October 04, 2008

• I would love to try again. Never seem to make it past the 10 day mark for some reason. But I really do want to hammer something out this year. So yes, I'm in!
• Hmm. I'll need to give this some thought. The novel doesn't have to be any good, does it?
• Heck no.
• Where do you sign up, Papa Pleg?
• Here. Sorry, should have provided the link originally.
• oh god. every year I want to join but I haven't done so in a long time....I feel highly certain that I won't be able to do it (I know that's negative) but I have been working on my book some lately...It would be awesome to churn out a chunk of new stuff. should I do it, monkeys??? should I ride the nanowrimo tiger?
• ok, I don't fit the technical guidelines, since I will be working on an existing novel, but I am going to try to produce 50,000 words of new material in november in solidarity with the nanowrimos out there :D
• This sounds like exactly the sort of project I'd be excited never to finish.
• Yay, solidarity!
• mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmaybe.
• Well, I thought about it, and couldn't come up with a good reason not to. So I'm signed up. Your mockery may commence November 1st. Actually, the 2nd -- the 1st I'm at a Feist show. Procrastinating already...
• I've signed you up as a buddy, Captain. I'm registered as Plegmund, if anyone wants to join up with me. Maybe we can have a little Mofi community.
• I'm regretting this already.
• October's looking stupidly busy, but maybe November would be okay. I'll think about this.
• Oh, gosh. It's a wonderful, wonderful idea, and just the kick in the pants I need, but the timing is awful. Do they do it again at any other time of the year?
• Good luck kids! I hope you make your goals.
• Signed up. Now wondering, what have I done?
• Curse you, Plegmund. This is taking over my life already -- I can feel it...
• *lounges back with no deadlines looming* *watches some tv* *does a little surfing* *points at Captain R. and laughs*
• Do they do it again at any other time of year? No, but there's Script Frenzy in April (don't bother clicking the link today - one of their main servers is down).
• Can't-- the opera I'm directing goes into production in the first week of November, which means I'll be a gibbering wreck. So that bonkbuster set in turn-of-the-millennium Byzantium will have to wait.
• What's the piece, PA?
• "but the timing is awful." With all due respect .... that is precisely the sound of procrastination.
• TUM, it's The Magic Flute.
• pixplskthxbye
• directing an opera = very cool. re: nano - I did it last year. It was brutal fun towards the end - you need to crank out 1650 words every day (including weekends) to make the target and I was running out of juice. I ended up adding anecdotes about three-legged characters, and a giant robot for word count purposes(you're allowed!). The great thing about it is that out of the wreckage there were one or two good pages....
• It just struck me that of all the sequels/companions to Frankenstein I've ever read, I've never seen anybody try to take a positive spin on the story. Why can't Frankenstein have a happy ending, or at least a few laughs?
• I keep getting emails from the head honcho for our local chapter -- she wants to do meetups and parties and such. And, frankly, I couldn't be bothered. After, sure. Before? During? No way.
• I'm jealous - not a word from my local head honcho. But I have an outline. Go me!!! It's not Frankenstein though.
• It's good that it is not Frankenstein, because that would be plagiarism.
• Oh, yeah. Phew!
• I've also let enough real people know (i.e. not you lot) that it'd be impossible for me to back out. So that's -- good?
• Its always possible to back out
• of anything
• Now I know why they call you d 'fifty ways to leave your lover' ng...
• Apollo knew one way to leave his lover.
• I'd do it but I have nothing to write about. Someone tell me something to write about.
• Write about a man who lives at the centre of the sun
• His job is to keep the sun lit so that ships don't crash into it.
• And he likes Mexican beer.
• Mexican beer is something he hasn't had for a very long time, so he's thinking of taking a holiday.
• in mexico...
• There's nothing like a nice Mexican beer on a sunny day. I guess the title of the novel will have to be Corona.
• Coronas can be quite ghostly.
• Why not Sol?
• also Mexican Pacifico is a vastly better beer than Corona
• Maybe his name should be Sol. He's Jewish.
• So.... how's the first day for everyone. I kinda, uh, forgot till right now.
• Um.
• Yeah..... about that.....
• 2557 words drafted and blogged. I wasn't going to write at weekends, but I think I have to. I see Captain Renault has put up a respectable 1,500 or so.
• vrrmmmmvrrmmm....writers start yr engines!!! not technically participating but I intend to write my 2-3 pages today (and tomorrow!!) good luck million monkeys, let's make some Shakespeare!!
• The Nanowrimo website is very. very. slow. I have been trying for almost an hour now to get in and log in my words. But the Word Count Validator is greyed out. Anyone can help me? Please? Bueller? Anyone?
• I can't currently get into the site at all, Alnedra.
