Category Archives: Progress

The Excitement’s Definitely Worn Off

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There’s a reason why I love week one of NaNo, and it’s because there’s so much excitement.  After at least a good month of waiting for Nov 1st, I finally get to write.  It’s also one of the easiest weeks, mostly because you’re introducing characters and the world they live in.  Week two is harder, because you have to rely more on moving the plot along.  Things need to start moving along at a quicker pace.  Plus, it’s the week I get bored, and usually give up on writing.  I can’t afford miss an entire week.  Well, not with three novels anyway.  With one, yes, and usually I’m fine with doing two and missing a week.  But my 150,00 word goal could be disastrous if I miss a week for all three.  there’s no way I’d be able to make that up, so I definitely need to stay more on track this year.

Secret Service Novel: 17,613; I’m hoping I can get it together long enough to write 700 words, which will put me a day ahead.  I got on a roll last night, so I went with it.  Never argue when inspiration hits.  But if I don’t write 700 words tonight, I’m not going to worry.

Harry Potter Fanfic: 16,305; things haven’t change since my last update, but those missing 300 words are mine!

2006 Sequel: 16,727; I had trouble sleeping (which isn’t unusual), so I wrote today’s chapter in the wee hours of the morning.  Granted, I get a lot of work done in the middle of night, but a normal sleeping schedule would be nice as well.  Who am I kidding?  Sleep can wait 20 more days.  Moving on, I’m getting a little bored with this…I think conflict should move things along a little.  Maybe a mini outline or something during my middle-of-the-day non-writing productive time will help.

Grand total: 50645!  Which mean that I’m technically a NaNo winner 5 years in a row!  But for me it doesn’t count until I have three 50,000 word novels.  I’m one-third of the way there.  All in all, today was a good day to take a break from writing, even I’m not totally ahead with things.

I’m A Writing Machine!

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Holy cow, I’ve written a lot of words.  Tomorrow, I should cross the 50,000 tomorrow.  Of course, it’s a combined total for all 3 novels, but 50,000 words is a lot for 10 days!

Secret Service: 16,451; I got on a roll with this one, so I went with it.  Her relationship with her dad is starting to become more strained.  The thing that has surprised me the most with this novel is the fact that the secret service doesn’t have as big a role as I had orignally thought.

Harry Potter fanfic: 15022; The pace of the story moving slowly but quickly all at the same time.  Other than that, things are pretty…expected. 

2006 Sequel: 15,044; Chloe did get a visit from one the patients from the time she was in the treatment facility, which was a nice surprise for her. 

Grand total: 46,517; I’m very satisfied with my wordcount, but I’m not stopping until I get 150,000.

Fun Facts and Other Stuff

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I’ve noticed in the last week that I’m getting very particular about when and where I write.  I’m perfectly fine when I’m not at home, so I’m not too concerned.  However, writing at home is proving to be slightly problematic.  The middle of the night works is a productive time because no one’s awake except for me. The morning is fine because my mom’s not home.  When she is home, however, is the time I have the most trouble writing.  While I typically try to avoid writing during this time, and try to focus my attention on other productive tasks (eating is good, and so is going to the gym), it would be nice to actually get writing done during this time.  Perhaps I need to write elsewhere during this time.  Don’t worry, I’m not going to go into some rant about how much I hate being cooped up at home.  What I’m learning is that I need to work out the best times for writing, and working around things that are potential annoyances.  It’s definitely a different experience from past NaNo’s when I would write at school or during my lunch breaks at work. 

So onto the fun facts part of the post.  Today was the day for secrets to start coming out in my secret service novel.

  • Kyle, one of Kiora’s secret service agents was adopted and is trying to find them
  • Dustin admits that Kiora is pretty, and might possibly be attracted to her, but won’t admit to it.  It might be why he is so hostile towards her
  • Kiora has an aunt Arabella that she doesn’t know about, and she’s currently in a psych ward
  • Blake (kiora’s dad) knows Arabella’s in a psych ward, and refuses to tell kiora about her unknown aunt
  • luna’s mom (luna being a classmate of kiora) and luna are in the same psych ward as her aunt arabella
  • holly (who is the presidents daughter and a classmate of kiora’s) is involved in some group; she currently trying to recruit kiora for the group, but her sister aisling is against the idea; holly also had to wait for luna to not be around in order to talk to kiora about coming over one weekend
  • i get the feeling that blake and luna’s dad go way back, but the jury’s still out on that one
  • I also have a feeling that kyle is somehow connected to kiora’s family, but the jury’s out on that one as well

Secret Service Novel: 13,386; I’m pretty happy with how this is going.  I’m starting to show what’s going on with other characters and the whole reason why Kiora need secret service protection will probably come up again (I just wish I knew when that would be).

