So Here I Am. . .

Wow.

Like, wow.

I've had no idea what to do with myself today, other than play those video games I've been dreaming about but it's been very strange, to say the least. I feel like I should be writing, but that guilt that has plagued me for most of the month is absent. It feels sorta empty, to tell the truth. I can't believe I'm already starting to miss NaNo, maybe I really am insane ;)

Tomorrow though I'm going to start writing again, I at least want to finish The Journalist sometime soon, and I'm going to be going over The Chronicles, re-plot everything and see what can be salvaged from it. Ooh, I can't wait to print that sucker out. . . It's the most I've ever written so far on a single story line!

This last month has been crazy, much crazier than last year, I think. I've learned a lot from the experience. Like how to just write things because they sound interesting instead of sticking straight to the outline, and how to use an outline as well and not just pantsing the story. I've written something very different than what I have before, trying to go with a deadly serious tone and still not sure whether it was a fail or a win. I've been working on creating a very diverse character with a personality changing story arc that I've never before attempted, straying from the path of good natured character that I usually write into the dark evil characters, which has really been a joyful journey for me. I also dabbled in writing today's modern world with a touch (or perhaps an explosion) of magic in it with The Journalist and found that I am loving it immensely, it is the first story I've actually begun writing that has anything to do with our world, because I usually detest writing about the world we live in from day to day with the usual technology and everything, but in The Journalist it strangely fits perfectly.

I've also tried really hard to put in more detail of the surrounding scenery in my writing, as my cousin pointed out there wasn't enough of when she read some of last years story and I've begun to notice it really was very severely lacking. Like it really was all in my head :p

This month, I've also learned that I can write a ridiculous amount of words (or to some other people, not so ridiculous) in a very small amount of time, while procrastinating to the max. I mean, come on, I went days without writing a word. I don't remember going a single day without writing last November, yet I only wrote the minimum 50k last year. So. . . Those are some of the things I've learned this month. I've discovered many things I need to work on, many other things that I enjoy, and that no matter how utterly painful it is for me to write sometimes, I still enjoy it in some twisted way, even those really tough bits where I'm writing a word a minute and my brain just feels like it's melting into mush, I even like it then because I'm writing. And today, even though I got to play World of Warcraft, I just don't feel as satisfied with myself as I am after a day of writing.

Cheers to writing, to National Novel Writing Month and to amazing stories winner or not! We've all made it to the other side.

100k (Day 30)

Well, I had to write about 8k yesterday and today, but I've done it! I actually did it! Twice as much as last year. I wonder what I'll aim for next year. . .

Well, that story with the villain has been going well, I've code named it The Journalist until I can come up with a real title. I've got nearly 15k written on it, so that's a very good start and I am in love with it already, even though there are a lot of things that need to be worked out that I didn't have time to work out, it's still good. I'll probably work out those kinks some time soon. I also think I'll try to write everyday. Unlike last year I just stopped writing for a week or so, then finished my NaNo book, moved on to edit it the next month, and then didn't write a whole bunch after that until the beginning of NaNo again. Not this year! This year, it will be my goal to write everyday so I can create a habit.

Anyway, I am so happy write now, I had a chocolate chip cookie, and took a (needed) shower, and feel so much better and I'm fixing to reward myself with my neglected video games, life is good :)

I hope everyone is satified with what they accomplished this month and will be returning for the insanity next month, and perhaps Script Frenzy in April. No idea if I'll do that though since I wouldn't even know how to begin writing a script. . .

Enjoy your first I-don't-have-to-write-today day tomorrow! Or TGIO (Thank God It's Over)!

EDIT!
Just so I can look back on this next year and see exactly how everything was at the end, here's the wordcounts for all of my stories I've done this month:

The Chronicles of Siron:
Book I - Remnants: 57,415
Book II - The Key: 26,658 (unfinished)

The Journalist: 14,573 (unfinished)
Fork: 834 (unfinished)

Yeah, Fork hardly even counts does it? Anyway, so there it all is! Got the idea to do this from leofair's blog post here.
(Note: The NaNo word validator counted up a few hundred more words than my scrivener word counter.)

