The Days Of NANOWRIMO Keep Disappearing Like Magic
The moment of NANOWRIMO that I hate happened yesterday - the first of my writing buddies crossed the finish line. Now it's one that's writing 100,000 words this month so she's still in the grind of things for long haul (of nine more days) but I still have a "green bar" on my list!
Congratulations Kim (it's always her or Mary that gets to 50,000 first).
But there's an accomplishment that I'm sort of proud of as well. Today the last person who doesn't write their entire novel in the last 48 hours or didn't start crossed the 30,000 mark. This was accomplished when Greensong crossed the line this evening (putting the pressure on me to write more).
I think, and this would be awesome if it happens, that every one of my contacts is going to cross the 50,000 finish line this year!
That's a screenshot for the ages if it happens. It's not that I've given any of them any extra support (hades, I keep forgetting to even listen to Derusha's podcast) or anything but I guess I like being surrounded by people who didn't quit and who I know are doing the same thing at many of the same times trying to write.
---
Or, more the case in the last two days, trying to not write.
Tonight I only bet one game so I didn't watch basketball. Tonight's distraction came from flickr. And in-between staring at other people's pictures (taking photographs is so much less intense at times than speed writing) and actually posting a couple of my own for only the third time this month I only wrote 1,559 words this evening.
But that does put me over the 2/3rds mark...one day behind schedule.
Now long time readers will know that I don't always agree with Chris Baty but here's one thing that I do agree with him on. Get out of the 20,000s if you're still there. You might run out of plot when you just get over the 30,000 line but at least you're on the downhill plane and can hopefully cruise toward the end.
Me, I'm just trying to end the scene I've been writing for two days that was supposed to end about 1,000 words ago at the 2/3rds mark. This scene marks a change in focus and intensity and so hopefully I'll have lots of time not to get interrupted.
I seriously lost my train of thought on the novel by stopping where I did yesterday. I should have chugged on through no matter what the cost. Staying up until 4:00 a.m. - PISH! I did it all the time two years ago.
---
I've been thinking a lot about my novel from two years ago and how I'd probably like to revisit it. Not that I think there's anything that can make a brilliant piece of writing in there but I think tonally it's something I would enjoy reading right now.
For those people who read the novel back then and cried through the last 20 pages or so, you'll be "happy" to know that I thought about those pages tonight and nearly broke down in tears myself.
It frustrates me to no end that I can't write anything that poignant or whatever now.
Actually I just wish I had some dramatic events to cause the sort of rising action that both of my previous attempts have had. I'm still just meandering on the same level of danger in the story and for a story about a flood, there's been surprisingly little peril.
But I just saw "The Prestige" tonight and remembered what escalating danger and tragedy look like in art so I've been a bit inspired. Though I could never in a million years write anything like that movie. The technical knowledge alone would throw me into a state of pedantic babble.
And then I probably wouldn't even make 30,000 as I wouldn't have the heart to write about half of the horrible things that the author of that movie did. I keep saying that next year I'll be crueler but it never happens.
Maybe next year I should just go totally fluffy and then I'll accidentally stumble into tons of scenes with tragedy - the opposite of the usual.
---
CURRENT TOTAL WORD COUNT: 33,816 (I guess only 1,200 behind)
Congratulations Kim (it's always her or Mary that gets to 50,000 first).
But there's an accomplishment that I'm sort of proud of as well. Today the last person who doesn't write their entire novel in the last 48 hours or didn't start crossed the 30,000 mark. This was accomplished when Greensong crossed the line this evening (putting the pressure on me to write more).
I think, and this would be awesome if it happens, that every one of my contacts is going to cross the 50,000 finish line this year!
That's a screenshot for the ages if it happens. It's not that I've given any of them any extra support (hades, I keep forgetting to even listen to Derusha's podcast) or anything but I guess I like being surrounded by people who didn't quit and who I know are doing the same thing at many of the same times trying to write.
---
Or, more the case in the last two days, trying to not write.
Tonight I only bet one game so I didn't watch basketball. Tonight's distraction came from flickr. And in-between staring at other people's pictures (taking photographs is so much less intense at times than speed writing) and actually posting a couple of my own for only the third time this month I only wrote 1,559 words this evening.
But that does put me over the 2/3rds mark...one day behind schedule.
Now long time readers will know that I don't always agree with Chris Baty but here's one thing that I do agree with him on. Get out of the 20,000s if you're still there. You might run out of plot when you just get over the 30,000 line but at least you're on the downhill plane and can hopefully cruise toward the end.
Me, I'm just trying to end the scene I've been writing for two days that was supposed to end about 1,000 words ago at the 2/3rds mark. This scene marks a change in focus and intensity and so hopefully I'll have lots of time not to get interrupted.
I seriously lost my train of thought on the novel by stopping where I did yesterday. I should have chugged on through no matter what the cost. Staying up until 4:00 a.m. - PISH! I did it all the time two years ago.
---
I've been thinking a lot about my novel from two years ago and how I'd probably like to revisit it. Not that I think there's anything that can make a brilliant piece of writing in there but I think tonally it's something I would enjoy reading right now.
For those people who read the novel back then and cried through the last 20 pages or so, you'll be "happy" to know that I thought about those pages tonight and nearly broke down in tears myself.
It frustrates me to no end that I can't write anything that poignant or whatever now.
Actually I just wish I had some dramatic events to cause the sort of rising action that both of my previous attempts have had. I'm still just meandering on the same level of danger in the story and for a story about a flood, there's been surprisingly little peril.
But I just saw "The Prestige" tonight and remembered what escalating danger and tragedy look like in art so I've been a bit inspired. Though I could never in a million years write anything like that movie. The technical knowledge alone would throw me into a state of pedantic babble.
And then I probably wouldn't even make 30,000 as I wouldn't have the heart to write about half of the horrible things that the author of that movie did. I keep saying that next year I'll be crueler but it never happens.
Maybe next year I should just go totally fluffy and then I'll accidentally stumble into tons of scenes with tragedy - the opposite of the usual.
---
CURRENT TOTAL WORD COUNT: 33,816 (I guess only 1,200 behind)
posted by incendiarymind at 9:55 PM
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