I’m more determined than ever to actually participate (and win!) NaNoWriMo. I’ve written many, many posts about the event, but as a recap:

• http://www.nanowrimo.org
• November 1-30
• 50,000 (new) words minimum
• new writing project

Oh, and have fun is the most important thing to remember!

Thousands of people around the world come together for this one event. Every opposing idea is pushed aside just to write. Wars continue on the outside, but on the inside, there is harmony. And NaNoWriMo is the reason.

Okay maybe that’s going a little far and utopia-like, but it’s still a lot of fun.

Last year I was forced to stop after the first week or so because exams were killing me. December is the month for finals and November is the “let’s-cram-everything-we-haven’t-learned-yet-in-one-month” month. It’s not pretty; but I’m determined to do it this year. Because, face it, there’s never a good time to write a novel. Something will always get in the way: work, travel, finals, child birth, debilitating diseases…Anyway, the point is that just because life will be just a little more hectic during this time doesn’t mean I can’t rearrange things to make this work.

And that is what I’ll do. Who wants to join me?

(My username is anonymouskitten. I do accept writing buddy requests. Just make sure you say “hi” once in awhile.)

Funny story, between talking to Alan and doing homework, I decided to give NaNo another try. See, I have this outline of characters and I love them so I need to give them their story.

NaNoWriMo is in November, so I have plenty of time to outline the plot, conflict, and all sorts of fun things. Last year, I was too busy with Organic and Biology to do much writing and never did make the 50k requirement. I’m thoroughly excited about this November since I won’t be as busy as last year.

This post serves as a solemn promise to myself to complete the NaNo requirement. :)

Can’t you already hear the shouts of disbelief? For Nano-ers around the world, part of their Thanksgiving will be spent locked in their rooms, offices, etc writing to give their novel the final boost they need to past the 50k hurdle.

For other writers not participating in Nano, they can afford to take the day off, but some may choose not to. Besides, the turkey aroma makes the words flow quicker (though less coherent) when you’re holding out on your Thanksgiving meal until you reach your personal word count goal of the day.

All non-writers will shake their heads in disbelief and a common question of why will ring out around the world. The truth is, we can never answer that question, and it baffles me.

How do you answer someone when they ask why you write long hours of the day and what makes you keep going when you know your prose just absolutely sucks, for a lack of better word?

For me, I always say, “But I love my characters.” And it’s true. I do love them, but there’s something more than just them and I can’t describe it. If you’ve pinned down that “something else,” do share. :)

Trust me, we all need reasons to give to people.

Also, special note, check out the writing prompt for the week! Come back each Wednesday for a new prompt.

I was on the NaNo forums when I happened to come across this thing called Milwordy. Naturally, a Google search was in order. Turns out, milwordy is a community of writers who get together and each write 1,000,000 words during a year. I was stunned. I did the math, too. Turns out, to complete this challenge, each person must do 1 & 1/2 NaNos EACH MONTH! (That’s 83,333 words to be exact.) That’s a heck of a lot of words. To amuse myself, I did more math. I wanted to know the daily word count of this feat.

The facts:

• NaNo is 1,667 words a day. That would give you 50,000 words in 30 days.
• Milwordy is (roughly) 2,688 words a day for months with 31 days.
• Months with 30 days require 2,777 words a day.
• And poor February with 28 days (2010) require an intense 2,976 words a day.
• Also, 1,000,000 words is ELEVEN 90k novels.

Wow. That takes dedication and perseverance. My brain hurts just from imagining it.

Naturally, though, I signed up (obviously before doing the math and scaring myself), and I’m committed. I have the one idea in my head (the snowflake novel), but if I want to do this, I’ll need to think of at least 10 other story ideas.

That right there is the hard part. Writing it, oh writing it, will be the fun part.

Basic Stats:

• my username: anonymouskitten
• follow me on here beginning January 1, 2010 at 12am
• in case there won’t be any updates, follow me on twitter.

