Oh yes, I did get my 11,111. It took me like, five or six hours, but I got it done, lol.

I was thinking about it but didn't do it. I wrote about 1700. I was fairly busy yesterday. I went climbing with my cousin and then had to copy sheet music and then had to get ready for large group worship which I was playing for. It was a very good day and I really don't care that I didn't get 11k. I made my daily word count and I never expected to actually be able to make 11k.

Haha, Dernhelm, I know how frustrating it is when your characters change your novel randomly and take over and there's nothing you can do about it.

My characters are turning out to be a lot more complicated than I had planned and my plot is taking the randomest twists ever! But I've been reading through bits of my novel and I actually like it. I'm not sure if anyone else will, but I do.

My novel, for the most part, has become a revelation of childhood memories and current personality/emotional/family issues that have been on my mind a lot as of late. To my surprise, it's actually making for a pretty good colaboration. But I won't speak to soon and let my characters sabatoge the whole thing.

Oh, and I hate the keyboard on my laptop! It doesn't work half the time, filling my novel with typos, and making me look like the worst writer/typer in the world.

Here's a little more about my novel and a chunky excerpt on my blog should any of you be interested: a vapor in the wind

I posted a new excerpt on my profile; http://nanowrimo.org/en/participants/la ... -the-attic
I really liked yours, Ruby; most novels like that seem to be cliche and unoriginal, but yours seems really interesting and well written!

Must. Not. Edit. *but this one part would work so much better if that bit there was changed just a little bit* No! Must. Not. Edit.

My novel isn't cooperating; can you tell?

I guess I'll just write it the way I think it should be and ignore the part I already wrote and change it after NaNo is done. On the plus side, I managed to get my word count over 13500 today!

Lovely excerpts Elanor and Ruby. You both made me wonder what was going to happen next.

Congrats, Gymfan, on reaching both 11,111 and passing 50k yesterday (I ended up with a whopping 2000 words or so yesterday. Too many distractions )

I also enjoyed reading the excerpts. Especially in November when I get engrossed in what I'm writing, it can be refreshing to read another writer's work.

NO editing, dot! (I'm also speaking to myself here )

I'd like to introduce you to two characters from my NaNo book. When I went into this thing I knew what I wanted to write. There are a lot of nods to predecessors, such as Stephen King's The Stand, Robert McCammon's Swan Song, a few of my favorite video games such as Half Life 2 and the Fallout series, and a number of films, from Damnation Alley to Logan's Run (the soundtrack of which I'm listening to as I write this ).

There is of course my main character, David, a clone who has been kept in stasis in an underground research facility in the panhandle of Oklahoma. He has partial memory of the person who he once was and I wanted him to be the character that readers would relate to as he has been tossed into this strange world along with the reader. They discover it together and make the effort to understand what happened to bring this strange post-apocalyptic landscape about.

My second character is ELLI. ELLI (named after Ellesar, who also named a character in her NaNo story after me ) was the main computer personality for the facility where David was cloned, and her final instructions were received almost 100 years ago before the world went silent. Create, protect, and safeguard any clones she can. Only one survived. ELLI is an acronym for Enhanced Logic Laboratory Intelligence and she has the voice of a no-nonsense middle aged female.

My last character is the AMRAM - Advanced Mobility Research And Military vehicle. When David broke free of the facility and reached the surface strange things would be there to meet him. I wanted him to be able to travel in relative safety, a sort of Safe Room from the dangers of the world. The AMRAM looks a great deal like the Landmaster vehicle from Damnation Alley (1977) and performs much the same functions. It was a pretty mediocre movie and all that anyone really remembers from it is the somewhat good musical score, the weird atmospheric effects of nuclear winter, and of course this vehicle. Stargazer might recall the film It also has elements from other vehicles as well.

It also has a few attributes I borrowed from another post apocalyptic TV show from the 70's (another one 'Gazer might somewhat recall) called ARK II. As with so many shows and movies of that era the premise all too often outran the ability of the filmmakers to realize their films or shows realistically. The ARK II was a sort of mobile science platform that contained all of the worlds' previous knowledge from before the apocalypse. ELLI left the research facility's mainframe and now inhabits the AMRAM, and so the vehicle can now talk and perform not only essential functions and defense but can also perform limited research and fabrication of simple devices and objects.

And of course in many ways the AMRAM is greatly reminiscent of the APC from my favorite movie Aliens.

