The Final(ish) Report

This year's NaNoWriMo was easily the most irritating of all of them. Last years was really not very great either. Much like this year, I primarily hit my word counts through Write or Die. It was one of the best decisions I've made, since I can get 2500 words plus in half an hour so I can get things done. Unfortunately, this year, even with that. I barely managed to finish. My usual schedule involved me writing right after getting up (and showering, since cleanliness is next to godliness, and everyone knows that writers want to be gods, even if only for their own worlds), buuut stuff interfered with that. There were days when I'd get up and have to get straight to working on homework or I slept in and had someone coming up to see me so I had to get straight to getting reading and didn't have time. A lot of the time, those days turned into the ones where I wouldn't write at all. I'm notorious for being the sort who plans to do stuff and then will do everything under the sun to not do it. I will become bored as hell in my attempt to procrastinate as much as possible. Actually, that's exactly what led to this post. I have an English essay that I don't feel like working on, so rather than doing it, I've decided to get around to writing this like I  said I would. The point is, NaNoWriMo was hard.

Actually, any writing is hard. Getting into the habit of writing is one of the best things anyone can do, but also one of the hardest. Part of writing is that you become so attached to the people in your head when you're in that space that you move to when you write, that it an be hard to get into it and then force the characters out of there. Part of what is needed to be a really good writer is to be able to follow where you think is best and let your characters (well, instincts) guide you, but sometimes you have to kick them in the butt. Whether or not you want to some of them will have to die, or be mean, or painfully homophobic. You have to be able to separate yourself from that, but sometimes it's hard to force yourself to do so. They're like your babies, and you don't want people to see all their faults. Instead, you want to stick them into an oversized crib and hire a nanny to make sure that the other kiddies on the playground don't start gnawing on their head or wiping boogers all over them. Really, the best thing you can do is let it go and just run with it and enjoy the entire process. I'm not at that point yet.

I am at the point, though, that I can say I've written more words in a month than many people who want to write will ever spit out in their entire life. And it's all for one book in this case, not a ton of books that I've started and stopped. I took something, moved past the planning stage (that most people get stuck on for whatever reason and never move past - my chair isn't comfy, my space isn't right, I don't have a name for my FMC's third cousin twice removed who you'll never meet but you'll hear about once in chapter seventeen) and done something. It's not something that the world will ever see in this case, at least I've done something. I have accomplished something that was fun, got a story out of my head, and reminded me that I can write. It's pretty darn awesome all around. Now it's time to move on to my next project - working on the novel that I actually like and starting the rewriting process that I've decided to start on fifty million times. This time, I want to get it done. Before that, though, there's a Christmas story that I offered to write someone. But before I can even work on that, I have an English essay to write.

Pfft. Priorities.

Cheers :)

Psst, Izza Secwet

Not really. I'm done. I'm done. I'm done I'm done I'm done. There's a song for that in my head, but I can't explain that without finale. Well, I have reading to go catch up on, so I'm going to go do that, I shall reflect on the entire process at some point later. Ta ta for now!

Validation

Today is the day when I can officially validate my novel and win NaNoWriMo. Theoretically, at least. I can't actually, since I'm grotesquely behind - by 3094 words, in addition to the rest of the words I'd need, which would be dictated by the number of days left. Soooo something like 11k. Which is a lot when you're getting close to exams and have a bunch of super boring homework that you have to do or else risk losing 20% of your mark in a given course. That's why I haven't been blogging much. I haven't had time. That and I've been lazy. Surprise surprise. Anyway, bedtime before another day where I plan to write and the world interferes with my plans. I sincerely hope I win this year. I'm going to do some serious kitten punching if I don't.

Toodles!

Writing in the Red

I'm around a day behind in my word count, which is pretty annoying. I was hoping to build up a buffer this weekend, but instead I only managed to go the opposite direction. Oh, well, it happens sometimes. That's the nice thing about this being my fourth year. I know how it works. I know that there are times that you'll end up very far behind, but that you can just write yourself out of them and everything will be fine. The only time you're ever legitimately screwed is when you get discouraged because of your count and hardly try. That's not the point. The point is to write and enjoy it. If you enjoy it, you'll get up to your word count in no time. Now if only that same principle could apply to history essays...

The Joy of Difficulty

I'm behind. Yes, already. No, not by all that much. However, I am still behind. Why? Because I'm a good student! I've been doing homework. I feel that not flunking out of university is marginally more important than focusing solely on NaNoWriMo. It's a close call though. However, anyone else doing this who is putting NaNoWriMo ahead of all of their schoolwork, you're not getting the point! It's for fun! School is not. You're paying lots of money for school, or your parents are in taxes. Writing may be more fun, but if it doesn't work out you'll never be getting into university, and your options'll be reduced. So remember your homework, people!

P.S. Today's post is brought to you by the exclamation point.

First Day

Happy NaNoWriMo everyone! I just finished my word count for today. I'd forgotten what an amazing feeling that is, knowing that you've accomplished that before 9 in the morning. There's something oddly liberating knowing that you have such a concrete goal that you'll just force yourself to write through any rough parts. If only I could do that every other time I hit a wall.