I was just reading through the blog and I can’t believe I’ve failed to mention that I’ve had to step down from the NaNo challenge. I briefly went on a tangent about this in the Sandbox post, but I didn’t come out and say it directly. However, since I do plan on starting this idea I’ve been working on (in the Snowflake software) before December, that means I can officially participate in NaNoFiMo.

Now onto what to expect next week (week of 11/23). Since it’ll be my week off for the most part, that means I can do a lot more writing and a lot more updating. For the entire week, I will be posting a new inspiration word in hopes it inspires you to continue writing. Also, weekly, not sure of the day yet, I will be posting a writing prompt to get you thinking. It’s a minimum of 250 words, which is less than this post already, so it won’t take more than ten or fifteen minutes. I figure that if you’re in a rut and can’t escape, this could help. Or if you’re not, it’ll help either way (see this post).

As always, good luck in writing, and kudos to NaNo-ers still hanging on! =)

Zero words updated. That’s right. I said zero. There is a perfect explanation for that, though and it’s only one word: university. Now, I know some people can actually write, go to classes, and keep up with their studies while also working, but it’s hard. This week (and next) will be really hard, too. Perhaps I can still make up the word count, but it seems like a distant dream now. My only hope is to host my own little December NaNo. Of course, there’s already something called “NaNoFiMo” which is an actual event held in December for those that don’t finish their novels in November.

Now, this isn’t me throwing the rag in and giving up. I’m still going to write when I can and still do word wars with myself, but I also won’t be too disappointed at the end of the month if I don’t succeed.

This past Saturday (11/14) was our first anniversary, so obviously, no writing was done then, and most of the days last week had exams falling on them, as will next week.

I’m just hoping the story line won’t die on me since I spent so much time away from it. Any advice on getting it started again?

Honestly, I don’t remember last night if I wrote any more. I suspect I did wrote about 50 more words. I can’t be sure though. More writing coming soon since I have no classes today!

Plot update:

Edgar, the main character, is still in the hospital, but his fear of germs and his OCD tendencies are getting to him. He first sees his late wife appear in the middle of the doorframe. Later, a young girl walked in his room and started talking to him, but nobody saw her except Edgar. Who is she and why can only he see her?

I know this has somewhat taken a paranormal spin to it and I wasn’t expecting that at all. I’m going to just run with it and after NaNo revise and see how it can either be rewritten or better incorporated with the overall plot.

I appreciate any and all advice comments or emails. :)

I had about an hour to type, so I took ahold of that opportunity.

Word count: 8,048

So far, I’ve written 856 words today. I have a 6-10pm class, but I will be updating this blog after!

Quick tip:
Dialog is a great word count booster. :)

So I just started writing tonight. I began with 5,766 words and already I have 7,192. I’m still hoping to get to 8,000 before I go to sleep tonight.

My overall plan? Write two days worth until the weekend, then make up all the words that I need to do to be on track with the appropriate date. As of now, I’m working towards the fifth day’s goal. Ha! I’m really behind. I technically should have roughly 16,600 words already. I have about one-third of that.

Tomorrow will be difficult to write, too. I have an exam tomorrow morning. (No worries, it’ll be easy.) Plus, I have class until 10pm. (Bummer, I know.) After ten, though, I’m free to pour my heart and soul out in it.

I would post excerpts on here in posts, but honestly, I’d be too embarrassed for anybody to actually read this. Maybe after I seriously revise this. I’m starting to see that when I stay away from the computer too long, I lose focus on what the story is about and I loose sight of the subplots hidden in there, so either I have to re-read everything or I just make it up from where I left off. Usually, it’s the latter for a lack of time, but I’m starting to think things don’t make sense.

For example, my main character, Edgar, just had heart surgery and he’s still in the hospital. After a few days after his surgery, he’s still in the hospital, but sees his late wife standing in the doorway. I didn’t even know he had a wife much less that she died. Plus, what was she doing in his doorway? I have no idea. I suppose this is what it means when people say let the character drive the story. Well, my character drove it away from hardcore thriller and shifted a little to paranormal. Why? I couldn’t even begin to answer that sadly.