My New Story Is Working! (Day 29)

Well, I'm already behind by at least 5k but I think that'll be okay. I've wrote about 4 1/2 thousand today and plan to write about 3k more tonight so I can get up on that 5k I'm behind on, so according to this plan, I should reach 100k tomorrow!

You see, I got behind because I was thinking yesterday was the 27th instead of the 28th, that threw me for a loop when I woke up today and was 5k behind, but it's all good :)

I've started on that story I said I would with the villain and stuff, it's good so far, a lot better than I thought of course, and I've got 3k on it already, I'm really excited about it because I haven't ever written anything quite like it and the story starts out with this tension. I mean, my stories usually start out with tension or action but it's sort of a prologue style thing and then after that little snippet we start the real story that usually starts out calm-ish. But this one start out with tension, it's not a prologue, and my mc is fixing to get the life scared out of him, or shocked, or, well, he might just have a heart attack so everything is going really good :D

And it's refreshing, to write about something else. You see, yesterday I nearly wrote 1k about this brand new idea that came up yesterday, code named 'Fork' (don't ask) but I just wasn't feeling it, it wasn't keeping my interest so I stopped, went back to the Chonicles and wrote on. But today, after working on the Chronicles some I decided it was time to crack open that new story and get started, and I am so glad I did!

I hope everyone is on the road to winning and is enjoying their stories! Let's do this thing >:D

Settling (Day 26)

Well, I haven't written much of anything the last couple days, I feel so very guilty :( But tomorrow I am going to write again! I have finally decided that I'm going to start writing that story that I've been deciding whether or not I should write this month (the one about the villain), cause with everything that has gone wrong so far with the Chronicles, I'm getting a bit discouraged with it and I think I need a break from it.

And I have to say I'm a bit excited about it, I don't have anything resembling an outline for it and don't really have much of an idea of what the world will be like or the people or anything so I will definitely be pantsing it!

Anyway, since it is pretty much impossible for me to catch up and write that 150k I was aiming for, I am just going to settle for making 100k, which is about 20k from where I am now. I wish I had kept up better this month with my daily word goals but if I make that 100k I'll still be satisfied because that is still twice as much as I wrote last November!

Anyway, I wish everyone luck and hope to see all of you cross the finish line!

Taking An Easy (Day 23)

Well, I've been gone most of the day, again, but I don't think I'm going to push myself to write today.

It's just, I want to do some other things like make some jewelry and stuff and I have to figure out what's going to happen next in my story cause my wipey board outline has pretty much come to an end. . .  And, well, that's all I can really say today, sorry everyone ^^; I'm just not going to force myself to write today, just taking an easy.

I hope everyone else has more will than me to push themselves to write today!

Surprising Myself (Day 22)

Well, today was nowhere near ideal. We (me, mom, dad and bro) went to my grandparents to see my uncle and cousins and had diner, for a pre-thanksgiving thing I suppose. But it wasn't all a waste of NaNo time, I managed to write a whole 2,000 words while over there! This surprised me because I tried to do this last year while at my aunts on Thanksgiving and wrote 0. We left around 7 and I got home around 8-ish and I wrote the rest of the 3k, hitting 5k just before 12am (well, I was about 50 words short but hey, can't stop time ^^;). So today = success!

And, unfortunately, I can't try for 10k tomorrow because I've got to leave home :( My gosh I've been trying to get around to doing a 10k day for a while now and when I finally, actually think I can really do it, things start to happen D:< So not right!