Harry Potter and the Giant Prehistoric Chicken: No updated word count; I had trouble sitting down and focusing on writing today’s chapter.  There’s no particular reason why I’m having trouble focusing, since it’s been a problem I’ve had today.

2006 Sequel: 13,476; Chloe’s been doing a lot of reflecting and a lot of volunteering the last few thousand words.  Other than that, there’s nothing to add.

Wordcount: 39,019; assuming I can focus long enough to write the Giant Prehistoric Chicken, my word count should be at around 40686

The Problems of the Giant Prehistoric Chicken Are Solved!

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As you know, I’ve been having some trouble writing my Harry Potter fanfiction, and I think I’ve managed to figure out why I’ve had so much trouble with it.  First of all, I think I was trying to mimic J.K. Rowling style a little too much.  Secondly, I was trying to mimic the structure of her novels a little to much.  And the last reason I’ve been having trouble is becasue I’m trying to keep everyone too much in character.  Now that I’ve been able to focus on my writing style, I’ve been having a much easier time writing it.  As far as mimicking her structure and keeping the characters as they are in the novels, I’ve decided to throw that out the window for the month.  I’m now losely following her novel structure, and the characters are still themselves, but I’m changing things a bit for the month.  Hopefully I’ll have an easier time writing it now, but if not, it’s a project that’ll wait for another month.

Secret Service Novel: I haven’t worked on this novel today, so there’s no updated wordcount, but I’m confident that I’ll get the 1667.

Harry Potter: 11,707; I don’t have anything to add to my above paragraph.  As a side note, Deathly Hollows Part 1 looks really epic.

2006 Sequel: 11,739; No thoughts on this one, other than to say that it constantly surprises me. 

Wordcount: 33,757; that’s taking into account the fact that I haven’t written anything for my secret service novel.  assuming I get the 1667, I’ll be at around 35,400 words. 

 

Fun Tidbits

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My novels are really starting to develop a mind of their own, and I thought I would share a few of the things that have come up in the last few days.

  • chloe ends up in rehab/treatment facility because she came dangerously close to attempting suicide
  • kiora goes to a private prep school in D.C., and apparently is more extroverted than I had planned her to be
  • kyle, who is one of kiora’s secret service agents, is married and has a 10 year old daughter
  • blake (kiora’s dad) is apparently the secretary of education
  • mike is in love with chloe
  • george and hermione are headed towards a relationship
  • there are other ways to go to the underworld besides dying
  • there’s a ritual involving the giant prehistoric chicken, and it go either bad or good, depending on the intentions of the person in charge of the ritual

I also added a new link under the resources section: it’s a link to Q10 which is completely awesome.  I don’t use it nearly enough, but every time I do, I’m reminded of how great it is.  It’s pretty similar to notepad, but even cooler.  even with the internet on, it’s impossible for me to get distracted by anything because you can’t minimize the screen.  Or if you can, I haven’t figured out how to do that.  Actually, it’s probably a really good idea if I don’t know that.  I don’t need distractions because I’m distracted enough as it is.  Plus it makes the most awesome sound when you type.

Secret Service: 10,311; I’ve pretty much shown kiora at school or at home.  She lives in D.C., and I’m totally not taking advantage of that.  I must focus on that in the coming weeks.  And I’m not showing a lot of conflict.  Some, but not much.  What makes this more sad is that I have a pretty decent list of possible conflict.

Harry Potter and the Giant Prehistoric Chicken: 10,012;  I’m finally all caught up.  However, I’m still not feeling the story, so I may just randomly change directions, and ignore everything I’ve just written.  If I still find myself bored with it in a week, I’ll reevaluate and take things from there.  I think there are things that aren’t allowing me to have fun with this, which I’ll talk more about tomorrow.

2006 Sequel: 10,021; it’s taken a very interesting turn.  it’s definitely deviating from my plans on this one.  I have a great list of things that would get in the way of her writing, but sadly, I’m not using it.  But I’m taking this newfound idea and running with it. 

Total Wordcount: 30,344, which means I’m all caught up.  let’s hope it stays that way.

Slowly Catching Up

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 Today was a good day writing wise.  In a couple novels, I’ve actually skipped writing whole chapters, which isn’t too unusual for me.  What is unusual is that I’ve skipped over so many chapters this early in the month.  Sometimes there are times when there are scenes (or even whole chapters) that I can’t write for whatever reason.  Sometimes it’s a scene that I know I need to write, but I’m bored with it.  Sometimes there’s a scene I know I need to write, but I’m absolutely clueless as to what the scene is.  I make a note of it- usually along the lines of “insert such and such a thing here.”  I usually don’t go back and write it, but this year, I probably will, because there are quite a few important chapters.  Also on the plus side is the fact that there are things I know I need to write if I’m at crossroads with any of my novels.  

