crazywithkeyboard

... of NaNoWriMo. In my time zone, anyway. People in California still have 45 minutes or so to finish up and get their word counts validated.

I'm glad I did it.

Final word count: 62,851 (For the month, anyway; still working on the story.)

I've heard that December is the unofficial National Novel Finishing Month :)

Sounds like a good goal to me.

Labels: NaNoDONE

I Thought I Could I Thought I Could ... and I did.

Looking back, I'd have to say that it was easier than I thought it would be. Whether or not I've produced anything worth reading, I'm not sure, but other than the initial struggle to get started (and having things keep getting in the way of having time to write), getting 50,000 words from my brain to my keyboard and onto the hard drive wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

And it did get me back into the habit of writing at least a little bit every day.

And on the whole, I really only had one rebellious character -- Ardan Quintus, who, back in chapter one, turned out to be too nice to be the kind of guy who would sell off parts of his ship to pay gambling debts. So instead of being the captain and dying, Ardan became third-in-command, and lived. I'm very glad now that I spared Ardan, because he and Phoebe have really connected, in ways she doesn't even consciously realize yet. Not that Ace hasn't found other friends and potential love interests over the course of the story, including Vittore "Guh" Vere (who took on the phyisical attributes that were originally going to belong to the Strumpet's third-in-command, but not his personality). But Ardan ... well, he was just too interesting to die.

Oh well ... back to dreaming up some more plot twists ...

Labels: NaNoMeanderings

As of about 11:00 pm on Saturday, I passed the 50,000 word mark.

Yay!

However, the story's not finished. So I'm going to keep working on it. Hopefully, at my current rate of progress, I can have the first draft done by mid-December. And then be ready for NaNoEdMo in February.... :)

Labels: NaNoDONE

49,892.

108 words to go.

I think I can get there tonight.

Problem is, the story's not anywhere near finished. So I don't know whether to post my final count, or keep writing until the 30th to see how far I get.

Still on a roll. Got to 40,000 words tonight, and I'm probably not done yet. But I hear ice cream (low carb, of course) calling me from the kitchen ...

Labels: NaNoObsessing

38,138.

I should be able to break 40K by tonight. That would be cool; just 10K to go!

Labels: NaNoObsessing

700 words before work this morning. 2000 last night. Hopefully, I can get something done at lunchtime today (yesterday I ended up going out to lunch with one of my co-workers, so no writing then).

I THINK I can I THINK I can!!!!

Labels: NaNoAngst

Okay, things are finally beginning to progress between Phoebe and hunky Vittore Vere:

------------------------------

The rest of the officers were just filing out when I had another thought. “Mr. Vere?”

He turned instantly and returned to my side. “How may I be of assistance, Captain?”

“Is there any chance that you could allow Mr. Braca to bring my music player and come to the bridge, so that we could work on it together there while I’m awaiting further information?”

“I think that would be possible, Captain.” But his eyes hinted that there were many, many more desirable things that were equally possible. Glancing around to see that the other officers had indeed departed, he took my good hand in his. “Though perhaps it might be more interesting for both of us if I allowed you to persuade me to send him up against my will?” He used my hand to draw me closer to him.

My eyes had to have looked like saucers. Was the sex god of The Damned Strumpet actually propositioning me, for gawd’s sake? I was so flabbergasted I couldn’t even say it aloud. “Guh,” I breathed. He was standing awfully close to me, close enough that I could smell his masculine muskiness. Oh good God, he wasn’t actually going to kiss me, was he? Well, if he wasn’t, maybe he was just going to examine my tonsils. With his tongue. Oh my.

While I was still trying to decide whether or not I should kiss back, the sound of voices in the corridor broke the spell. Just as Vere stepped back from me, a handful of second shift officers wandered into the mess hall looking for lunch before their shift started.

He released my hand and gave me a slow smile. “I’ll just go and fetch Mr. Braca, Cap’n. See you back up on the bridge.”