If I can do about three 10k days then I'll be caught up to where I should be! Right now I'm only at 80k but I should be at like 115k, and I feel so guilty D:

But on a lighter note, I've finally gotten to introduce a new character, an interesting, eery, somewhat insane character, and I absolutely love him so far! Remember that drawing I posted awhile ago of that dragon? Well, that's who I'm talking about, and my other characters? Let's just say they're a bit scared of him ;)

I hope everyone is on track with their novels and are enjoying writing those interesting bits!

Miracles (Day 21)

Well i didn't get a lot of writing done for a large part of the day today cause my cousin came over to do some scrap booking. It was fun, but I still felt a bit guilty for most of the day because, well I hadn't written anything.

But I did scrap book a really awesome page for last years NaNo Angels! I would post a picture but I'm a bit too tired to take the picture at the moment, maybe tomorrow.

So anyway, she was here for a large part of the day, so large that when they left at 7pm I was basically ready to give up on the idea of writing at all. How the heck was I supposed to write 5k before midnight with so little time?

But a miracle has happened.

I started to write just passed 7pm after they left and joined in the word sprints on twitter. I took breaks when NaNoWordSprints did and skipped their short 5 and 10 minute sprints in favor of more breaks but it's lucky they were doing longer ones, there was a bunch of 15 and 20 minute sprints and about two 30 minute ones! And, believe it or not, I wrote my 5k in only about 3 1/2 hours. I stopped writing at exactly 10:35 and I took all those breaks and I can't believe I actually did it!

So, I should be capable of a 10k day.

We shall see.

30k Behind (Day 20)

Well, believe it or not I'm actually writing today! I haven't made my 5k goal yet but that's what I'm aiming for by 12 am. To be specific I only have 2,100 done right now, so I better get writing, after this blog post though.

Did anyone else donate to the Office of Letters and Light on donation day? I did, and I got my spirit animal from Chris Baty on twitter. Apparently it's a Japanese macaque, or a snow monkey:

(I think they're kinda cute ^^)

So, back to the writing aspect, I will be 30k words behind if I can get my 5k in today, that is a lot! I don't know if I'll be able to catch up but I can give it a try. But that a lot of words! I never meant to get so far behind, it all started with the internet freaking out on my laptop and not working and then it just took a nose dive from there. Yes, I could have written all the days that I didn't but I was just sooo not into it and when I tried to write I just couldn't think of anything to put on the page, it was like my brain, as well as my muse, decided to take a leave of absence! But, the only thing I can do is try to catch up which will take a lot of work if I can do it, so. . . Here I go.

The Dark Night Parody Video (Day 17)

Well, things have been slow going with my novel so far. Not because it isn't good, I'm actually getting to some good bits, it's just that there's that other idea. I've got three quarters of my brain concentrated on the Chronicles and the last quarter, you know the important one, is all over the new idea. And slowly it is taking over the rest of my mind. I am very very tempted to put the Chronicles on hold so I can write about this new idea but I can't do that. I'm afraid I won't finish the Chronicles if I go on to write this new idea. So. . . I guess I'll have to wait.

If I have the self discipline, that is.

But I have something awesome to show you this post! The Dark Night parody/music video that is so expertly done it's hard to believe it wasn't done by a movie director, you have to watch it!



I have no words for how awesome that was! I just found it last night and was in complete awe! They have done a couple other parodies and some other videos, they have a website here, so go check it out!

Hope you enjoyed that video :D

20k BEHIND!!! D: (Day 16)

Well I finally wrote some stuff today! About 3,500 words! I'm gonna take a short brake before I start to write again :D

But despite this good news I have made a very disheartening discovery: I should be at 80k today and I'm only almost at 65k. That makes me nearly 20k behind! I can't believe this! I didn't think I was so far behind and yet. . .

But I'm going to do my best to catch up! I think, after I'm done writing today, I'm going to sit down and try to outline book two cause for right now I've been writing without one (cause there isn't one) and that's been fine for now but I know that once I get in further it'll get harder cause I don't know what's next, I at least have to get my wipey board outline good cause that was tremendous help with book one!