Secret Service: 8500; I didn’t add the thousand words yesterday like I had hoped, but I’m doing pretty well with this one so far, so I’m not too worried if I get a day behind.

Harry Potter and the Giant Prehistoric Chicken: 5473; I managed to get (mostly) caught up, and if I can keep the ideas flowing, then I should be able to catch up with no problem.  Skipping ahead so much is still kind of weird, but in this case, it’s really working out.

2006 Sequel: 9005; I’m hoping to add a thousand words tonight, but other than that, there’s nothing to add.

Total Wordcount: 23020

Too Hot To Get Anything Done!

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Today was not a super big writing day, but I did make some progress with my harry potter fanfic, so it wasn’t a total loss.  I think today I was in the mentality of oh, I’m a day ahead, I don’t have to worry about writing too much.  and combined with having trouble with my harry potter novel, it was really hard getting any writing done.  Plus, the weather’s ridiculously hot right now, and it has the effect of me not wanting to do anything.  But all things considering, I managed to get nearly a day ahead for one of my novels, and started to get caught up with harry potter, like I said earlier. 

Secret Service: 6696; I haven’t worked on this one today, but I’m pretty sure I’ll manage to write around 1000 words today.

Harry Potter: 1670; i’m having the worst trouble starting it off, so I may have to take a different approach, and jump to life at hogwarts, with vague sentences about different stuff that happens over the summer.

2006 sequel: 7868; I’ve managed to get ahead almost a day, although I did get to a point where I wanted to add on but just couldn’t get myself writing, so I used Write Or Die.  It really is a great resource, and while I don’t use it all the time, it’s great to use when I need it.

Total words: 16234

I’m 3770 words off schedule, but I have no doubt that I’ll be able to catch up with the Giant Prehistoric Chicken.  A change in approach may be what jumpstarts it.  I can always write the beginning later in the month.  This is why I love doing multiple novels- no matter what, I always have something to work on, and it’s really helpful and times like this, when I have trouble starting off.

A Good Day For Writing

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Getting ahead yesterday turned out to be a really big help.  Granted, it was just with one of my novels, but it meant that I could focus on trying to get more ahead.  I’m hoping that I can get a day ahead of schedule, which should give me some time tomorrow to focus on the Giant Prehistoric Chicken 

This year I’m finding that I have a couple ideal writing times.  Mornings between 10:30 and 12:30 are working out really well.  The other ideal writing time for me is after 5:30 pm until the early hours of the morning. 

So here’s my word count totals so far:

The Secret Service Novel: 5081; some new characters

Harry Potter and the Giant Prehistoric Chicken: 414; I’ve decided to give this one a break for today, and decided that for now, I would write it out of order.  If I can get to 13336 for the other two, it should give me some time to catch up.

2006 Sequel: 5010; this novel is very quickly becoming a rant, however, I am showing Chloe to work on things that she had always ignored and brushed off before, so it makes sense that she would be talking about her problems more.

Grand Total: 10,505 words

So below is a picture of my handwritten progress sheet.  I pretty much highlight each goal I hit.  It’s also in addition to the spreadsheet I’m doing.

It’s That Time of Year

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Yesterday was a frustrating day writing wise.  I was hoping to get a lot of writing done, which I did, but not as much as I had hoped. 

With 3 novels going simultaneously, the average wordcount is 5001 words a day.  I can’t afford to get behind, and if I do, I’m hoping that I can quickly close in on my word deficit.

My Secret Service Novel- I ended up with 1206 words, so just a few hundred words short of 1667.

Harry Potter and the Giant Prehistoric Chicken- only 414 words, which was a big disappointment and my major source of frustration yesterday.

My 2006 sequel- 1672 words, which I was really happy about.

Given that I’m pretty frustrated with the Hary Potter fanfic, I’ve decided to put that off for a day or two, and try to get ahead with my other two novels.  The words will come, it’s just a matter of finding the right inspiration.

I have an excel spreadsheet with several columns.  The 1st column is the day, the 2nd is where I should be with my wordcount, one column for each of my novels with each days wordcount, a column for my total wordcount, and a final column for how many words I’m behind.  I’m going to update it everyday with my totals.  It’ll definitely help me keep track of where I am and where I need to be. 

Like I said a paragraph or two up, I’m going to try to get ahead with my secret service novel and my 2006 sequel.  The 1st week is a really important week to get ahead with my wordcount.  For one thing, even though I have plenty of writing time, I can’t guarantee that everything will be perfect this month.  Having extra words will help make up for days I can’t write, or for the days when I don’t write/when I have writers block.  And if I can get ahead and stay ahead, perhaps I’ll even finish early this year (for at least one anyway), which should open up some time thanksgiving weekend if/when I need it.

Including today’s totals (which aren’t up to date yet), my word count is: 5063.