“Guh,” I said again, to his retreating back. I had been kissed before, but never quite like that. It had definitely left me wanting more – and imagining things I had no business imagining. At least, not in the middle of the mess hall when we were less than three hours away from a potential battle.

With a great deal of difficulty, I collected myself and returned to the bridge.

---------------------------------------

Labels: NaNoSnippet

I've created a spreadsheet to track my progress and tell me how many words per day I need to produce in order to make it to 50,000 by the end of the month.

Looking at my spreadsheet, it's easy to see that while I got off to a pretty slow start, the last ten days have been pretty phenomenal -- my average word count for those ten days has been 2,800/day.

If I could keep up that pace, I'd be done with this whole thing by next Sunday, despite only having had 8,000 words done by the 10th.

Sadly, I think there are things this week that are going to interfere with that. But if I can still manage to crank out 7-800 words at lunchtime every day, plus another thousand or so at bedtime, I'll still be ahead of the game. I've already managed about 450 words today, and it's not even lunchtime yet!

Heck, according to my spreadsheet, I'm about two days ahead at this point. Not that I plan to take two days off, mind you. At least, not intentionally.

Labels: NaNoObsessing

Okay, I had a really kick-ass weekend, including today, which was my highest one-day word count yet: 4,880.

Current OFFICIAL NaNoWriMo word count: 35,029. I am 70% of my way to my goal.

Interesting to note that the official word count is about 50 less than what Word came up with. Last time, it was about 50 MORE. Well, I will just have to make sure I write about 100 extra words, just to make sure.

The story is progressing. I'm about to write the next action bit. If it goes like all of the other action bits, it will be quick and fun. I can't wait.

Phoebe has not yet gone "Guh" today, but I have faith that it will happen. Go, Phoebe!

Labels: Word count progress

So how come I can spew out 720 words in 35 minutes during my lunch break at work (and good, sharp, witty, well-honed words, too), but when I go home, it takes me three hours to do that many (and they're slow, plodding, and uninspired to boot)? Augh!

If I could just arrange to have a two hour lunch every day, I'd be done by now!

Current word count: 27,476

Looking to hit 30,000 by tomorrow.

Go me!

Labels: NaNoAngst

Woot! 25,107!

Bed now....

2,288 words away from halfway.

I can do it.

It's November 15th.

Halfway through the month.

If ....

IF, I say ....

... I can write 3,000 words today, I will have reached the halfway point -- 25,000 words. This is not unreasonable. I banged out about a thousand at lunchtime the other day. If I can do that again, then 2,000 more when I get home, I'll be halfway there.

Go me!

The story is progressing well though (as usual) not quickly. However, I'm getting the info I want in there, hopefully the necessary expositional bits aren't too obvious or draggy, and I'm really liking some of my characters. The last is key with me; it's when I start to really like my characters that a story takes off and flies for me. But I think there's still going to be a fair amount of story left when I hit 50K. Or maybe I just stop there and save the rest for the sequel?

Still looking for some beta readers. Encouragement would be greatly appreciated at this point. Suggestions for improvement will have to wait until next month, however.

There are apparently some people who have already reached 50,000 words. Darned overachievers! They must not have families, jobs, or lives.

I, on the other hand, find that I have more than enough of all three at times.

Still ... even if I don't write a single word today (fat chance!), I'll still only be 4,000 words behind schedule. Heck, that's practically nothing! All I need is another trip to Roswell, and I could be all caught up!

Sigh.

First the annoyances: Got home from Roswell on Sunday night to find a demand from our apartment complex that we spend 40 hours of labor readying our apartment for bedbug spraying today. Now, since there were only about 30 hours total between then and now, and since I do need to get at least a few hours of sleep each night, not to mention that pesky "work" thing I generally do on weekdays, our actual time available for working on this was more like four hours. So most of it didn't get done, and as a result, we'll probably be fined by the complex. Oh well.