So that's all I can say today: I'm tremendously behind and am trying to catch up. Wish me luck? o.o

No Wordcount, New Idea (Day 14/15)

Well, I missed yesterday. Mostly because my laptop wasn't connecting to the internet, but kinda not since I could have done it on the desktop. Just wasn't the same though. . . Anyway, laptops working now so all is well.

Well, except for the writing. If you look a bit to the right of this post you can see that not a word has been written yesterday or today. My laptop getting unconnected with the internet is a contributing factor cause it put me in a bad mood yesterday, but that's no excuse cause I don't need the internet to write. But it sure is nice. So I took it up to apple today to get it looked at, the guy clicked around at some stuff and now it's working again, miraculously! But then, as if to laugh at me, the electricity went out for about and hour or two before turning on and off every few minutes. It seems to be working well now, but you never know. . . It might go off right now.


But, I think I'm gonna get back to writing now, the break was fun while it lasted, I even read a whole entire book last night, The Giver by Lois Lowry which was a very very good book, I totally recommend it! Anyway, break over, now I need to start writing again! I might be able to get in a thousand or so tonight if I get going.

Oh, and today, I got this awesome idea for a new book! (No I wont be writing about it until the Chronicles of Siron is over, unfortunately) I was thinking about one of the things someone posted in the Adopt a Plot Twist over in the adoption Society at Nano. It said this: Main villain succeeds(or doesn't) at the end and a new even more evil villain enters the room and kills the first villain easily, hopefully surprising the reader. And I was just thinking about and then it hit me! I'm a bit tentative to post the idea here but by the time I actually start writing it it'll probably be something completely different anyway. So I was thinking what if the villain does win but another more powerful villain comes along and tries to take over, and with no one else to turn to all the good people have to go to the old villain for help to get rid of the new one, and the old villain also needs the good guys to help him?

I think that can make a very good story and I already can't wait to start planning it and everything. But after the Chronicles, of course.

And since I haven't posted my twitter account I'll give it here until I make a little sidebar button for it.
My twitter is: http://twitter.com/WritingBookOwl

End of Book 1 (Day 13)

Well, I have finally ended book one only at 57,405 words. I was initially wanting it to be around 75k but after realizing that most of the book was all wrong I just couldn't continue much farther with it. I'm going to start on book two which should be very cool, introducing a bunch of new stuff and the poor MC is going to go through so much I almost feel sorry for him (almost ;). But I can't wait to start, I'll probably be starting it in just a minute once I figure out just how to start it.

Otherwise, I've only written 1k words today so far and I'm upping my daily goal to 6k for a few days until I get back on track after being so fail yesterday :( I want to get these words out of the way quickly today so I can just do whatever so I need to hurry up so I can accomplish that goal >:D

I hope everyone is having less trouble with their stories than I am and am sending some good writing vibes your way )))))))))))

Bad Writing, Inspiring Video (Day 12)

Well, I've been busy all day and have only gotten 500 words written from when I woke to this moment. This sucks. Horribly. And now that I have time to write I don't exactly want to. This is bad.

But at this point I'm not going to push it, I'm just gonna have to make up for whatever I don't write today, but I am still going to write, I at least want 2,000 words in before I go to sleep tonight, so I best get crackin eh?

And also, since last nights epiphany and since I'm nearing the end of the first book I'm pretty much pantsing it now until I make my word count cause the whole entire book 1 needs to be re-planned and outlined, so I'm just going with how I know it must end and then trying to merge it to how the book should have been in the first place, if that makes any sense :p Anyways, so far so good.

Hey, this blog post is doing me good cause talking about my story is making me want to write it! This is good! I hope everyone is having more luck and that you all are writing the living daylights out of yourselves!

Also, watch this video, it's inspiring and full of awesome!

Oh, Thanks, But I Would Have Liked To Know LAST MONTH!

I have just had a very important epiphany today regarding my story. Very important.

