crazywithkeyboard

Thanks to the Snow Gods, who bestowed two days off from work, I've finally finished the NaNoNovel!

Final word count: 118,618 (208 pages) -- since November 1st, which comes out to an average of a little more than 2,300 words per day.

(I actually expect it to end up being a little less after editing.)

And, for folks who have been reading the snippets I've posted from time to time, the last line is very appropriate:

"Guh," I said.

{happy dance}{happy dance}{happy dance}{happy dance}{happy dance}{happy dance}{happy dance}{happy dance}{happy dance}{happy dance}{happy dance}{happy dance}{happy dance}{happy dance}{happy dance}{happy dance}{happy dance}{happy dance}{happy dance}

Labels: happy dance, NaNoFinished

I've got about a chapter and a half left to go. Poor Phoebe; they're not going to be easy for her. But I think everything will come out okay in the end. :)

I passed 100 K words sometime in the wee small hours of yesterday morning (I had an upset stomach and couldn't sleep, so at least I was able to put the time to good use). As a result, I had my highest single word count day for this entire project, just over 6,000, most of it devoted to an action sequence. (I love action sequences; they breeze by!)

Current word count is almost 107,000. My self-imposed deadline to finish the story is tomorrow. I might or might not make it by then. It'll be close either way.

Labels: NaNoObsessing

Yesterday morning, I discovered just how much of an a**hole the Damned Strumpet's former captain was.

I mean, I knew he was bad. I knew he was a loser. But yesterday morning, I had a revelation as to just how much of a scumbucket he really is. Er, was.

And as a result, I also discovered that Phoebe has more backbone to her than I thought.

And if you want to know more ... leave me a comment asking to be a beta reader, and I'll ship you the raw story as soon as it's done (probably less than a week from now...)

Labels: NaNoMeanderings

Just saw a posting over on the wrimobuddies group on LJ, from someone who hasn't touched their story since the end of November, and was wondering if she was the only one. Apparently, she's not -- several other people have posted to say the same thing.

So maybe I'm the weird one. Maybe I'm the only one who was so obsessed with her story that she just keeps on writing and writing it ...

I only have five more days until my self-imposed deadline of Dec. 20. After that, I'm gonna be way too busy to do much writing.

Can I possibly finish?

I think this Sunday's free, except for holiday shopping ....

BTW, my word count topped 92,000 this morning. Maybe I could be a novelist after all? Who knew? Everything else I've ever written has taken me years to get this far!

Labels: NaNoAngst, NaNoObsessing

Dangit.

I've just reached the point in my story where, if I could sit still and write for six hours straight, I could probably come pretty close to finishing it. The problem is, I think the next time I will have a free six-hour block of time is probably sometime in March.

In the meantime, I've been stealing the hours between 10:30 and midnight every night to do as much as I can, plus an occasional stray lunch hour and the time between 6:30 and 7:15 am every morning (the time between when the alarm goes off and when I need to get ready for work).

It's just not enough.

And it's frustrating, because I find myself waking up at 5:30 with little plot bits whirling around in my head ... I should just get up then, and get the darned things out of my head, but I know I also need the sleep, but who can sleep when they're rushing down a big hill on the roller coaster?

*whine!*

Labels: NaNoObsessing

82,000 plus, since Nov. 1.

That's an average of almost 2,000/day.

Not bad!

Labels: NaNoObsessing

Standing in front of my closet this morning, trying to decide what to wear, I had one of those AHA! moments regarding how to resolve the final dangling plot line of my story.

It was good enough that I yelled, "YES!" and did a few steps of The Happy Dance.

Then I looked at my laptop ... the clock ... my laptop again ... and finally decided that, unfortunately, I was running too late to go add the AHA! to my notes file. Reluctantly, I went back to trying to dress.

But as soon as I got to work, I posted a private entry to my LJ blog with the info in it -- so I wouldn't forget. But it's perfect, it's unexpected, and it fits (answers all of the questions). More to the point, I like it.

{{chuckles gleefully to self}}

Labels: NaNoTwists

It's been a while since I posted a snippet, so I thought I would.

Ace (Phoebe) and her crew have reached Vedia Station, so that they could have repairs done to their ship. While they are waiting, she and her third-in-command, Ardan Quintus, are attending a party.

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

At some point, a drink or two later, the current carried us into one of the smaller rooms, where it was a little quieter but no less crowded. That was when the crowds parted and revealed such a vision that I had no choice but to stop and stare. "Oh. My. God."

The man standing before me, perfectly framed by a spotlight, was as flawlessly sculpted as a statue of a Greek god, and as fantastically painted as a work by Van Gogh. Swirls and whorls of color lined his torso, continuing up to his face and even into his hair. Then I noticed that the only thing he was wearing besides the paint was a G-string that left very, very little to the imagination. "Gu-uh!" I said.

Then I recognized him. It was Vittore Vere. Of course.

A quick glance at Quintus caught him in mid-eye-roll, quaking with silent laughter. When he saw that he'd been caught, the laughter burst forth. "I'm s-s-sorry, Captain," he gasped. "It's just ... you're so ..."

"Predictable?" I finished for him, with a wry grin.

"Well, yeah." He gestured, still giggling. "He just has such an ... obvious effect on you. I mean, if I got myself all painted and primped up like that, I bet you wouldn't say 'Guh'."

I paused, looking him up and down and letting my imagination run wild for a few seconds. I guess I'd had more to drink than I'd thought, because when I opened my mouth, what came out was, "I wouldn't be so sure of that."

That caught him off guard, and he stopped mid-laugh.

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

Things are definitely starting to heat up on The Damned Strumpet...

Labels: NaNoSnippet

Hey ... if anyone's actually reading this, can you drop me a comment and let me know?

Thanks.

(It's lonely in here...)

Labels: Hello?

Yup.

That crashing sound you heard around 8:00 pm last night was my brilliant novel completion plan crashing and burning.

My local SCA group was in dire need of a new cook for a major event coming up in just about a month, and a bunch of friends and I volunteered to take it on.

So my writing time will be rather more curtailed than in the last few weeks.

I'm still going to try to finish the story by the 20th, but at that point, the editing, etc. is going to have to wait until after the event (January 7th). Which puts me on a pretty tight timeline, but maybe I can get some beta readers to help me out ...

Labels: NaNoThud

Last weekend, I decided on a new goal for my NaNoWriMo story.

My original goal was to have the story finished by the end of this month, so I could give it a little rest before NaNoEdMo in February.

That was before I found out about Lulu.

Lulu.com has offered one free copy of their NaNoNovel to any NaNoWriMo winner. The catch? You have to submit the book to them by January 16.

Now, I don't anticipate having the book in anything approaching a final, publishable form by then. But it would be nice if I'd at least had a chance to go in and proof for typos, grammos, and glaring inconsistencies (like the fact that Shon Braca was 17 in one chapter and 19 in another, two days later?). It will probably also take a couple of days to do the formatting, etc. needed for Lulu.

So ...

My new goal is to have the story finished by December 20. Primary editing will take place Dec. 20 - January 10. Formatting will happen January 10-15.

Here's hoping. Like I said, I know this won't be the final version of the book ... but it would be so cool to be able to set the thing on the shelf and say, "Hey, I wrote a book last year!"

Labels: Lulu.com offer, NaNoFinishing