done!

Originally uploaded by nitaspitas.

Just finished and validated my document. It's official, I have a first draft of a very silly children's novel.

almost there

I am thankful for being fully rested on six hours of sleep and being able to write almost 40,000 words so far. I'm well on my way to the goal of 50k, although I'll probably have to finish that this weekend so that I can finish my homework next week. After almost a week of uninspired chase scenes, I finally got back to writing a "good part" at the write out Saturday night, and would have gotten back into the groove sooner if it hadn't been for my homework this week taking even more hours than expected. It was just a good thing that I had started a little earlier than usual.

I thought I wouldn't get enough words out of my plot, but that seems to be okay. I figure I can wrap things up whenever I get a chance now, because I'm pretty close to the end. I think part of my problem was that I was putting off a lot of inevitable (in my mind) things so that I could keep the story going.

In other news, Mr. Lyle is hosting the Miss America Pagent... Also, I know it's hard to condense a 734 page book into a slightly over two hour long movie, but that doesn't mean the entire thing should be one action scene after another. I was left exhausted with everything they crammed into the movie, and I'd read the book already. Also, I left acutely aware that the next book will be the last in the series.

tired

I've been stuck at around 25K (give or take a thousand words) for the past few days. I did make it to 25K a couple days ahead of schedule, but since then, I've had almost no time write. I had about ten hours of marker/chalk renderings to do for viscom yesterday (I know, it takes me forever! ugh.), but thankfully my environmental design class work load has been more manageable lately. I've been pulling all nighters for viscom once a week for the last month or so, though...

I've been pretty free since I got back from class yesterday, with no pressing assignment for tonight (it feels like it's Thursday already! :), but I haven't been able to get myself to write much. I've tacked on about 500 words since yesterday, but I still have over a thousand to go to make my word count for today. It doesn't help that I wanted to sleep in today and woke up earlier than I would have liked anyway. I couldn't sleep last night even though I crawled into bed before 1am because my sleep schedule was so screwed up for being up until morning the night before.

As a result, I've been procrastinating for most of the day. Here's a link to a funny interview with Val Kilmer. They skipped Madmartigan, though, who I always thought was hilarious. I haven't decided whether I'll go see Kiss Kiss Bang Bang yet, but the trailer looked interesting enough. I just haven't really been in the mood to go to the theaters to watch any movie lately. I already feel tired thinking about this weekend when I know I'll be venturing out to see the latest installment of kids growing up faster than they can make the movies, even though it looks like it's going to be good.

almost half way

My goal was to get to 25,000 words today, which would have put me almost two days ahead of the word count chart. I'm a bit short of that at 24,384, but not nearly as behind as I thought I would be a week ago, thanks to marathon (for me) writing days of over 3000 and 2400 words on Friday and Saturday. Sundays seem to be my day to not want to write. Last Sunday, I barely made word count (I wrote exactly 24 words over). The only reason I wrote anything today (a paltry 1400 words) was that I had to take Jo to the library so she could do some research. Even then, we were only there for about 40 minutes, so I didn't get too much done.

And, of course, I have yet to start on my homework for the week, even though I know I have a lot of it, yet again. I may try to do some tonight, or I may just finish watching Samurai Deeper Kyo tonight to minimize distractions for the next two days. Decisions, decisions. Hah, who am I kidding, of course I'm going to watch anime instead of doing work. Once I'm done, I can concentrate on designing my entertainment space foyer (tomorrow morning, hopefully) and trying out 3D sketching with chalk (soft pastels) and Copics (tomorrow afternoon, after class, and Tuesday all day. It takes me a really long time to do six pages for this class...).

break

I didn't even manage to keep my writing pace going for a week, but I blame my iPod. As you can see below, I got a new iPod today. It's purty :) and the screen is unscratched (and will stay that way, dang it!). Having to deal with it totally screwed up my writing and homework schedule, though. I was trying to restore it when I should have been writing, so I was writing when I should have been doing homework, so now I'm about 2000 words behind my word count goal (a day's worth of writing) and haven't started on this week's homework for either class.

So, I decided that since today's already almost over, I would take a word count break and just write a couple hundred words to make the nanowrimo word count and then do homework. I think I need to start doing that switching off writing and art stuffs that I did (way back when :P) in college just to get everything done.

By the way, that's the opening of Geri's Game on the iPod below :)

pinky two

pinky two
Originally uploaded by nitaspitas.

an eventful day four

Edit: Argh! I spoke too soon. They fixed the initial problem, which was that the iPod wouldn't restore, but now it's fine being restored (most of the time), but it can't actually finish a file transfer session with iTunes, even if it's only ONE song. Back to the store tomorrow, maybe. At least I found this out after I finished my quota for the day, otherwise I don't think I could've gotten anything done...

Most of today was spent trying to get my iPod working, and I didn't really get a chance to start on today's quota until I got to the genius bar in Manhattan Beach. That was actually a fun experience. I'd never had to go to a genius bar before, so I never went, although I did go with Matt and Hannah to the one in Connecticut to get Matt's powerbook once.

I basically sat at the bar for half an hour with my powerbook, writing, while other customers asked me about why I chose a 12" over a 15". I got the feeling that they didn't trust the salespeople and wanted a second opinion and "Oh look, there's a real customer over there happily typing away at her powerbook. I'll ask her." I thought it was funny because, while it's not my job to sell macs (unlike some people :P), I have a strong streak of Mac evangelism running through me, as do most happy Mac customers, which these people should realize by now if they're in an Apple Store buying a computer. The genius bar guy thought it was funny, too. Especially after a couple of these guys came by and a salesguy asked a question about the size of an audiobook file (which I happen to know...).

