Today I took two tests and then sat my arse down in my chair and wrote. For seven and a half hours. I did some pretty serious damage control to my word count, though! It was certainly worth it. (Consequently, I have used up my entire quota of my daily allotted brain function.)
This morning, I was about 10,000 words behind. I wrote about 5,000 words today and have gotten my word count through at least November 12th's quota. I am only about 600 words short of the 13th's quota, though...
Today, I've written about my characters' first date and his subsequent desertion of the campus. It's not his fault, though! He was called away to a secret vampire council! He keeps trying to contact Cassie and explain, though and I keep telling him sternly that that simply will not do! He has to stay away from her for a while, or else I really have NO PLOT.
Yall ready for a stats update that will rock your world?
Tomorrow's goal of 4000 words should put me at the 15th's quota (25,005 words.) If I can write 4000 words or so every day, I should be able to catch up by this Friday. Also, that might kill me... But I am counting on Thanksgiving to be my pillow of super writing awesomeness!
(In 24 hours and 19 minutes it'll be my birthday. Not that I'm counting down, or anything.)
My list of supplies needed for writing a novel might be a little different than the classic interpretation...
Coke Zero (in sunshiney glory)
Blue cheese and crackers
A peek into the outside world, just to remind me that there IS an outside world.
My daily word count chart, to guilt me into not falling too far behind.
And facebook. To, well, distract me.
My goal today is to make up for lost time... literally. As you can see, I am just about at where I should have been on November 10th, and today I plan on making it to where I should have been on November 13th. That's just over 5000 words.
Um, if I go crazy, would someone mind writing my novel for me?
I've already weeded out contacts from my old phone that I no longer want and I have created a calendar in Outlook that I will somehow sync with my phone. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but I'm getting there.
I would write a longer blog, but unfortunately I have to read the rest of Frankenstein for my English test tomorrow!
No progress on NaNoWriMo - bad Stefanie! Unfortunately, this weekend wasn't very conducive to writing. Will make up word count this week, somehow.
For the last few months I've been observing (and occasionally teaching) a group of first graders at a local elementary school as part of my UTeach and Intro to Teaching requirement.
Today was my last teaching day (not my last day, though) and my cooperating teacher took photos of me teaching.
See? I'm totally legit.
This morning, on the way to the elementary school, the fog was incredible! You couldn't see 100 yards in front of you.
Happy Friday, everyone!
P.S. See? I do have a life outside of my novel right now.
Hello, all! So let me tell you guys about my novel like I promised.
It is a struggle every day to get my daily word count. At the moment, I am close to 4000 words behind, and while I am enjoying the process of crafting my characters' lives, I will not pretend that it is all fun all of the time. Nor is it easy in any way.
Into week two, I have come to realize that where I was wading last week, I am slogging this week. Slogging uphill. Probably in ice cold water with bare feet. (Okay, so it's not that bad!)
Part of this has to do with the fact that I have other things to do every day: I attend 16 hours of class weekly, I have tests to study for, food to cook, and homework to complete. And on top of this, I want to write a novel?
On the one hand, I can always drop out if I feel like it is too hard. I would receive no bad grade and there would be no lasting side effects from dropping out, except the desire to do it again next year, and actually finish.
On the other, if I am anything I am determined. I feel like getting to 50,000 words, while a crazy goal, is a totally attainable goal. I do not want to be a participant of NaNoWriMo, I want to be a winner. For once, my inner voice telling me "Giving up is failing" might come in handy rather than be a nuisance.
I refuse to get so far behind that I can never recover. Thanksgiving break will be my time to at the very least catch up.
In the last 12 days of November, I have picked up an interesting habit or two because of NaNoWriMo. Things like becoming obsessed with eliminating all contractions from my writing. Contractions cost words, and therefore they are my enemy. Since then, even when I am doing things such as writing emails or taking notes, any apostrophe makes me pause and ask myself "Wait, does this matter?"
Another habit is eliminating hyphens from my syntax nearly altogether. Words like "time-saving" and "low-budget". Words that are hyphenated are considered one word, and are therefore my enemy.
A third, more amusing habit arising from NaNoWriMo is my new tendency to create names of characters that include more than one word: names like Mary Beth. While hanging out with Karynna yesterday, she suggested I should create a Hispanic character with a ridiculously long name... and thus, Kerri Ann Marie De la Cruz Gonzalez Lopez Salazar the Second was born. She refuses to let people shorten her name, and she is my new favorite character. I think I'll include her in every scene I write. And never use pronouns.
(Okay, maybe I won't. But it's funny, right?)
I have developed a certain love-hate relationship with my word count. I have also developed a crazy obsession with Word Wars. The idea behind a Word War is that a timer is set, and at the end of that the participants tally up how many words they wrote and the person with the most words wins. What they win is often nothing... but it works. In 20 minute word wars I can usually knock out 700-1000 words... which makes me a very happy girl!!
I have been hosting write-in/study-ins (since Katlin is not doing NaNo, and Ally has grudgingly dropped out - poor girl has 20 hours of workouts in addition to class every week!) at my apartment every week. Karynna, Katlin, and Ally have been coming by and I have cooked. It is a lot of fun, and I hope that even after November ends I can continue doing this. It is nice to cook for people once a week and have my friends over!
Well, I need to get back to my novel! Words won't write themselves. (Unfortunately... or else my novel would be made.)
I swear that the next blog I write about NaNoWriMo will include more than just how many words I've written. But that blog won't happen right now at 1:45am...
(I am 4205 words behind right now, because I, ya know, do other things. Like study. And eat. I can't believe that some people have already WON NaNoWriMo...)
Maybe tomorrow during my Super 3-Hour Break I'll write about my story. I promise to do three things:
1) Complain (a little) 2) Brag (a little) and 3) Tell you more than just numbers. As my second grade teacher taught me (in song) "Elaboration is the way to make your writing exciting every day!"
Good lord, what a weekend. Unfortunately, not a weekend completely filled with words as I was hoping. But... progress has been made!
It's not "I'm totally caught up" kind of progress (tonight I should have had 13336, and tomorrow's quota is 15003) but it IS progress! 2943 words short of (tomorrow's) quota is still less than what it was at the beginning of the weekend! Yay!
