Do NaNoWriMo

..at Nanowrimo was 2 years ago and I suffered a spectacular defeat. Of course I picked a horrible year to try to do it – I was just finishing up my degree and had a million projects and papers and demands on my time. This time around, I don’t have any of that. I think I can really do this and I’m excited. :)

I’ll have to be thinking about plot lines and characters for the next few weeks and see what I come up with!

Though I didn’t go down without a fight. The month before graduating is probably the hardest month I could have undertaken something like this, but I’m proud of myself that I tried.

And 15,000 is more than I’ve ever written on a single story before, so I’m happy. Maybe I will continue my story at a later date (or possibly plan a continuation for next years Nano!)

I haven’t crossed into 10,000 word territory yet. In fact I haven’t written since the forth or fifth day of November. Life has gotten stubbornly in the way.

To say school has been crazy would be an understatement. My big project is due in 2 weeks. I graduate in 4. Every spare minute is taken up with running around and tying up lose ends and making sure my I’s are dotted and T’s crossed. The only time I have left to write is late at night when I’m usually too tired to even drag the laptop out.

However I’m stubbornly not giving up. I said I would do this and I will keep plugging away until the stroke of midnight on November 30th. I will prevail!

I haven’t written in 3 days! I’m doomed!

Every day I’ve put off writing until just before bed. I curl up in my blankets and pillows, pull up my laptop, and then feel too tired to think up anything of interest and call it a night. This has to stop if I want to succeed at this.

This weekend I have some serious catching up to do!

So I went to the library today. I studied for, oh about 7 seconds. Then I whipped out my laptop and got to writing.

The fruits of my labor? Just under 10,000 words! Yee-ha! I wrote an interesting piece of backstory that I think really explains why my characters act the way that they do. Then I sent them into a horribly dangerous predicament, which they will hopefully survive or else the rest of my story will be very, very dull.

I’m relieved that my word goals are completed for the next couple days, in case I do break down and actually study for real. Happy writing everyone! :)

I convinced the team leader of the department I’m in to let me go to the library today to “study”. Little does he know I brought my laptop and plan to have a novel writing blow-out. :) Ignorance is bliss.

My story is moving a bit too fast, I think. By the time I get to the conclusion I’ve mapped out in my head, I don’t think I’ll be near 50K. I should probably go back and flesh out some of my previous chapters.

It’s turning into a pretty melancholy story and I’m not sure why. My characters seem to spend a lot of time staring out into the distance and sighing. Maybe I’ll think up something to cheer them up today.

Excited to get to writing later! :)

Last night I had a few minutes in between getting home from work and talking to Brian, so I wrote 700 words or so. And they are terrible. Not just terrible, they are sucky, awful, “I’m embarressed I even wrote that” terrible. It doesn’t go along with my story at all and I don’t like how it flows now.

I’m such a perfectionist, and I was worried that if I got something I didn’t like, I wouldn’t be motivated to continue on. I will try hard to write more later and hopefully I can return to liking it.

I thought that my plan to “make no plans” was going to come back and bite me in the butt, but it has turned out really well. I stared at the screen for a solid 10 minutes…watching the flashing cursor without a single idea in my head. Then, the thoughts started flowing. A character popped up, and she brought a bunch of peripheral characters with her. I feel like I have a really interesting story and I hope I can continue creating her personality and the world that she lives in. I’m really glad that I signed up for this and can’t wait to write later today! :)

So I officially signed up today. Made it official.

I don’t know how you convinced me to do this Alaythia. It must have been a momentary lapse of sanity.

Still…it could be fun. I’m getting excited. :)