The challenge is complete. I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith, I have written 50,000 words in 28 days.
I win.
It feels good, all the not knowing if, then the not knowing how, then not knowing when, then knowing soon, then knowing victory.
My story actually is not done yet, I am currently at 51,076 words but if I had to venture a guess I would say that the novel will be complete in another 20,000 words probably. I will continue to write every day until it is finished.
Then what? You ask. I'm not sure yet. I'll let it sit for a while before coming back to work on the second draft. At least long enough to let me work on something else entirely almost to completion. I have a few interesting ideas of what to work on next. One of them involving the Cheshire Cat. That story would be shorter, maybe in the 10k words range, but it might be a fun departure from the science fiction book I'm about to finish. I'll figure it out once this current project is done.
After a complete second draft is finished, and I'm not sure how long something like that would take, remember I'm a first timer here, I'll look into getting it published. I'll definitely have my group of first readers read it though. They can tell me if it's worth the paper it's printed on or not.
We'll see.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Nanowrimo Day 22
I just realized that I havn't updated on Nanowrimo since day 4. I guess it makes sense though, as I have been so busy writing my novel that writing in my blog just doesn't seem nearly as important. Especially since I'm not sure anyone reads or cares, I mostly write for me on here.
Nanowrimo is going well. With the 1667 words a day I am supposed to write, my word count should be at 36,674. I havn't written anything today, so I really should be at 21 days worth, which is 35,007. My Novel, which has yet to present a name for itself, stands at 40,200 words.
This nameless monstrosity stands as a testament to the sheer perserverance of man. I never thought I could do it, week two made me think I would quit, but as I enter the last week of this insane challenge, I see that the end is not only in sight, but that I believe I will make it.
Only 9,800 words separate me from greatness. I've always wanted to write a novel, and now that I'm almost there, can almost call myself a novelist, it seems anticlimactic. Did I change the world? Did I create the great American novel? Nope.
It did change me though. Maybe my novel created the great American David. Maybe it is just the peice of work that creates the path for all other peices of work I might create. I don't know.
What began as a fear of not being able to finish, then evolved into a fear of reaching 50k words but not being done with the story, has now mutated into a fear of this novel being the only story I have in me to tell. I believe all of these fears stem from some nameless primevil entity that dwells in the basement of my brain. That entity knows only shadow and only ventures out seldomly. I would have rooted it out long ago, but it sometimes is the only part of my brain that functions when all the other parts are frozen. Its the one that knows how to survive and does what must be done. I think the fear part of it really is just it's way of trying to protect me. From myself, and from failure.
I tell you this though, protecting yourself from failure is doing yourself a disservice. Failure is a great teacher. It's lessons are branded on my brain in a way no other lessons could be. I say be couragous, fail brilliantly, and then get up again armed with new experience. The next time, success will be that much easier.
Nanowrimo is going well. With the 1667 words a day I am supposed to write, my word count should be at 36,674. I havn't written anything today, so I really should be at 21 days worth, which is 35,007. My Novel, which has yet to present a name for itself, stands at 40,200 words.
This nameless monstrosity stands as a testament to the sheer perserverance of man. I never thought I could do it, week two made me think I would quit, but as I enter the last week of this insane challenge, I see that the end is not only in sight, but that I believe I will make it.
Only 9,800 words separate me from greatness. I've always wanted to write a novel, and now that I'm almost there, can almost call myself a novelist, it seems anticlimactic. Did I change the world? Did I create the great American novel? Nope.
It did change me though. Maybe my novel created the great American David. Maybe it is just the peice of work that creates the path for all other peices of work I might create. I don't know.
What began as a fear of not being able to finish, then evolved into a fear of reaching 50k words but not being done with the story, has now mutated into a fear of this novel being the only story I have in me to tell. I believe all of these fears stem from some nameless primevil entity that dwells in the basement of my brain. That entity knows only shadow and only ventures out seldomly. I would have rooted it out long ago, but it sometimes is the only part of my brain that functions when all the other parts are frozen. Its the one that knows how to survive and does what must be done. I think the fear part of it really is just it's way of trying to protect me. From myself, and from failure.
I tell you this though, protecting yourself from failure is doing yourself a disservice. Failure is a great teacher. It's lessons are branded on my brain in a way no other lessons could be. I say be couragous, fail brilliantly, and then get up again armed with new experience. The next time, success will be that much easier.
With a sickness...
I'm at work. I'm sick. My mind feels like its somewhere else though.
