaNoBloPo, as you pointed out) runs every month of the year. November is just its biggest month and the only month when bloggers are drawn for prizes.

Ah, this makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up!

And even though they now have a very big heavy hitter in their ranks *coughmecough*...

Let me offer a very late welcome, but a hearty welcome indeed to Team Polly!

And, yes, I listen to music. During the word wars I've taken to just listening to my usual Christian mix, turned pretty far down. Since I'm not stopping to think about plot in a word war, there's no time for the lyrics to distract me. But if I were writing seriously - concentrating - I stick to soundtracks and classical and instrumental (a la Kaki King). Lyrics mess me up. Occasionally, when writing rebellious teenagers, I'll turn on my Classic Rock mix, the lyrics of which don't mess me up because I don't know them. (Lyrics I don't know don't distract me.) I don't do silence very well, though.

Ah! Caught up!

~tps