• oooh! I just wrote 1778 words of new material :D
• Oh apparently we're not supposed to validate the word count till Nov 25th. Just need to enter the word count manually before that. I found that if I try to login in at least twice, I can usually get in after around 2 minutes of loading.
• Apparently, you won't be able to upload for a few days, but just have to enter your tally manually -- which I haven't been able to do, either. Word is that the uploading is disabled for the first little while, until the weak-willed start dropping off and create some space for the rest of us. Luckily, I got an hour in before I had to go out and do stuff. Tomorrow I'll be doing stuff all day, so I'll be behind the ball already.
• It's not letting me update my word count. So, if I write a novel by myself and no-one's around to update my word count, is it still a pretentious piece of shit?
• Absolutely!
• I only got out 557 words today. better than nothing!!
• Day 2 total: 3,219.
• Seems as though you can enter your tally by going through the 'my nanowrimo' page, then hitting 'edit novel info', rather than clicking on the little yellow 'update' button that won't click.
• For those less inclined to write a novel than read one, you can join NaNoReMo (National Novel Reading Month) over at the Yeti. They'll be doing Lolita.
• Day 3 total: 5,248.
• 6992. But I'm not going to be able to keep this pace going today and tomorrow.
• Day 5 total: 8,016. Day 4 was only a couple of hundred words.
• 12,000 at the end of day 6, but it will be the same at the end of day 7. Still the Captain and I should be on course as week 1 comes to a close (and the Captain's thing is a nice read).
• Day 6: 9,954.
• Way to go, Capt and Pleg!
• Day 7: 11,047. And thanks for the kind words, Papa Pleg, but yours is much better. Though I did have a good day today.
• Day 8: 14,867 There is an irony here in that my story is about this bloke who undertakes Nanowrimo and gradually finds it causes him some serious life problems. I thought that was sort of amusingly ironic, but I'm not laughing any more. Maybe I need to write about someone who suddenly wins the lottery.
• Day 8: 12,117. With more to come later today -- I have to go out and trim branches and stuff.
• 13,442.
• Hi monkeys! 16,575. Pleg, what if your Nano writer won the lottery? Would he keep writing his novel?
• He could hire someone to write it for him. A sexy young tomato of a Romanian girl, with whom he'd embark on a whirlwind romance.
• 15,592.
• Hm, still 14627 (family outing yesterday). But I'll be back. Romanian girl Reasserting her claim to a Romance culture, I expect...
• OK, 16,095.
• 17,035.
• 18506!
• Bastard!
• This is the shouting counting thread.
• I'm having my main character join monkeyfilter and read this thread. Then I can cut and paste the thing in its entirety. Ha ha ha ha ha
• 18,024, with more to come after The Tudors.
• "...and read this thread" Have him/her read the "bottoming for a horse" thread and you'd be done.
• daisy_may is 58,334 words.
• 19,000.
• 20,011! But I missed my writing window this morning. Had a power outage between 5 and 730AM, and there was NO WAY I was going to write longhand.
• What...! Dangnabbit, I'm third. How did that happen?
• When in doubt, have a character set fire to something.
• I just had my guy go into an extended dream sequence. It's working out much better than my other stretching-out idea, getting rid of all contractions, and having everybody talk like Commander Data.
• What...! Dangnabbit, I'm third. Just ahead of those who gave up... Last among those still working at it. Heh heh.
• 20,915...
• Gah!
• I had a strange dream, where everybody talked like androids...
• 21,121. This thing is starting to get a momentum of its own...
• I had a strange dream, where everybody talked like androids... Like, shouting numbers at each other all the time?
• I've gotten a lot of mileage out of the Serendipity Plot Twist Generator. They have a ton of other generators as well. So far my greatest source of reassurance and encouragement has been the book No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty, the creator of NaNoWriMo.
• 7.
• Ugh. Two hours, 764 words. Excerpt of the day:

  The tall thin man entered the post office, trailing behind him the scent of peppermint and dusty leather, which was presumably his aftershave, or possibly a mixture of several different personal grooming products. Maybe he liked to eat those peppermint swirl candies. I have no fucking idea.

• Wow. Even that one paragraph is better than any of the drivel I've been pumping out.
• Reading the Captain's dream episodes has filled me with a desire for real frites, but I don't know where I'm going to get them. 23,259
• QUIT CATCHING UP WITH ME
• THIS PACE IS GOING TO DESTROY US BOTH
• Reading the Captain's dream episodes has filled me with a desire for real frites, but I don't know where I'm going to get them. Can anyone read this, or is this for official nanowrimo's only? I would have loved to participate, but reality set in...
• My thing is on my LJ blog, along with the rest of my rants and paranoid delusions, so it's available to LJ-friends only. Membership has its privileges. Or, in this case, not. Papa Pleg's is much better, anyway. His profile has a clicky-click to it, which he rather short-sightedly linked to the rest of us.