My nostrils are at times stuffed and then runny. They constantly feel like they are on fire though. I might as well be breathing fire. The coughing has gotten better though, it used to be I would cough till I choked. Same with the sneezing, yesterday it felt like there were small razor blade factories in the lower portion of my lungs and the only way to ship the product out was to sneeze. These factories had not yet discovered boxes however, instead they shipped the razors haphazardly in singles. Every time I would sneeze these razors would cut their way through my lungs, up my throat, bouncing off the back of it, and out my mouth.
Whoever the buyers are, I wish them a slow death.
The back of my neck feels tight, like someone with a large boot is standing on the back of my neck. Then there's the not so visible effects of the sickness. My stomach complaining as it tries to digest the energy I need to beat this bug. The subtle draining of energy as I try to function at my normal level at work.
I wish I could go home. I can't though. I need sleep. I need a new body.
The medicine did not help. I took it just over an hour ago and there has been no demonstrative change in my condition. Unless you count feeling worse. I dont though.
I got a flu shot this year, for the first time ever. This is not the flu, at least I don't think it is. It started on Saturday and I think I'll be better by tomorrow (optimism, ya dig?) but if this is a cold I havn't had a cold this bad in a long time. Years, even.
I have a long and storied history of getting sick on Christmas day. I think its the blatant consumerism in the face of celebrating salvation. Either way, of the last 30 christmases I've been sick for at minimum half of them. I do not, however, have a history of getting sick in the middle of November. That post Thanksgiving dinner feeling not withstanding. I think everyone gets that. Lets hope this is my Christmas sickness jumping the gun this year. I will be in DC with the family and I would love to not be sick during that time.
I'm obviously not too sick to work, so I'd rather be sick while I have to be at work than be sick while I'm on vacation. I'm sure you agree.
Anyway, wish me luck on fighting off this plague.
My nostrils are at times stuffed and then runny. They constantly feel like they are on fire though. I might as well be breathing fire. The coughing has gotten better though, it used to be I would cough till I choked. Same with the sneezing, yesterday it felt like there were small razor blade factories in the lower portion of my lungs and the only way to ship the product out was to sneeze. These factories had not yet discovered boxes however, instead they shipped the razors haphazardly in singles. Every time I would sneeze these razors would cut their way through my lungs, up my throat, bouncing off the back of it, and out my mouth.
Whoever the buyers are, I wish them a slow death.
The back of my neck feels tight, like someone with a large boot is standing on the back of my neck. Then there's the not so visible effects of the sickness. My stomach complaining as it tries to digest the energy I need to beat this bug. The subtle draining of energy as I try to function at my normal level at work.
I wish I could go home. I can't though. I need sleep. I need a new body.
The medicine did not help. I took it just over an hour ago and there has been no demonstrative change in my condition. Unless you count feeling worse. I dont though.
I got a flu shot this year, for the first time ever. This is not the flu, at least I don't think it is. It started on Saturday and I think I'll be better by tomorrow (optimism, ya dig?) but if this is a cold I havn't had a cold this bad in a long time. Years, even.
I have a long and storied history of getting sick on Christmas day. I think its the blatant consumerism in the face of celebrating salvation. Either way, of the last 30 christmases I've been sick for at minimum half of them. I do not, however, have a history of getting sick in the middle of November. That post Thanksgiving dinner feeling not withstanding. I think everyone gets that. Lets hope this is my Christmas sickness jumping the gun this year. I will be in DC with the family and I would love to not be sick during that time.
I'm obviously not too sick to work, so I'd rather be sick while I have to be at work than be sick while I'm on vacation. I'm sure you agree.
Anyway, wish me luck on fighting off this plague.
Friday, November 05, 2010
It's time to Check out, Sir!
Ah, Friday. So difficult not to just check out mentally at work. You know, since my work is so fulfilling and interesting and all that. It should be a pretty eventful and stressful day, because I have 51 people I manage and of those people 5 of them are extra. Today I have four people on vacation and four people called in sick. So, I am down three people and still have the same amount of work to do. Yay! Go Team!
In other news, my Nanowrimo Novel is at 9300 words. I'm currently averaging 2325 words a day. This is well above the 1667 words a day needed to complete the 50,000 words in 30 days challenge. My Goal is actually 1923 words a day since I lose 4 days in the month to resting on Sundays. It's crazy because 9300 words seems like a ton but it amounts to about 15 single spaced pages in Microsoft Word. That seems kinda meager to me when I reflect on how difficult it was to write all those words. According to many published authors, the more you pratice the skill the easier it is to do. Stephen King described it as teaching your brain to enter a waking dream state and then transcribing what you see there.
