NaNoWriMo - 7 - Day 5/6 - Back on the Horse

Now it's really starting to get fun. After three days of feeling practically helpless to get any traction on this story and to get myself out of the rut I was already in, I had a really good writing night tonight. Nearly 3000 words. I made up a whole day today, almost. Now I'm only 2200 words off pace, and with two good days, I can be right where I need to be.

The story is really starting to take some shape. I have a vague idea of where I want it to go a chapter or two ahead of time. Characters are starting to take shape and tell me things about themselves that I didn't know. More eloquent words and phrases are starting to flow from my fingertips rather than the typical "he glanced" or "he replied".

This is really fun.

I think I can actually do this. After Thursday and Friday I had serious doubts, but now... it's entirely possible.

Can't wait to see what happens next with this story.

And I never in a million years thought I'd be writing a political thriller...

NaNoWriMo - 6 - Day 3 - Chugging to a Halt

Okay... I am/was starting to get worried. I'm getting NO momentum going on this story. I spent all day working on emergency print ads and making some changes to the Global commercial. Then I had to go buy some wireless networking gear for my mom and then go to her house and set it up, and (this was the good part), eat some fantastic gumbo. After that I went to my sister's house and enjoyed their hot tub and spent a nice evening with my sister and her husband (Ryan and Tamara were both home sick tonight). And then I came home and watched a great episode of Battlestar Galactica.

So it was after midnight when I finally sat down to maybe think about writing. I almost just called it an evening, but managed to get in a fair amount of writing. Not a huge amount, but enough so that I feel like it wasn't a total waste of a day, NaNoWriMo-concerned. I'm now up to 1867 words, which is WAY behind where I need to be, but I was able to get back on the horse which is good. Saturday really SHOULD be a good day where I catch up. We'll see.

And I did pretty good today about not bogging myself down with editing and rewriting as I go. I came thisclose to grinding to a halt while looking up the actual geography of downtown Washington DC. That can all wait, and I successfully just plopped something down quickly. I think I'll get better at just going with the flow the longer I do this.

Okay... time for bed again, and a bit of "No Plot, No Problem" reading. Tamara is going garage saling in the early morning and I will try to wake up to join her. It's the mega-neighborhood sale, so there are usually good things to be found.

Out.

NaNoWriMo - 5 - Day Two

So it's 11:45 and I'm just finishing up work for the day (a major commercial for Global Industries). I haven't had a chance to write a single word today, and I'm totally wiped out. I think I'll try to go to bed early tonight (midnight) and wake up really early tomorrow and start writing to catch up.

One good thing I did last night before I went to sleep, was I read a good chunk of the "No Plot, No Problem" book written by the guy that started NaNoWriMo. There was a ton of good stuff I learned because I almost didn't read it, thinking I knew what he was going to say. The main thing that was re-iterated to me was that this month-long contest isn't about quality.. it's about quantity. If I'm going to edit and proofread and rewrite as I go, I'll never finish. Yesterday, I was so caught up in trying to make Craig's first chapter have a different voice that I got bogged down...in chapter one. I just need to WRITE it, as fast as I can, and really get it in my head that I'll be able to edit it later and rewrite it later.

So hopefully, tomorrow will be a more productive day, novelish-speaking. I might have a commercial to produce, but if I don't, then I'll be able to spend a good part of the day working on the novel. I should be able to catch up and maybe even get ahead. We'll see.

One really positive note, Tamara really likes the idea of the book and what I've written so far. It's the first time I've ever seen her interested in, much less excited about something I've written. So if SHE likes it, I might just have something.

Okay... on to sleep.. after a bit more reading of the "No Plot, No Problem" book.

NaNoWriMo - 4 - Day 1.5

Okay.. today wasn't a good day. I haven't felt good all day and I just want to go to bed. However, I did manage to get a few words done. I'm up to 1335 words. Tomorrow should be better.

In spite of my low word count today, I did manage to get some backend work done on the story. I have a much clearer idea of how the chapters will play out and how the duel will be constructed like a game of chess. Each writer will have to plan several moves ahead and anticipate what the other writer is doing, and try to determine what the other writer thinks he knows about

I also think I know who the main antagonists are-- I'll hold that back for now.

Okay... falling asleep at the keyboard. Be back tomorrow.

NaNoWriMo - 3 - First Report

Alrighty... it's 2am. I've got 930 words in my prologue. Not bad. I'll have to pick it up just a bit tomorrow night.

I've settled on a title for my story: Word War III. This is the third writing duel between these two writers. In the prologue, I opted to tell it first person from one of the writer's points of view. He's lost the previous two Word Wars, and vows to win this time.

My only quandary at this point is do I continue this first person view throughout the novel? Do I have this character comment on the other guys chapter, interspersing the commentary within the text of the chapter? Do I have him scour the text looking for clues as to what his opponent is intending and potential ways of countering him? Or do I just stay wholly within the narrative from this point on? Or do I have a mini-section at the beginning of each chapter as the POV character comments on what he's just read and ponders what he has to do when writing his next chapter? I kinda like that better. A bridge between each chapter. It might be fun to sprinkle in all sorts of external things happening to the POV character that are then reflected in the next chapter. There can be periods of panic as he struggles to write the next chapter. Periods where he feels he clearly has the upper hand. I like this. These bridges will have to be short so they don't break up the narrative flow of the story itself. With any luck or skill, I can turn this into a deep, multi-layered story with extra layers of meaning behind what happens on the page.

We'll see.

For now, it's sleep.