Almost everything I've been writing about should be in book two.

I feel sucker punched.

How the heck was I supposed to know!? Remnants - title and all - is book two! Only a small part of it is still book one, this is a absolute disaster! I'm supposed to be starting book two in a few days! Oh my gosh, this is just. . . I don't even know what to say.

Okay, let's see. The whole careful placing of plot points that I've written and carefully situated was all for naught because that should be in book two and I should have been concentrating on a whole other aspect in this book, and I can't believe I didn't see this earlier because now I've written 55,000 words of things that must go through superhorrificmajor changes! And then I have to recycle a lot of it into book two and make the mc all surprised/scared/etc. about the same thing all over again!

Well, I guess this is how it goes when writing a series. While I'm finishing up book one I guess I'll have to do my best to concentrate on what the book should have been leading up to and everything. And then book two shall be the way it's supposed to.

*sighing*

Well, I guess it's better to find out now than when I thought I was done with book two :] ;_;

Fabulous Day Today, Isn't It? (Day 11)

Well, it appears to not be as hard as I thought it would be to get myself to keep writing. Though I've only got about 2k words written they've been relatively easy. I guess wanting to get to the next book and all the other people who are surpassing the 50k mark, plus that really clean wordcount checklist, is really motivating me to keep writing. This is what I like about NaNo, it's so motivating!

Otherwise I've been in a very good mood today, the good mood started last night and I actually wanted to clean my room. I know, it was weird, I cleaned the whole entire room for 2-3 hours! My room is now cleaner than it has been for at least a year, everything is reorganized and it looks all nice and designed with my Japanese accents all over the place, I am so glad I did it!

But I still think it's weird.

I've got to get to finishing my 5k, I'll probably post another except very soon, I've just got to go figure out what part to post. . .

Oh, and also, I'm on page 15 of the 'who's got the highest wordcout' which is awesome because it wasn't too long ago that I was on, like, page 60 or something, let's see which page I can get to today!

Hope everything is going well for you guys! I'm just in such a good mood :D Have good nano luck!

50,000 Ant Hills (Day 10 (and 9))

Well, I didn't post yesterday because I hardly had enough time to write yesterday, there was a meeting I had to go to which pretty much messed everything up >.< But I manages to get my 5k in and get it on the nano website at exactly 11:59 PM, so I was waaaay lucky.

But enough about yesterday, what about today?


I TOTALLY GOT TO 50,000 WORDS!!!!!!!

*ahem* Anyway, I got my 5k in way earlier than usual, and so got 50k about an hour or so ago. I am so happy because it took me all 22 days last year (22 days because I discovered it late) to get to 50k and here I did it in a measly ten. And I'm going for more :D

My next immediate goal is 100k which I hope to get to by the 20th and I'm sad to say that, because I made the 50k I'm thinking things like "Why put myself through the torture anymore if I've won?" and "Let's just take it easy; no more 5k a day!" but I can't let myself do that! I have to keep going to get to this personal goal I've set!

Also here's my old wordcount checklist and new one:

(old)

(new)

Can't wait to start crossing some of those off! Starting tomorrow >:D

Also, I hope my story picks up some. It was getting pretty boring yesterday. Did you guys get the pep talk from Aimee Bender? You know how she was talking about that grocery store and ant hill thing? Well, today I noticed that I was concentrating way too hard on the grocery store and ignoring those ant hills I wanted to write, but I took her advice and wrote them because I wanted to and, yeah, I could take them out later. And guess what? It really picked things up for me and added to the plot in big ways, I think! So I say you should take her advice! If you suddenly want to write about a really cool ant hill that just popped into your head, even though your supposed to be writing about that grocery store, go for the ant hill anyway! Remember, you can still write about the grocery store and the ant hill and if later the ant hill doesn't fit, chuck it (only after nano :P) but that ant hill might bring up some really important things you hadn't thought about!