The AMRAM is fusion-powered by a very special element discovered in the Challenger Deep. Unbeknownst to the main characters (but knownst to me ) is that the mining of this priceless element awoke a long dormant creature there. The element (name pending) will provide the AMRAM with an almost limitless amount of energy for the next several centuries. The drawback is that the AMRAM needs frequent charging, which means she has a travelling radius of about 200-250 miles before she has to stop for the night. The AMRAM is also equipped with a fusion-powered laser cannon for self defense, which is located on a turret towards the rear of of the vehicle.

At any rate, I'm really excited so far about the story as it has been progressing and I've just fallen in love with the vehicle especially .

The element (name pending) will provide the AMRAM with an almost limitless amount of energy for the next several centuries.

How about unobtainium? Hey, it worked for a recent major motion picuture.

Thanks for the memories, there, Shadowlander! I should take a break and re-watch some of the shows/movies you mention. It's been a long time for most of them.

Your story sounds quite interesting. Nice touch, naming a character after a NarniaWebber (a couple of my own main characters were named - first names only - after people I know).

25k: I'm halfway there!

stargazer, you might like to know that one of my minor characters is named after you
He's a Centaur and is one of two Centaurs in the Council of King Frank XIV, and his name is Stargazer. The other Centaur will be more active (I presume), but they will both be trying to find out who killed the King's daughter and heir, and orphaned Princess Swanwhite ...

Excerpt of my non-cooperative novel:

The eldest prince of Avrilen was used to being followed. Jath had spies, his father had spies, every noble had spies, and even rich commoners sometimes used them. Keslin had mastered the art of disguising himself and melting into a crowd, then turning at the right moment to stab his pursuer. However, even he failed to note the young woman trailing him now.
She slipped in and out of crowds with careless ease, staying just far enough behind to not appear in her target's sight, and not quite far back enough to lose him. She watched carefully as Prince Keslin entered the back side of a noble's mansion, then swiftly tying curved climbing spikes to her wrists, she crawled up the back of a neighboring house. Once on the flat roof, she checked on Keslin. He had gone in through a side door that opened onto the garden, so the door probably led to the kitchen or scullery. But Keslin could hardly meet supporters or a hired assassin in there; he would need a quieter room.
Gaging the distance cautiously, the girl got a running start and leapt across the rooftops. Avoiding attention from the street, she climbed down the wall at the back of the house, until she found what she sought: the library. Hanging by her wristbands just beneath a large window, she could not hear, but she could take careful glances.
As she had expected, Keslin was there, along with three other nobles about his age, all loyal supporters of his faction. No servants or slaves were inside, and the doors were locked. She made certain she would remember all three nobles before sliding to the ground and blending back into the street. Tengal would know who all those people were, and he would know how to tell Prince Jath.

Well, I'm finally back to my computer, and I'm only at around 11k. I have so much to do to catch up, I don't know if I can make it. I would skip to the part I really want to write, but I feel like I need to set myself up emotionally for it because of some things that happen between where I am and what I want to write.

You can do it, winterlife! I know what you mean about skipping ahead to the part you really want to write. I did that this year. It's like I have two storylines going, so I can write in one or the other depending on my mood.

I'm flattered, Varna, that you'd name a character after me; it does seem like a natural choice for a Narnian centaur (hey, that's what I'll say the next time someone asks why I don't have a Narnian screen name ).

I'm approaching 30k now, but I'm beginning to have doubts about reaching 50k. I may have some time conflicts much of next week, and I'm not sure my story has enough 'oomph' to make it (but even if it doesn't reach 50k when finished, that's okay. I've enjoyed writing it). On the other hand, an idea or two may come to mind that allow me to reach the finish line.

I don't know if it was the fact that I cut off all distractions by writing late, or if it was the caffeine from the soda I bought for late night writing, or if I just hit an easy spot, but after writing about 2.6k this morning, I'm clocking in for the morning at just over 13k. I was going to try to hit 15k before going to bed, but since it is a quarter to 3AM, and I have class in...about 5 and a half hours, I think I will go to bed now. I think I've found a technique for getting started again when I hit tough spots. I introduced two new characters in a scene about making cookies, where one character just couldn't get the recipe correct. It is actually a very nice stress-relieving scene at that point in the book, and it was by far the most fun to write so far.
Anyway, I'm going to bed. I hope I can keep up tomorrow. I have to write more than 2.3k per day to make it, so I get the feeling that I'll pull a few more late nights in the coming days.

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/4413990/34k My wordle, at 34k.
Writing . . I haven't been doing enough the last few days, not at all on Sunday. But I have plenty of words, and hope to write a lot today. I have a lot of scenes that need to happen, but I just can't write them correctly; they try to go by way too fast. That's difficult.