The good news is that yesterday at lunchtime, I managed to pound out over 1,000 words, and I managed to get a few more in before I fell asleep last night, so I am now over 20,000 words. (20,002, in fact.) Woot! The bad news is that I'm still about 1600 short of where I should be at this time, and not likely to do much catching up today as we have to undo everything we did last night (and do umpteen loads of laundry to boot).

Today's snippet: Phoebe is meeting with her crew.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Is there anything else that needs to be brought to my attention?"

There didn't seem to be.

"All right. Dismissed." As people started to stand up and file out, though, I thought of something. "M-Mr. Vere?"

He moved to my side at once. "Yes, Cap'n? What can I do for you?" His voice seemed to imply that there was plenty he could do for me, if only I would let him. For a moment, I lost myself in gazing at him, but then I caught myself just before I said "Guh" again.

I nevertheless had to clear my throat before I could speak. "Is ... that is, do you know when Mr. Braca will be available again? I have a few small projects for him."

"He'll be off shift in about six hours." But why would you be satisfied with a boy like him, his eyes said, when you could have a man like me?

"Guh," I said. Oh, rats! I had to stop doing that! "Oh, good," I said, pretending to ignore my lapse. "Would you please send him to me then?"

"Of course, Cap'n. Is there anything else?" When I shook my head, he bowed and departed, but not before I had the fleeting impression that he'd been hoping that I'd say "Guh" again.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As promised, today's snippet:

I seem to be enjoying the relationship between Phoebe and hunky Vittore Vere. This time, Phoebe is being taken on a tour of the ship by third-in-command Ardan Quintus (the nice man who was too nice to die).

--------------------------------------------

We ended our tour in the engine room, where we were met by Vittore -- sigh -- Vere. Today, he had obviously been working on something that required physical exertion, because he was in a muscle shirt that showed off his broad shoulders to maximum and devastating effect.

"Good afternoon, Cap'n." He smiled at me in an effort to show off every last one of those even, white teeth, and I was even happier that I'd taken [the cabin boy's] advice on dressing.

"Guh," I said, then kicked myself mentally. Damnitall, I wasn't going to do that again! I tried to cover up with a cough. "Er, excuse me. Good afternoon, Mr. Vere."

--------------------------------------------

Let's face it. Poor Phoebe will probably NEVER be able to have a conversation with Vittore that won't either begin or end with, "Guh."

Had a very productive weekend -- cranked out almost 10,000 words to reach my goal of 18,000 words, and am well on my way to being caught up. If I can just manage to crank out about 2,200 words per day for the next week, I'll be ahead of schedule!

I'll post another snippet or two later ...

All right. I was starting to worry about how far behind I'd gotten -- I was only up to 8,000 words as of Friday morning -- but thanks to several hours of productive writing time as we drove down to Roswell yesterday, plus an hour or two today, I'm now up over 13,000, and on target to make 18,000 by the time we get home tomorrow. Woot!

Here's a snippet. This occurs as Phoebe is being introduced to her crew -- and her "lust interest":

--------------------------

“And this is our chief engineer, Vittor Vere,” Sestrie continued.

I fought to keep my jaw from dropping. Vittor Vere was, simply put, a Greek god. Worse than that, he was a Greek god who bore an uncanny resemblance to Derek Stollings, the boy on whom I’d had a hopeless and unrequited crush halfway through junior high and all the way through high school. He was tall, with broad shoulders, dark blonde hair, and startlingly blue eyes. He also had high, sculpted cheekbones and white, even teeth. Moreover, he was the first member of The Strumpet’s crew that I’d met who didn’t have a bluish tint to his skin; instead, he was a healthy-looking tan. In a word, he was gorgeous. “Guh,” I said. Then I caught myself, closed my mouth and forced myself to swallow. “Hello,” I said, in a voice that somehow, miraculously, managed not to squeak.

---------------------------------------------------------------

If anyone is interested in being a beta reader, let me know!

20,000 words, here I come!

