This Chicago Weather Is Good And Bad For The Novel
It should be a good thing that I'm writing tonight's blog post after I should be asleep and dreaming (as I try to be part of "all good people"). But really it's just because I was sick as the proverbial dog today (which is why it's annoying that my cat is in really good spirits and trying to interrupt my writing on a regular basis) and I slept from 5:30 to 8:30 this evening.
I cancelled the West Side write-in I was so out of it. I was, thankfully, not too out of it to remember to do so.
If I call in sick to work tomorrow, I'll feel guilty writing. But not too guilty. Since, after all, most of my writing has been done under the covers anyhow. If I could cross my arms and shiver in this sudden Chicago cold snap while writing, I would do that. Next year I'll have to figure out a way to make that happen.
---
Today I figured I had to tell the person who I basically stole the story from that my FMC's life was based on what happened to her.
She took it surprisingly well. There's this other girl at work who told me that if she's included in the story, she will be extremely pissed (and it's not the one who another character is based about 80% on thank goodness).
All that the person whose story I was inspired by asked is that I make the MMC a complete asshole. And, well, that's not too far from real life or the story. Thusfar he is. Though I don't like writing one sided characters so I'll have to give him at least some redeeming qualities.
I did tell her the truth that the main character isn't her (she actually has personality traits more closely related to someone else). Just a person in the same situation that she went through. And it's not like I set out to steal her story - it just happened because I've never been in the situation where I've been co-habitating with someone who just doesn't care and she has.
What's amazing was that she figured out that she was the inspiration for the MC without my even telling her. Unless she's reading this blog. Which is possible. In which case, "hey H."
Though I don't think it's really hard to tell which four people are the four which the four characters so far are based on. This other person (the one who doesn't want to be in the story) guessed right off the bat. Then again she knows pretty much everything that I could possibly have used for inspiration so maybe others, even those who are close to the events (those few events in the novel that might actually have happened) might not be able to guess.
---
Tonight was when I ran the numbers for Team Chicago for the first time, and we're looking good in some areas and in others, I'm slightly worried. Here is the report:
Now that the team is set, we can get down to the dirty business of comparing our word count to the other two regions. The three team captains agreed yesterday that we'll post them every Sunday but to get a starting point, we also agreed to post them either tonight or tomorrow morning.
Keep in mind that these word counts are inaccurate the moment they're posted (almost). But since it's past midnight in the Eastern Time Zone where our two opponents reside it's fair to post our closing word count for November 6, 2007.
Right now, Team Chicago stands at 580,286 words. That's an average of 10,551 words per team member.
The closing number that goes by the 1,667 words per day count is 10,000 on the 6th of November. So that means that on average, our team is ahead of pace to average 50,000 words (52,753 to be exact). We currently have 26 of our 55 team members (47%) on pace to break the 50,000 word mark. Let's try to beat last year when we had 37 of 47 (79%) members of the team as NaNoWriMo winners!
We actually have our top three Word Warriors from last year (rosemilk, Tungsten Monk, and Panstygia) back on the team so things are looking good to avenge our loss to Toronto.
If we each write an average of 50,000 words, we'll end up with 2,755,000 words. That's the goal more than anything; except for beating the snot out of New York City and Toronto of course. :)
I tnink it's important to remember that we're a team so we want everyone to succeed in getting their 50,000 words. That being said, here's a little internal competition to egg everyone on. Here are our top 10 writers out of the gates:
1. CrimsonBlood - 33,8732. squirrelgirl22 - 26,1553. rosemilk - 24,9144. cavafy - 24,9055. LeeB - 20,3616. Panstygia - 18,6447. atlantistale - 15,0868. smwalter - 15,0719. TimmSimms - 14,97910. daevient - 14,576
Congratulations to all of you for being way ahead of schedule. You inspire me at least if not the rest of the team. Each week I'll also post the five people who made the biggest word gain in the week (or in this next case five days) prior.
Keep on typing Team Chicago and write early, write often!