• Yes, I have been contemplating gaining membership to your LJ for some time now - do you charge a Freedom Fee for access?
• Frites are just another words For taters left to eat Taters ain't worth nothin', till they're frite
• 22,178. Ungh. Not a good night. Mother Renault threw me off by putting me on a wild goose chase for some groceries that don' go on sale until tomorrow, and I lost a lot of writing time. And now I'm just too tired.
• You're all doing it worng.
• That Instructable is not only hilarious, it's suprisingly technically adept.
• Still stuck at 7. I got a case of writer's block after "It was a dark and stormy night."
• "Still Stuck at 7" "It was a dark and stormy night!" Funny to hear myself mumble that, due to the fact that the sun had just crested overhead. In fact, a single plane of photons tore through the cloud ceiling and left a splinter in my right cornea mere seconds ago. The medics are on the way! I pray that they do not ask for my insurance card. I have an on-again/off-again phobia of co-pays and eel skin wallets. Mixing the two proved deadly last year - only seven months ago, in fact. This is where I am stuck. At the seven! Seven months. Seven years. Seven seconds. Seven cookies. Seven lovelies walking down the street. Seven eyes at the back of my head. Seven fish that I shall fry tonight. Please do not stifle your laughs! I throw a penny to the well that you all castigate me while emptying your lungs in empty sniggers. Time is aloof, and the sirens now slit my tympanic membranes. Adieu. Ciao. またね. Later dude. Selamat tinggal. See you when the cows burn home down. Bye.
• You're poking the bear. Dude, don't poke the bear.
• Seven's the key number here. Think about it. Seven doors...Seven-Eleven...Seven. Seven little chipmunks twirling on a branch, eatin' lots of sunflowers on my uncle's ranch. You know that old children's tale from the sea? It's like you're dreamin' of gorgonzola when it's clearly bree time baby. Step into my office...cuz you're fuckin' fired! This thing writes itself.
• Needs more goats.
• Having never heard of that phrase before, I'm happy to report that I have learned something new! *pokes one last time and exits quietly*
• THIS PACE IS GOING TO DESTROY US BOTH I KNOW BUT IF WE SLOW DOWN WE'RE GOING TO LOSE aAAGH
• 24,350.
• 23,100 AIEE I'M IN LAST PLACE AND I STILL DON'T HAVE A PLOT
• 26,185. Today is the half-way mark.
• AND I STILL DON'T HAVE A PLOT I did at one point, but dropped it when it became inconvenient.
• 26,328.
• I had to give up. Two bouts of coughs led to a few nights spent sitting upright sleeping fitfully, so I was fairly tired. Good luck, guys.
• Hope you're feeling better now.
• I broke 25k! Am eating celebratory pancakes. (Actually just one giant pancake. I lack the patience to make pancakeS.) Alnedra, you'd have to really push things to make 50k before the 30th. But I bet you could hit 30k!
• 27,755.
• 27,120, with possibly more later. It's tough slogging right now.
• 28,279.
• Just for you, mechagrue, I will try! Thanks, Pleggers. I'm still coughing badly, after almost recovering over the weekend. My colleague thinks it might be sick building syndrome, as so many of us are down with coughs.
• 27,757 - at least I caught up to Plegmund!
• *writes three more words*
• ... and some more. 30,077
• 30,163. And a full day ahead of schedule.
• If I may quote Papa Pleg's opus: It’s not that I couldn’t think of what to write; it’s not that I’m too tired or distracted. I just do not want to do it. I don’t want to. Do not want. But I must. Oh my yes. I just want to rid myself of this albatross.
• *Shakes fist in outrage, opens word processing program, stares blankly at the screen, decides this would be a good time to wash the dishes*
• slow start at 5962. As mechagrue suggested, I'm gonna try for a more manageable 30k rather than 50k.
• Yes, obviously my MC speaks for me there, Captain. You know, when I passed 30,000 I thought: it is doable now, it's definitely doable. But it wasn't. like, a joyful feeling; it was more 'Oh God, I really can't not do it now'.
• You realise, people, I have not watched television for weeks now. That's how much I am suffering here. Well, not watched much
• I haven't let tv suffer. And especially not on Tuesdays, when The Tudors is on. (But there's a conflict with the Lee Atwater Story -- what to do, what to do?) My reading has stopped completely. I picked up The Magnificent Ambersons, a good BUT SHORT book I've been trying to finish since early October, but with family commitments and this stupid thing, I haven't touched in weeks. I spent most of my time rereading the thing. "OK, which one was Fanny again? The mom or the girlfriend?" *sigh* But I've told too many RL people about this not to see it through at this point. Which was a dumb move on my part. Even just a night off. That'd be so nice. I can afford it, but I hate the thought of having to start up cold again.
• 32,162
• There goes my night off...