Oh, no ... I'm falling behind. I'm only up to about 6,000 words or so. Was hoping to be over 10,000 by now, but things were just too busy over the weekend. Tomorrow night and the next night ought to be good for catching up, though.

At least the story is going okay. I have a feeling that I'll want to go back and edit some of this down later, but for now, write write write!!!

Managed to come up with another 500 words over lunch. Woo-hoo! Every little bit counts. Think I'll be spending the next month carrying my laptop around and pulling it out whenver I sit still for more than thirty seconds.

I've already had a character stage a rebellion, though. As you know from reading the summary, our heroine has to accidentally kill the space pirate captain. Well, the character I was creating to be the space pirate captain turned out to be too nice, so when he politely asked to be allowed to stay in the story, I demoted him to third-in-command and let him stay. :) It's only a problem because I was planning on having the third-in-command be the love interest for my heroine, and as such, he was supposed to be tall and blonde, whereas this character is average height and dark. Oh well. He'll still be easy on the eyes, and Phoebe can adapt. Besides, the captain needs to be an arrogant a$$ who deserves to die!

My first 2,500 words have been completed. Yay!

Here's the beginning:

Chapter 1

(setting: Airliner; night; interior)

*PING*

"Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like we've encountered a little turbulence, so the captain has turned on the 'Fasten Seat Belt' sign. We would ask that all passengers return to their seats at this time, and please fasten their seat belts. Thank you."

"A little turbulence," I muttered, wringing cola out of my skirt. "Yeah, right. And Janis Joplin just had 'a little drug problem'." I glared at the oily-haired used car salesman in the next seat, but he was completely oblivious to the fact that his drink had bounced off of his tray table during the last "little bit" of turbulence -- and landed on me. His eyes were glassy and glued to the television screen in the seat back in front of him. At least he wasn't trying to flirt with me any more. He'd been pretty persistent. I'd finally resorted to telling him that my -- nonexistent -- girlfriend was the jealous type. After that, he'd left me alone.

I kicked his empty cup neatly between his feet. Hopefully he'd stumble on it when he went to stand up. Serve him right. At least the cola hadn't landed on Cassie's laptop, thank God.

I punched the call button, hoping to get some napkins, but then realized that all of the flight attendants were strapped down in their little jump seats. Well, hopefully we'd get above, or below, or past the turbulence before the sticky stuff had a chance to dry in my skirt.

Just then, the plane bounced again, this time with a funny little half-twist. That finally got Oily-Hair's attention. "What the fuck?" he yelped, looking around in a panic, and earning a glare from both me and the mom with two kids across the aisle. Another bounce, and a look at his face told me that chances were good that we'd soon have to worry about worse things coming out of his mouth than foul language. I snapped the laptop shut and rummaged in the seat pocket in front of me. Whipping out the airsick bag, I shook it open and handed it to him, then turned away to look out the window, trying my best to ignore the sound -- and smell -- as he threw up.

Great. It wasn't enough that the plane had been three hours late leaving Los Angeles, and that we'd run out of peanuts an hour into the flight. Nor was it enough that this had been the worst trip of my life, not to mention the worst week of my life. Oh, no. I obviously haven't suffered enough yet. I have to get seated next to Airsick Boy.

I plastered my face against the window, trying to hold my sleeve across my nose and mouth -- and the plane dropped about five feet straight down. About a third of the passengers in the packed cabin screamed; the rest swore. A child -- no, several children -- started to cry. I clutched the laptop to my chest; it had nearly slipped away. Oily-Hair moaned. I snuck a glance at him. He'd gone an interesting shade of green. Gingerly, I reached into the seat pocket in front of him and handed him that airsick bag as well. Then I went back to my intense survey of the night sky.

"Dammit, Cassie, why'd you have to subject me to this?" I murmured.

--------------------------------------------------------

So there's your taste. If anyone wants to be a beta reader, let me know, and I'll put you on the private list...

Only 47,500 words to go!