It was hard to stay silent while listening to this kid describe having the same "defect" with both of his brand new iPods (he'd exchanged the first one last night). Clearly, if the exact same thing happens every time you turn on any iPod, the problem is not the iPod, it's you. Neither the kid nor his mother seemed to understand this.

I was starting to get really cold in the air conditioned mall. Luckily, it was my turn next. Somehow, the "Restore" function in the store's version of iPod updater managed to restore my iPod, while my version was apparently "defective." I had tried restoring for about two hours before finally giving in and going to the store. But, all's well that ends well. I got my iPod back and still managed to hit 8000 words today (with my lowest word count/day yet, but at least I made it). And I got to write at the beach, which I'd been meaning to do since I started nanowrimo on Tuesday.

day three begins

And so the fillers begin. On the one hand, I'm typing because I need to make my word count. On the other hand, I'm typing because I need to make my word count. I'm still keeping up a pretty good pace, but I'm losing my place in the plot with all the flashbacks and fillers I'm doing. Not that much has happened. After the initial catalyst, my main characters set off to find out what happened. That's about it. Oh, and they ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. It keep me optimistic about my chances of hitting 50,000 with this novel. As long as I keep this pace, it should work out ok. It might get a little tedious after a while, but hey, it's just a draft.

I still want to write this, though, which gives me incentive to work on my homework ahead of time, instead of procrastinating like I usually do. I managed to finish early both days since nanowrimo started. I keep telling myself that I after I hit the 1700 words/day quota, I can't write again (to make my personal 2000 words/day quota) until I finish my homework. Hopefully this will last through the month. It's only day three, and I'm already feeling the strain of forcing myself to write. It's a good thing, I think. It's like that burn you feel when you stretch after you haven't for a long time. Except, in this case, I haven't really used these muscles ever...

day two

Well, two and a bit hours into day two. For now, my goal is to reach my quota for the day the night before, so that if I have any more inclination to write the next day, it'll be extra. With that in mind, I end my day before I go to class (on the days I have class), so when I get back, I start counting for the next day. It makes sense in my head.

I'm at just about 3400 words right now, longer than almost all of the papers I've ever written minus a handful. I've got enough words for day two, but I'm still about 500 words under my daily quota (I was 500 over yesterday :), so we'll see how much more I can write tomorrow. In any case, I think I'm done with the second chapter. This chapter was written with almost no plot movement and contained mainly dialogue. I don't think that's a bad thing, it just meant I had no idea where it was going when I started writing. It did allow me to develop the characters more and change them some. It was an interesting exercise that I think, for better or worse, will happen a lot in this novel-writing process.

Does having a writing project automatically make you want to write more? My hands seem to be itching to write something all the time now. And because of nanowrimo, there's almost no editing involved, so reader beware. Risks and side effects include incoherent thoughts, wordiness, and nonsensical prose...

the second two hours

I've reached my quota for the day, and I'm only four hours into the month :) And I took an hour off for blogging and checking webcomics and stuff. And I still I have more to write. Granted, it is 4 a.m., and I should be going to bed, especially since my fingers seem to be going much slower than my brain at this point.... But I did sleep a lot yesterday....

Writing a novel seems to be a lot like reading a book where you already know the ending. Especially if you start getting to know a writer well, you know generally how things will turn out. But you read the book anyway, because you want to know how it gets from the first scene to the last, even if you can almost predict what the character will do and say. Writing this book, I know what's going to happen. I know the backstory behind the backstory and what twists will happen when. The characters have still managed to surprise me, though. I always thought that was something authors said because it sounded like a good thing to say, but apparently, it's true.

There are very few novelists who can hook me from page one. I am not one of them, yet. Maybe someday I will be, but for now, it takes me four or five pages :)

the first two hours

This is harder than I thought. I mean, I know I had trouble filling five pages when I had to write thoughtful analyses with a nice conclusion, so what did I expect, right? Writing a solid five pages of fiction a day isn't easy, even if I do get to make it all up from scratch. I've now been at this for about two hours, and I've barely got a thousand words (still about 700 short of my daily quota, if I'm to finish in 30 days). Why did they choose to do National Novel Writing Month on one of the short months, anyway? Why couldn't they pick one of the longer months? I guess it makes the division slightly easier (or at least the multiplication). I thought I would have a lot to write this first day, too--I had a bunch of ideas all planned out, and I even knew which scene I was going to start writing first.

Driving to and from class today, I developed my plot (by myself, and on the phone with Jo). The hour before midnight, I wrote out the scenes for my plot on index cards (per Holly Lisle's Plotting Under Pressure technique). We're supposed to be able to do our daily quota in about two hours, but I've only done a little more than half (and I'm really shooting to go over so I can slow down later, when I have fewer plot ideas). I've already written about three of my scenes. Each scene itself can be about 2000 words, according to Lisle, and I knew I would be short, but I didn't realize how short. I only made up about 30 cards, so I hope more material presents itself once I get to know the characters better. I think it'll help to take a break and pick up later. Also, note to self: Don't get bogged down doing flashbacks.

There's a cheesy excerpt at the bottom of my nanowrimo profile.