• 32,179.
• 31,047. For the last hour I've been stuck at:

  “Whatever,” Ivy Lee said again.

  Even my CHARACTERS are bored with this story. Personally I'm rooting for Alnedra to be the dark horse, come-from-behind surprise winner of our little race!
• On the other hand, my story managed to get a friend in his own funk about love lost and make a very uncharacteristically frank post to his LJ account, so I'm having some sort of impact. Though that doesn't mean I don't want to set fire to this thing in the backyard and never speak of it again.
• Cap'n, your story is one of the most atmospheric I've ever read; it gives an incredibly strong sense of time and place. Even if all the characters did was sit around poking beans up their noses, it'd be worth the read just for that.
• Cap'n, your story is one of the most atmospheric I've ever read Yeah, and/but I really want to see where it's going.
• It needs to be far-better organized, and it's much too late for that. Plus my MC doesn't have a name yet, and I'm embarassed to try putting one in now.
• Papa Pleg's MC is much better, much more fleshed out. His story is much more capably written, overall, I think, though I do still have to get used to when he shifts modes sometimes.
• Which isn't a fault of his -- just of my own reading habits. I'm quite enjoying his story, and the meta-story behind it.
• To be honest, Captain, I'm beginning to think it was a mistake to do a Nano story about someone who's writing a Nano story. Yours has more literary quality than mine and TUM is absolutely right about it being, what's the word, evocative of time and place. I would like to read it again properly in consolidated form when this is all over. Anyway, enough words wasted where they don't count. (Incidentally, if you were mystified as to why I was claiming 32,162, I've just discovered that I never actually posted yesterday's quota: it was just sitting there as a draft.)
• 34345.
• Jeezus, man -- 2,200? You're fucking killing me. I have a board meeting tonight, then (now) I have to shovel TWO driveways, then it's back here, and maybe, MAYBE an hour's worth of writing before Real Housewives of New York" is on, then yesterday's Jon Stewart, and MAYBE by soap before bed... Twenty-two hundred I have to write now. Fuck...
• Plus my MC doesn't have a name yet, and I'm embarassed to try putting one in now. How about "The Second Mrs. de Winter?"
• 34,419.
• 33,401 OMG I FINALLY FOUND MY STORY!
• 34,345. Holding steady.
• 10175, ye gods, I'm exhausted. mechagrue, I'm very touched by your faith, but I seriously doubt I can catch up in the remaining week and a bit. Will definitely aim for 30k though!
• 36,032.
• *gnashes*
• 36,343
• At least I'm at the point where I'm counting down, now. 1,400 w/p/d is much more reasonable than the pace I've been keeping lately. With this weekend, I'm aiming to be done for Friday. That's the aim.
• 13,050. I have to work tomorrow, so that may either be good or bad. Good: it's quiet and I get to tap tap tap on my laptop. Bad: it's a madhouse and I stay upright only long enough to come home and collapse into bed.
• 37,195 *does a little dance*
• Bloody hell. Now I'm losing again? But Laura is the Friday nite movie! I won't have time to write!
• Author's Note: I'm losing control of this beast again. The plot is too far for the word count, or, rather, I may not have enough filler to get me back on track. I should have done a much better job of plotting the plot out before I started, which is to say, I should have done something instead of the nothing I did do. Didn't do. Whatever. I can't hit the climax until the last 2 or 3 thousand words without spoiling it. So somehow, I have to fill twelve thousand words. Ungh. If I were to do this again -- and why on Earth would I, this has been horrible -- I would do some strict planning beforehand. So many words for this part, so many words for that part. I thought I could wing it on a day-by-day basis, and that's been entirely wrong. There's just some days where you can't think of anything to put in there.
• Learning something important for next time is nothing to sneeze at; it's half the battle. Maybe you can add an epilogue of some sort to this year's.
• ?
• Two words: Lengthy foreword. Four more words: "Please see Appendix A."
• 37,389.
• 38,489. Chapter Seventeen features a cameo appearance by Louis Renault, Captain of Musketeers.
• 16,375. I hoped to hit at least 18,000 today, but circumstances conspired to make me take time away from the computer. And now I must sleep.
• I woke up, turned on the computer, and realized that there was no way I could do any writing today. My brain is so completely fried that I've been reduced to knocking the most mind-numbing items off my to-do list. (Updating invoices, whee.) Alnedra, at that rate, you might well catch up with me!
• 40,647. Ha! Come on, mechagrue. Only a week to go...
• *inserts new character, Pleg the Drug Dealer, who will come to a nasty end*
• 39,139.
• 20,605. Typing on a Macbook makes my fingers cramp. This story must never see the light of day.
• 40,696.
• 42,609
• 40,094.
• This story must never see the light of day. Oh, go on. Tell us about it, even if you don't want to quote.