More updates soon!

Word count as of now: 7,192
Daily word count: 1,426 (and still typing!)

Zero progress. No words can describe this disappointment. Maybe better tomorrow.

This weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, was spent studying for the Organic Chemistry exam that was earlier this morning. Granted, that’s very important and I’m glad I have my priorities straight, it’s just bad I’m a little under 10k short of the writing goal. Oops.

Total word count as of now: 5,766

(and that’s only because I’ve written nearly 400 in the past 5 minutes or so.)

Unfortunately, I have another exam Wednesday, but I should write 2k today. Right? Here’s hoping.

I hope all of you are having a lot better luck with this than me. :)

Today wasn’t supposed to be a major writing day despite it’s the weekend, but I’m thinking I might not be able to get any writing done at all. My four hour writing plan failed when my friends asked if I wanted to get dinner downstairs. I have to eat, right? So, I said yes. A dinner outing turned into a 3 hour adventure of game playing, wii playing, eating fest.

Needless to say, I’ve come back to my room and now I’m studying. Another perk of being in college. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to write a lot tomorrow and make up for lost words today. Maybe.

Total Word Count Today: 0

Okay everyone. This is proven extremely effective. If you haven’t heard about this, it’s great. Click on the link, and it’ll take you directly to the homepage. You select the amount of time you want to write and your word count goal. I usually just type in 10 minutes/ 100 words to keep it simple. If you stop writing, depending on the mode you have it in, it’ll give you a warning pop-up (gentle mode), emit an annoying sound (normal mode), or start deleting your words one by one (kamikaze mode). It’s frighteningly scary to see your hard earned words being deleted magically by the computer, so I recommend holding off on that one. Also, you can choose your grace period, which is the amount of time from when you stop writing to when the “consequences” start. There’s gentle, strict, and evil. Evil is probably approximately 30 seconds of no typing. Slow typers, I do not recommend choosing evil. Have fun and keep writing!

It’s now at that awkward time where nobody really knows whether it’s late one evening or early the next morning. It’s 1am right now, and I’ve been writing for awhile now. I’ve totaled 2,077 words today, and I’m not done yet.

Current word count (as of 12:45am): 5,432 (haha) <— I exceeded my goal, yay!

To boost word counts, I’m using Write or Die and since it tracks how much you write during a certain time, I found out that I average between 400-500 words per ten minute segment. I calculated that out in an hour stretch. It comes to be about 2,400 words (400 words/10 mins). Since writing for a long period of time can be a bit difficult, I’m thinking if I stick with 300 words per 10 minutes on average, in an hour, it’ll be 1,800 words, still good.

Guess what? I have a four hour stretch (actually, I’m making a four hour stretch) Saturday and Sunday (yes, each day), and I’m going to just write without deleting, thinking, backspacing, anything. If I do that, averaging 300 words total, in four hours, I’ll have 7,200 words after 1 day. That’s amazing. It’ll give me the boost I’ll most definitely need to get ahead for next week.

Honestly, I was worried that with my scheduled classes, I wouldn’t have time to write, and even though I got a late start, I think I’m going to be okay. I’ll only end up getting the minimum, maybe a little over, but nothing too stellar like most of the people on the site.

I was really scared of writing down the “wrong words,” but today made me realize, there aren’t any “wrong” words, just words. The reason I would just stare at the blank computer screen was because of this fear. I let loose today and wrote two thousand of the worst sentences I’ve ever written, and you know what? I’m happy about that. I’m happy I broke down my fear and just wrote. Granted, I’m setting myself up for a lot of work in February (NaNoEdMo), and possibly December (NaNoFiMo) [National Novel Editing Month and National Novel Finishing Month respectively], but that’s alright. It’ll somehow pull through.

Leave word count shout out comments here to tell everyone how you’re novel is coming along! :)

As always, keep writing. :)

Ever wanted to write a novel? Stop procrastinating and put those fingers to good use. :)