I agree that it is more than just thinking and then typing, but I think in the two hours a day I spend (on average) writing my Nanowrimo Novel, I have only achieved something similar to this state for a few minutes at a time each day. I think it's great that I'm even able to come close to what these great authors describe as how they write. It makes this whole experience worth it.
The fear of not finishing is ever present though. There are times, however, when a different fear takes its place, the fear of getting to 50,000 words, but not being done with my story. The more I write and the closer I get the more these two fears change top spots in the back of my mind. At the same time, if I manage to get to 50,000 words, whether the story is done or not, I'm going to be celebrating.
My current goal is to be at 13000 words by Tomorrow night (since I don't write on Sundays). that will put me just above target.
All in all, this experience has been awesome, even in the first 4 days of writing I've already learned a lot. I would definately recommend this event to anyone who is even remotely interesting in improving their writing skills.
Thanks for reading!
In other news, my Nanowrimo Novel is at 9300 words. I'm currently averaging 2325 words a day. This is well above the 1667 words a day needed to complete the 50,000 words in 30 days challenge. My Goal is actually 1923 words a day since I lose 4 days in the month to resting on Sundays. It's crazy because 9300 words seems like a ton but it amounts to about 15 single spaced pages in Microsoft Word. That seems kinda meager to me when I reflect on how difficult it was to write all those words. According to many published authors, the more you pratice the skill the easier it is to do. Stephen King described it as teaching your brain to enter a waking dream state and then transcribing what you see there.
I agree that it is more than just thinking and then typing, but I think in the two hours a day I spend (on average) writing my Nanowrimo Novel, I have only achieved something similar to this state for a few minutes at a time each day. I think it's great that I'm even able to come close to what these great authors describe as how they write. It makes this whole experience worth it.
The fear of not finishing is ever present though. There are times, however, when a different fear takes its place, the fear of getting to 50,000 words, but not being done with my story. The more I write and the closer I get the more these two fears change top spots in the back of my mind. At the same time, if I manage to get to 50,000 words, whether the story is done or not, I'm going to be celebrating.
My current goal is to be at 13000 words by Tomorrow night (since I don't write on Sundays). that will put me just above target.
All in all, this experience has been awesome, even in the first 4 days of writing I've already learned a lot. I would definately recommend this event to anyone who is even remotely interesting in improving their writing skills.
Thanks for reading!
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
Madness? This is...
Nanowrimo! Day 2. This crazy challenge is already taking it's toll. I woke up this morning feeling like I had only slept an hour or two. I actually slept 7 and a half. Getting from my bed to the bathroom, to the kitchen, I literally felt like I was dragging a dead body along. The only problem? That body was mine.
Yesterday I wrote 3,007 words in two hours. In order to complete Nanowrimo the daily goal, in terms of words, is 1,667. So according to that I did almost double duty yesterday. That's to be expected though, only the first page or so is tough, then you fly along until you hit some major roadblocking plot development. Oh, and then there's the ever present fear that I will run out of story before hitting anywhere close to the 50,000 mark. Yeah, I do my best to ignore that fear.
What I am really hoping is that the tiredness I feel in the early morning really has to do with how much I'm taxing my imagination, and not with how much I'm not enjoying work right now. I told Vanina this morning that I didn't think I'd make it to Thanksgiving. Having 4 days in a row off, that hasn't happened since September, and then it felt like a dream that I floated through all too fast.
I was looking on the Nanowrimo website at some of the other users and their current word counts. Some of these people must have taken the day off yesterday (from work or school) because there are a few of them that are over 15,000 words. In one day!
Madness...
Yesterday I wrote 3,007 words in two hours. In order to complete Nanowrimo the daily goal, in terms of words, is 1,667. So according to that I did almost double duty yesterday. That's to be expected though, only the first page or so is tough, then you fly along until you hit some major roadblocking plot development. Oh, and then there's the ever present fear that I will run out of story before hitting anywhere close to the 50,000 mark. Yeah, I do my best to ignore that fear.
What I am really hoping is that the tiredness I feel in the early morning really has to do with how much I'm taxing my imagination, and not with how much I'm not enjoying work right now. I told Vanina this morning that I didn't think I'd make it to Thanksgiving. Having 4 days in a row off, that hasn't happened since September, and then it felt like a dream that I floated through all too fast.
I was looking on the Nanowrimo website at some of the other users and their current word counts. Some of these people must have taken the day off yesterday (from work or school) because there are a few of them that are over 15,000 words. In one day!
Madness...
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