• Maybe after, when I've given the damn thing a great deal of plastic surgery. It's mostly disjointed scenes at the moment. Need to build some bridges between stuff that happens.
• 41,120. Getting close...
• 42,049. I would describe mine as "a modern take on the classic "unsuspecting waif learns she's a princess" story, with several handfuls of urban fantasy thrown in for good measure." Which is funny, because it's not what I set out to write, nor is it the kind of thing I'd be interested in reading. A small part of me thinks I should clean it up next year and shop it around. The rest of me thinks "We already have a perfectly good American Gods - who needs a shitty knock-off?"
• (And by "clean it up" I'm sure you understand I mean "Completely rewrite it from the bottom up." Trust me, this turd needs more than a quick polish.)
• Monkeyfilter: this turd needs more than a quick polish. Actually, for mine, the structural problems I thought were there now prove to be not such a big deal. I do need a continuity editor -- I keep forgetting that I rambled on aimlessly about wrote before. Now I have to be very careful in terms of allocating words towards the ending. It's getting easier -- it's much easier to get myself in front of the computer than it was during the 20Ks.
• Oh -- and I think a good Q&A session is in order, once all of this nonsense is done. There are some questions I'd like to ask, only I've held back, not wanting to interfere with others' writing processes. I'm sure I'm not alone in that.
• We should do an author panel discussion in the 'firc. And by "we," I mean you lot, because I couldn't be arsed to write one.
• I don't do 'firc, baby.
• I love the idea of having a post-mortem discussion! But not on chat, unless the constant updating of this thread is starting to bother the non-NaNo monkeys.
• No, please continue. If all goes well, this thread will be my novel.
• Well at this point, the page is only 6,302 words, so ya better get crackin'!
• It was a dark and stormy night. rocket88 had just declared his intention to use the NaNoWriMo thread as the basis of his potboiler, but the ever-practical mechagrue couldn't help pointing out its verbal insufficiency for the task. Then, she walked in. No, not her, the other one. She was a monster made of underpants. Or was she a monster wearing underpants? I never could tell with that one. She looked at me with her good eye, and started in on what a dark and stormy night it was. She was all, "rocket88 this," and "mechagrue that," and before you know it, the screwy dame was trying to tell me the book was the ghost. "Here, drink this," I said, pushing a glass across the desk. "What is it?" she asked, with her mouth full of whatever it was. "I don't know, and I don't care." I snapped. "I just wanted to shut you up for a minute, and even that didn't work. What a sap I am." "Yes. Yes, you are," she said, turning on her good heel. She slammed to door behind her as I buried my face in my hands and wept the bitter tears of a secret bedwetter.
• "Who's up for it?", asked Plegmund excitedly. He knew a few Mofites have had a shot in the past, but in a fit of insanity he had signed up for this November. Just to make it interesting, he planned to do it in public, ie blog the text as he went. This was typical of Plegmund. Ever eager to commit himself full-steam to all kinds of endeavors that he hadn't the time, much less the intention, to ever finish properly. NaNoWriMo would be different, he told himself. This time he would do it. Of course a part of him knew it would never happen, but that part was beaten into submission with another whisky. "Who's with me?" he asked again, glancing around the dimly lit pub. Silence. Not that the place was empty - far from it. The MonkeyFilter was unusually busy for a Saturday, and as pubs go this was almost exclusively a weekday hangout. The kind of place where office monkeys sneak off for an extended lunch while the boss thinks they're working diligently. It's surprising anything important ever gets done in Monkeytown. No, today the 'Filter was quite active, but it seemed nobody so much as lifted their eyes from their drinks at Plagmund's challenge. Nobody, that is, except Alnedra. (to be continued)
• He looked into her eyes. "Come with me to the land of at least 44,871 words," he said, in his deep voice (somewhere between Paul Robeson and James Mason, and not at all like the voice of John Major's geeky nephew). "To be honest, I'd rather have a cup of tea." she replied. Then two shambling, ape-like figures came forward. "I'm Renno!" mumbled one. "Me Cagroo!" said the other.
• No, let me not diss my comrades. Rubbing his eyes, Plegmund saw that the dim illumination had deceived his vision. There stood before him a broad-shouldered figure in a captain's uniform. The picture of manly health, from his laughing but keenly percipient countenance to the flexuous dancer's toes which formed his earthward extremity, he radiated a beguiling combination of simple charm and urbane sophistication. Beside him stood a tall figure whose deep grey eyes and lustrous blonde curls somehow bespoke a soul which had imbibed deeply of the humane wisdom of ancient cultures, but whose athletic figure bespoke a man as apt to the travails of sporting prowess as the more esoteric ventures of metaphysical adumbration. "OK, then guys." said Plegmund, with a tear in his eye.
• 42,720.