Which reminds me, I need to change my signature back to the "write early, write often" slogan. I think I'll do that now instead of going to sleep. Maybe I'm not all good people.
I cancelled the West Side write-in I was so out of it. I was, thankfully, not too out of it to remember to do so.
If I call in sick to work tomorrow, I'll feel guilty writing. But not too guilty. Since, after all, most of my writing has been done under the covers anyhow. If I could cross my arms and shiver in this sudden Chicago cold snap while writing, I would do that. Next year I'll have to figure out a way to make that happen.
---
Today I figured I had to tell the person who I basically stole the story from that my FMC's life was based on what happened to her.
She took it surprisingly well. There's this other girl at work who told me that if she's included in the story, she will be extremely pissed (and it's not the one who another character is based about 80% on thank goodness).
All that the person whose story I was inspired by asked is that I make the MMC a complete asshole. And, well, that's not too far from real life or the story. Thusfar he is. Though I don't like writing one sided characters so I'll have to give him at least some redeeming qualities.
I did tell her the truth that the main character isn't her (she actually has personality traits more closely related to someone else). Just a person in the same situation that she went through. And it's not like I set out to steal her story - it just happened because I've never been in the situation where I've been co-habitating with someone who just doesn't care and she has.
What's amazing was that she figured out that she was the inspiration for the MC without my even telling her. Unless she's reading this blog. Which is possible. In which case, "hey H."
Though I don't think it's really hard to tell which four people are the four which the four characters so far are based on. This other person (the one who doesn't want to be in the story) guessed right off the bat. Then again she knows pretty much everything that I could possibly have used for inspiration so maybe others, even those who are close to the events (those few events in the novel that might actually have happened) might not be able to guess.
---
Tonight was when I ran the numbers for Team Chicago for the first time, and we're looking good in some areas and in others, I'm slightly worried. Here is the report:
Now that the team is set, we can get down to the dirty business of comparing our word count to the other two regions. The three team captains agreed yesterday that we'll post them every Sunday but to get a starting point, we also agreed to post them either tonight or tomorrow morning.
Keep in mind that these word counts are inaccurate the moment they're posted (almost). But since it's past midnight in the Eastern Time Zone where our two opponents reside it's fair to post our closing word count for November 6, 2007.
Right now, Team Chicago stands at 580,286 words. That's an average of 10,551 words per team member.
The closing number that goes by the 1,667 words per day count is 10,000 on the 6th of November. So that means that on average, our team is ahead of pace to average 50,000 words (52,753 to be exact). We currently have 26 of our 55 team members (47%) on pace to break the 50,000 word mark. Let's try to beat last year when we had 37 of 47 (79%) members of the team as NaNoWriMo winners!
We actually have our top three Word Warriors from last year (rosemilk, Tungsten Monk, and Panstygia) back on the team so things are looking good to avenge our loss to Toronto.
If we each write an average of 50,000 words, we'll end up with 2,755,000 words. That's the goal more than anything; except for beating the snot out of New York City and Toronto of course. :)
I tnink it's important to remember that we're a team so we want everyone to succeed in getting their 50,000 words. That being said, here's a little internal competition to egg everyone on. Here are our top 10 writers out of the gates:
1. CrimsonBlood - 33,8732. squirrelgirl22 - 26,1553. rosemilk - 24,9144. cavafy - 24,9055. LeeB - 20,3616. Panstygia - 18,6447. atlantistale - 15,0868. smwalter - 15,0719. TimmSimms - 14,97910. daevient - 14,576
Congratulations to all of you for being way ahead of schedule. You inspire me at least if not the rest of the team. Each week I'll also post the five people who made the biggest word gain in the week (or in this next case five days) prior.
Keep on typing Team Chicago and write early, write often!
Which reminds me, I need to change my signature back to the "write early, write often" slogan. I think I'll do that now instead of going to sleep. Maybe I'm not all good people.
posted by incendiarymind at 9:36 PM
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