So, that's my wisdom of the day ;p Now go write about them ant hills!

Oh Please No! (Day 8)

I do not feel well today.

I think I'm coming down with something, some head cold maybe. I've got that head ache, the one where you just know it means your getting sick and I am having trouble writing which I think is a by-product of this head ache.

The only thing I can think about this is: NOOOO!! Please, don't let me get sick now!

I'm doing everything I can to prevent this and don't know if it's working yet :( I don't even think I'll get my standard 5k goal in. Instead I'll just do my best to get to 40k today which means I've only got about 1500 more words to go, I've only written about 2k already today and. . . Wow, maybe I should just go for the whole 5k at that point. Maybe not though since all I want to do is stare blankly at a wall because thinking is just soooo hard at the moment.

And I'm hungry.

I dearly hope no one else gets sick because this is not fun.

Secret Narnian Hour (Day 7)

Well, last night during the secret Narnian hour (the daylight savings 1 am-is-two-hours-long thing that most of America and some of Canada does) I wrote 2,000 words in only an hour and a half and I was so happy cause I thought I'd be able to write a bunch today.

WRONG!

Of course today was the day that my mom and dad finally decided to move our furniture and everything into the living room. So, I still have about 800 words to go to reach my usual 5,000 daily goal and I might write some more after that. And to think I was going to try and get 10k in today >:|

And also, my current overall word count is 34,961! I cannot believe I'm already nearly at 50k! And to think that last year I struggled to get to 50k! Anyway, I thought I would just put it out there what my real goal for this month is so I have more pressure to actually do it. My goal is 150,000 words this month and I aiming for Remnants, the book I'm writing right now to be about 75k long before I start on book 2. So, writing has been very productive this month!

I hope everyone else is having a productive month as well and for those who aren't I know you guys can do it! If I can you guys can too, all you have to do is the butt-in-chair strategy and then click away at the keys, or move that pen/pencil on the paper, even if it feels like one more word will kill you! ;)

An Excerpt (Day 6)

Well, I haven't written anything yet but now that I've eaten lunch I think I'll get to it! Anyway, I wanted to share the first Excerpt of my book, it's kind short but there will be others that should be longer.



“Samuel?” Siron asked, walking forward and looking over his shoulder before he too froze.

It wasn’t exactly what he was seeing that made his body seize in fear. What he saw was strange. There seemed to be many black shadows, seeming like black mist that hung in the air flitting about. Strange and, yes, fear inspiring, but that was not what made him unable to move.

It was the feeling. The dark coldness that was seeping into him at the sight of these shadows. It felt like these things would eat his soul if given the chance and it took every ounce of his strength to gain control of his limbs and take a gulp of air. He grabbed Samuel's arm and yanked him backwards. Samuel seemed to suddenly come to life, sprinting like death was behind him, which may very well be, and making a beeline back the way they came, towards the faint sound of the stream.

 M'kay, that's all for today, gotta get that wordcount up!

More Plot!! (Day 5)

Well, today has been way better than the last two! The 5k was a lot easier to write, even though it took so long, though that was mostly because I had to go to ikea. Anyway, I might try to write more than 5k tomorrow depending on how things go. So I have a total of 25,477 words!!

I have a potential sub-plot! Or a contribution to the main plot, whatever it is, it's a plot bunny that has come to spice things up. This little sub-plot is going to make the good side not look so good anymore, hehe :D Oh my gosh I so can't wait to write it! It's gonna add so much more realism instead of the usual good side/bad side thing! It's gonna make some things a bit more believable :DD

Well, things are starting to go good again and I hope they continue to do so. But as for now I have to get to bed, I keep misspelling words everywhere (but you can't see them cause I has spellcheck√!) And I'm starting to think everything's a bit funny, a sure sign that I need sleep.

Also, don't mind the fact that this was actually posted on the 6th instead of the 5th, since I haven't gone to sleep yet it's still the 5th for me z_z