• six thousand, five hundred and seventeen. six thousand, five hundred and twenty three. six thousand, five hundred and twenty nine, oh no, thirty three.
• 44,002. I spent the first half of my writing talking myself out of ever writing fiction again. (Listing all the things I could have been doing with my NaNo time slot this month, and so forth.) And the last half talking myself back into it. So I guess that's a wash. My goal is to finish this thing by Friday night, and take the weekend OFF.
• My house is a fucking sty.
• Two weeks ago I was stepping over a pile of clean laundry that I dumped in the living room. This week I am stepping over a pile of the same clothes, but dirty, and two feet to the left of the original.
• I'm back to my student-daze habit of letting the dust cows get big enough for me to just sweep them up with my foot and toss them in the garbage by the handful.
• Now you know why the best writers are alcoholic hermits.
• Ooh now that I'm looking around... it's scary in here. I hadn't really noticed. I'm not sure which is worse: A) The trash can that I use for litter box scoopings, which is so full that the lid will no longer close, and is simply propped atop Mount Cat Shit. B) I compost all my food scraps in a worm bin outside. A half-gallon coffee tin is my food scraps' temporary housing on the kitchen counter, until I can take them outside. The coffee tin was filled a while back. I now have a stack of banana peels and used coffee filters sitting on the kitchen counter.
• I just shamed myself into cleaning up item B. The C:N ratio in the worm box is all off, but at least the kitchen counter is now free of rotting produce. Yikes.
• 47,221
• 2,779 to go. A day and a bit should do it.
• 44,454.
• Finally hit 25k. 25,086 to be precise. I may be able to hit 30k by the end of the week.
• 45,305. I have lost interest in this project entirely. The only thing keeping me going is a stubborn insistence on completing the task. WHO TALKED ME INTO THIS AND WHY???
• I could have wrapped up this story in a much more satisfactory way about 10,000 words ago. But don't worry, kids -- tonight's episode will feature an entirely gratuitous sex scene. Consider it my gift to you, dear readers...
• Like Zorro!
• 46,633.
• I had a very difficult time getting started last night, so after about 500 words, I put it aside. Then I picked up a few beers, and wrote about 1,600 words flat-out-drunk. Looking back this morning, I'm somewhat impressed. I hit the plot points I needed to. It could use a solid editing (as the rest of the novel could), but yeah -- not bad, considering, if I say so myself. Not that any of it is publishable quality...
• 47,408. At a loss for what comes next, and how to resolve the plot, much less what the plot IS. Fuck it. Banged out 2,000 words wherein one of the characters runs away with bigfoot.
• I'm stuck as to how to bring this to a close. I know I'm going to do an epilogue of sorts, which would be about five hundred, but then that leaves 2,800 for the main climax thing, which is way more than it needs. So I have to jam some more filler in there. But what? Maybe I can burn down Plegmund's house or something...
• Have character pick up a magazine and start reading. Quote the article he or she is reading. As soon as you hit 49,998, tack on THE END.
• Whenever I see "NaNoWriMo" in the sidebar, it makes me think of "Nano Nano."
• 47,587.
• Natural disaster/terrorist attack/Legionnaire's disease: everyone dies. 2800 words/# of important characters = number of words you can spend describing each death in gruesome detail.
• ...and then I woke up and it was all a dream!
• I had a day off today which gave me the chance to knock the thing on the head. According to me the final word count was 53,547, but the official Nanowrimo count is 53,782. Thanks to all, especially my dauntless companions in this endeavour, for the support received. I've done a pdf version which would be easier to read if anyone ever wanted to.
• Congratulations!
• Wow! Congratulations, Pleggers (^_^) I've hit 27,200 tonight. Might go to 28,000 before I go to bed, so hitting 30k is probably not a problem. Ah well, there's always next year....
• 50,002. *blinks rapidly in surprise; staggers away from desk*
• He had 50,000, but felt compelled to add "The End."
• Yay! Congrats mechagrue.
• Thanks! It's been several hours, but I still can't believe... it's over... I'm... FREE!
• Congrats! Bit of a forced-night off for me, having to pick up Mother Renault at the airport. This may indeed come down to the wire for me...
• Congrats, mechagrue! You can do it, Capt. DO EEET!
• I hit 30,377 finally. Well, no badge, but that's certainly the goal I was
• Stupid me. Tried to hit the Preview button but missed. *hobbles off to bed*
• Eighteen hundred words to go and this is NOT MOVING.
• BLUE BAR'S GONE GREEN, BABY! Now I just need to END THIS.
• Come on, Captain, you can do it. Anything to plug the gap. Stick eighteen hundred words of recent blog posts in there (not the Agathe ones, obviously). It's so close!