In the past, when I've hid a wall during WriMo, I used this awesome program called Write or Die. I've discovered that I can't with this computer though, since it has a habit of doing very odd things without my telling it to. I discovered this when I was several hundred words in this morning, and it decided to highlight it. Given the speed at which I type, I didn't notice until I'd hit something and it overwrote everything that I'd written. It was a lovely way to start the day. I still managed to finish though. Hopefully that will be my only NaNoWriMo fiasco.

I hope anyone else who's decided to take the plunge doesn't run into any problems. Good luck, everyone, and remember, it's not to late to start!

One Day More

Not only is that one of my favourite songs from Les Mis (my absolute favourite is probably Red and Black), that's also my NaNoWriMo count down! Cue hamsters singing! I'm so excited. This is my favourite month of the year, and something I always look forward to. It doesn't matter what else is going on that's yucky, this always makes everything brighter. Why? Because it gives you an amazing sense of purpose. I love that.

Anyway, I have homework that needs to get done ahead of time so I don't fall behind on WriMo. Good luck to all the other participants!

P.S. I'm pretty sure I've used that to title a post before. Obviously, I really like Les Miserables.

The Difficulty of NaNoWriMo

Or lack there of. Quite frankly, I don't find NaNoWriMo to be all that difficult. I can write a day and a half worth of words in half an hour, so except for the days when I fall behind and have to frantically drag my numbers back up, it's really not all that much of a stretch. This is why I can never understand why people find it so crazy. Realistically, it's not. It's, like, 15-20 minutes to get your daily word count. If someone were to put down their video games for that long, they could pull it off no problem. People are just scared of failing and if they don't try it, they can't fail. It's reeeeally hard to fail. 50 000 words is not that insane. It's just a first draft. You get used to it. So people who fluff around it need to get their heads in the game and give it a shot, or else just not talk about how crazy it is. Until you've tried it, you haven't got a clue, so don't be discouraging others from trying. It's worth it in the end.

All you need is a basic idea, and you're good to. Let it take you somewhere, and maybe it'll actually work for once and you'll like your characters because you're listening to them and what feels right. When it comes to a first draft, go with your gut instinct. You can run against the grain during your revisions, but spit out the goddamn story or it'll be in your head forever. Cheers, and good luck. Remember: it starts on Tuesday!

Camp NaNoWriMo

(Or whatever it's called, I can never remember the order.) I'm about to embark on the part of my newest WriMo project today. It's nerve wracking, since it was something of a last minute decision (kind of like the first time I did NaNoWriMo now that I think about it - I signed up the day of, I think), and I'm not as gogogo about it as usual, partly because it's a continuation of a story already started. Actually, I'd have even more of it had the jump drive with an additional 3000+ words of it not gone missing. It took me two years to get those 3000+ words, because I hit a major block when it came to writing my character out of that particular situation. Motivation is hard to come by when it's not November.

Anyways, I'm off to read what I've got to remind myself of what's going on. Cheers!

Moving Forward

I graduated from high school last night. It was kind of awesome, but awful at the same time. There's nothing stranger than walking down a hallway full of your classmates and realizing that you may never see some of them again (and liking that with some people, which makes me feel like a horrible person). Everything's just so strange. But fantastic because I can finally say that I've completed high school on forms! I can also say that I was awarded the biggest scholarship that my school offers, which is kind of cool and immensely helpful. Although I hate hearing people give speeches on me, it's awfully awkward. But, I like the money I can get out of it.

Now that that's out of the way I can really focus on writing again once I get back in the groove. I had planned to write a road trip style story that I've had in mind for a while, but I decided that I want to finish my fantasy trilogy, so that'll be my focus this summer. Ideally I'd like to get the really skinny first drafts for the second and third books done. This will probably happen with the help of NaNoWriMo camp, which is essentially WriMo but over the summer. Maybe I'll be able to get it done way earlier and be one of those people with hundreds of thousands of words in their pieces. But we'll just have to wait and see. I start working on my second book (which was started in the original NaNoWriMo that that series had come from a few years ago) tomorrow. Here's to hoping that everything's gonna go well and I can finish! And then get to revising...ew. Cheers!

Inspiration!

Every now and again, I'll pop back on the NaNoWriMo website to see what's going on. I did that again today, and went onto the adoptables thread to see what was going on since sometimes that gives me good ideas. And it did.

So here's some background, lots times when I write, I come up with an alliteration or something of the like that that would function well as a title and use the inspiration from that. For instance I thought up the Closet Days and figured out a plot line that would work well under that blanket and voila, Script Frenzy idea. Therefore, the page for title adoptables is heaven on wheels for me. (Oh, in case you weren't aware, adoptables are ideas that people post and you can hijack them, generally you say when you're going to use one, and then leave some behind but I'm sneaky and can't be bothered to post.)

Now I have a ton of different ideas that I'm going to ferment until I know more about them, and I shall then write when I have time. I'm not sure if any of them will turn into post-able ideas, or if they'll all be ones I keep to myself as potential ones to go back to in a few years to rewrite and publish. Regardless, though, I now have ideas and I'm itching to write which is a fantastic feeling and I can't wait to make use of it.