victory!!

I finished NaNoWriMo today!

Week 3 was sluggish but week 4 was very productive. I am very happy to have reached the goal and would say that for the most part I enjoyed the process. The best part really is how much affection I have for my young protagonist Paige Turner; she's a neat person and I love listening to her thoughts and observations.

Go ahead, congratulate me!

:-)

keeping on pace

After twenty days, I have 34,468 words, so I'm currently on pace to reach 50,000 words by Nov. 30. I would really like to finish on the 29th so as to have a "day of grace" but I don't know if that's do-able.

Allison wanted to read what I had done by yesterday so I printed off 44 single-spaced pages. She really liked it; she had a big smile on her face as she read. I asked what she liked best and she said "It's very realistic, and the characters are doing the same things I'd be doing in school." (Even though the book is not based on her or on any kids or teachers she actually knows.)

If that isn't good motivation to keep going, I don't know what is!

half full? half empty? half crazy?

As for my NaNo writing, I'm nearing the halfway point, which is great, because tomorrow is day 15 of 30. I've managed to write every day, and as of now I have 22,721 words. What I'm finding out:
- For an exercise like this, it is great to have a preteen narrator who likes to chat. I can just let her blather and digress while I watch the words pile up.
- I should probably have had a better plan in advance. I made a sketchy outline of plot events but I think I am going to run out of them before I run out of month!
- I need to not forget to exercise because I am spending so much time sitting at the computer.
- I only have 27,000 words to go.
AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!

seven days of NaNoWriMo makes one weak

This is day seven of NaNoWriMo and so far I've written a grand total of 12,365 words. I updated my total on the NaNo website; they measure your progress on a little bar like a thermometer and it is neat to see it almost 1/4 full. But I have to write that amount three times over again. Argh.

I must be crazy ...

Starting on Monday, Nov. 1 I plan to make my second attempt at the annual world-wide phenomenon called National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo. What this means is that I am going to try to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. I tried NaNo for the first time 3 years ago and wrote 21,000 words. This year I am going to try to write a draft of the t/w/een novel simmering in my brain: Paige Turner, Reluctant Writer. It's about a girl named Paige Turner who does everything she can to avoid becoming a writer like her famous dad.

The NaNo experts say that one way to keep you motivated to plod on throughout the month is to tell everyone you know that you are going to try this; that way, you feel so guilty about the prospect of disappointing everyone that you pull all-nighters, overdose on coffee, etc. etc., all in an effort to grind out those 50,000 words. Well, since I can probably count on one hand the people who regularly read this blog, I can take comfort from the fact that if I fail I'll only disappoint five people. :-)

Anyway, I'll give an update every week as to how I'm doing.

Did I mention I must be crazy? ...