• DONE AND WON AT 50,508. I'd like to thank my fellow Nanowrimoers, for helping me to chug along, and for my friend the f-bomb, whose egregious use allowed me to reach the word total. I'm having a tricky time downloading the badges and whatnot, so I'm gonna do that later. I'll also get a PDF going sometime next week for those who are interested (just pop me an email). And that's it. I'm done. With just one more thing to say: FUCK YOU, NANOWRIMO. FUCK YOU ROYAL.
• I think it's quite telling that I haven't rec'd a request for a PDF version of my crap novel. Heh heh.
• i'm waiting for the audiobook version to be available for download from iTunes as read by Cory Docktrow.
• Well done, Captain. I think three Mofite wins is pretty good going. I'd like a pdf. I'll send you the badges in exchange if that would help.
• I think it's quite telling that I haven't rec'd a request for a PDF version of my crap novel. Pfftt. Who has time to read? Will quote you a good price for producing an audiobook version. Discount available!
• Cappy, please send me the pdf... pronto!! (I tried setting up a live journal account a couple weeks ago, for the sole intention of becoming a 'subscriber' to your blog to read your progress, and somehow messed it up). Congrats to all!! So, should I avoid doing this next year??
• For the closet masochists here, mothninja and I have started a blog just tonight, called the MofiWriMo (Mofi/Mofirc Writing Motivator). Anyone interested in joining can write to either of us for an invite (One of us! One of us!). I found using this thread to record my wordcount did wonders for my productivity. I felt obliged to write a minimum number of words to justify posting a new word count, and reading the progress of other writers gave me more motivation to keep going. For those of you who want to write all year round, we can use the blog to nudge each other on (^_^)
• I'm still trying to decide if I want to keep writing. My Nano novel is more fiction than I've ever written before in my life, and it... went poorly. PDFs will NOT be made available.
• It takes practice, mechagrue. My Nanowrimo this year is really crap, mainly because I haven't been writing in a long time. Writing is sometimes perceived as a "gift from the muses" kind of thing, but most writers I've read who discussed their writing, put it down to habit and self-discipline. The more you write (and proofread and edit...) the better you get at it.
• Commiserations to non-finishers, by the way; one thing I've learnt is that unless you're very lucky, your progress is always at the mercy of circumstances.
• Indeed.
• Here we go... All for that, and a do-it-yourself diploma. Well.
• congratulations everyone
• I would like to ask my fellow nanowrimoers if they felt that their motivation was changing as they went along. For me, this started out as a simple (yet foolhardy) task to beat, to prove to myself that I could do it, but as I went along, I found myself wistfully thinking about old doors reopening, that I actually could become the writer I thought I would be when I was younger, before life got in the way. 'I am capable of doing this, I just chose not to,' so to speak. (Which is not to suggest for a moment that this schlock is a magical key to life-changing events.) What started as a bet became an examination of paths not taken in life (even more so because of my material), and an exercise in escapism based on that. I would like to know if this was a common experience.
• I would also like to know if my fellow nanowrimoers feel that they gained more insight into how novels work by having written one (albeit under a game-changing set of conditions). For me, I started learning more about novels' construction very early in this process, which was a big surprise, given how many novels I've churned through over the years.
• I try to fight the idea that I might produce a viable novel. I wrote at least two (or my God, was it three?) non-viable ones in my twenties. So my Nano attempt was not entirely a new experience. If I'm honest I still sort of think at the back of my mind I might do something viable in non-fiction when I grow up.
• I just want to write something. I don't need anyone to read it, or make it a viable novel. I think Terry Pratchett once said something like, "Nobody really wants to write a novel. They just want to have written a novel."
• I was surprised at how much soul-searching I ended up doingr. The crappy results of my writing had nothing to do with this. I understood that it would be crap going into it. I had forgotten all about Nano until October 29th, when a friend asked if I was going to do it this year. I thought, "what the hell" and signed up. Every year for the last 8 years I had looked at Nano and thought "Not this year, maybe next year." I'm glad to be able to check it off my "some day" list, I'm glad that I did it. On the down side, I walked into Nano without the least bit of forethought, planning, character sketches, plot - all those silly little details. This would be a different discussion if an average first novel advance was say $50,000 instead of $5,000. I know it's terribly crass to drag money into this discussion. But I only have so many hours in a day, and I need to spend them on either: 1. Things that will make me money, for which I strive to maximize income per hour. 2. Things that I really truly enjoy doing. Writing fiction falls into neither of those categories. Out of the estimated 87 hours I spent writing my Nano novel, I only really truly enjoyed one of them. I remember that hour quite well, if only because it stood out so starkly against the soul-crushing grind of the other 86. What Nano did prove to me is how much I can accomplish if I block out 1-3 hours per day. Since I finished Nano, I have kept that writing slot open for projects that have been on my "some day" list for a while. These are projects with a high score on #2, but an uncertain score for #1, so I kept pushing them aside as being frivolous. This morning I spent my time slot working on a website that I've been planning to build for at least six months now. Whether or not any $$ comes from it, I really enjoy doing it. Nano has shown me that it's better to have done something (and regretted it) than to keep not getting around to it. Overall it was an amazing experience, but not in the way that it's supposed to be. And not in the way it is for most participants, as far as I can tell. Will I continue writing fiction? No. Will I continue to dedicate time to dream projects that may or may not turn out to be useful? Absolutely. Sorry this is so long. I've been thinking about this topic a LOT over the last month, as you can see!
• (Although I have to confess, my inner eight year old is still convinced that I'm making the wrong decision. Can't someone tell her to pipe down?)
• Drown your inner child with alcohmahol. Works for me!
• PDF is now available to whomever wants it. There was Papa Pleg and SMT -- anyone else?
• I'd like a look
• I already read it. I'd suggest including a street map of Montreal so the reader can follow along, kind of like they did with Lord of the Rings.
• How are you distributing this baby? Do I have to sign a waiver?
• That implies there's something worth stealing, so -- no.
• *starts hawking copies on the corner of 45th and 8th Ave*
• I've got it, Captain - thanks.
• Send me a copy, please. With this one plus Pleg's, that's two xmas presents sorted already.
• Hey now, don't go stealing my gift swap idea!
• Just to be completely, brutally, perhaps cruelly honest with you guys? I'd love to read a PDF of your second draft.
• Chicken.
• Second draft???
• So I just went to my local TGIO* party, and I got the 'heart attack' prize, for being the last finisher. Turns out that our region's word count was the second highest in Canada (after Thunder Bay -- but c'mon -- what else is there to do in Thunder Bay), and 26th around the world. Which isn't too shabby. There were three people there over 100K. I think we had two in the region over 150. There also seems to be a January version, which is set-your-own-limit, and a year-long affair, also set-your-own-limit for "serious" writers. They also want a bi-weekly meetup. Umm... *Thank God It's Over
• Your region does seem exceptionally active - I don't know why, but hey, why not take advantage of it?
• I forgot to mention -- at the TGIO party, there was one guy there, the husband of the ML. He didn't finish. He was trying to get this pity-party going, about how no-one at the party had to deal with a full-time job like he did, all of the stress of being a teacher dealing with "at-risk stupid kids". I'm guessing he could have stayed at home and worked on his novel. And his claim of being the only one with a full-time job was incorrect.
• That reminds me - another point that Nano brought home to me is the irrelevancy of excuses. When you hear stories about the obstacles people have overcome in order to win, you realize that there really aren't any good excuses. Just whining. I haven't given up all whining, myself. But as a direct result of Nano, I'm more likely to say "I don't want to do that" than trot out some excuse about why I can't.
• I fully realize that it was possible for life to simply get in the way of this -- I was stymied a bit towards the end, having to deal with unexpected stuff -- but it was buddy's whole attitude of 'you don't know what I have to deal with', when, yes, indeed, I know exactly what it's like having a full time job and then spending two hours with the beast every day. And when buddy's job entails teaching "stupid kids", any sympathy just kinda evaporates. However. I think I've decided that I'm going to rework this thing, and see what I can do with it. Not just yet -- I need to let it sit for a while to get some distance on it. But the hard work is done, I suppose, and doing it just to 'win' Nanowrimo seems kinda pointless, now.
• *wonders if the good Captain would consider noting some of his reworking progress here*
• *sigh* Now I have Neddy AND the ML wanting me to plot my progress... Bit of sad news today -- I just found out while updating my Christmas card list that my old English Lit prof and Creative Writing teacher, Michael Hornyansky, has passed away. Not unexpected, but still. I was actually thinking of soliciting his take on my crap novel, if only to give him a laugh. Now, that won't be happening. Godspeed, Michael.
• Sorry to hear that, Capt. I'm reminded to get in touch with some of my old professors that I've been meaning to speak with for some time now (gosh, I'm good at that). ...shall continue Agathe on the commute home this evening
• He was an excellent, if brutal, teacher. But brutal in a way that couldn't fail to command your respect and laughter. Interesting man. He won a Rhodes Scholarship, and went to Oxford, studying under (among others) Tolkien, of whom he didn't seem to think very much. Also won the Newdigate Prize, defeating Donald Hall in the process -- he had a few marvellous couplets celebrating Hall's defeat. Incredible mind. A bit standoffish at first, but it didn't take much to get invited to his house for sherry in the backyard.
• So... any interest round here in Nanowrimo 2009?
• I am considering it. But I have such an awful lot of other writing to do that I'm not sure. That sounds like a bad excuse, doesn't it?
• I've signed up. I'm going to write a beautiful novel about a man who repeatedly cuts himself shaving
• *deep breath* will try again
• Maybe a new thread?