Winning FTW!

I’ve been over the 50k mark for nanowrimo for some time already – and have had the magic green bar of goodness to boot, but today was the first day where it was possible to validate and win.

I left that process (stubbornly) until the early afternoon when I had finally written the last word of this year’s novel (which was “end” but not as in “The End”) and so had an extra couple of thousand words to go on top of my already robust 77k. While pasting in the final version, I took a few minutes to mess around with making a cover (lame compared to last year’s one) and update the synopsis (which I had just plain forgotten to do). I then sat back and the the nano word-counting robots do their thing and was whisked away to the You Won! page where I got to download my lovely winners certificate and choose from an array of web-badges to adorn this blog with.

My favourite one is below, and I’ll slap one of the standard ones on the Nanowrimo 2008 page.

Despite having broken the 50k barrier some time back, there is still an amazing sense of achievement when your word-count bar goes purple and you get brought to the winners’ page, it makes it seem all that much more real. Last year I hadn’t taken a word-count before validating when I passed the 50k (it was a bit later in the month) and got the fright of my life when everything slowed down before the winners’ page popped. This year I was more than prepared for it, but it still gave me a hefty adrenaline burst, and I sat grinning at my monitor like a fool for a few minutes.

Now I still don’t like this year’s tale all that much, but this is the first year where I managed to both win nanowrimo and complete the first draft in the alotted time-scale, so I’m rather chuffed about it. I may, as I already said, end up scrapping most, if not all of “City on a Hill” as it now exists, but the fact of its existence is pretty nice all the same.

I may squeeze a few more words out by working out the end of last year’s story (past the outline I have) and adding it in, since I’m assured that all the words written this month will count, as long as there is one self-contained story that is over 50k. That may have to wait though, as the lurgy has morphed into an honest-to-goodness flu which meant that after validating today I sloped back to bed with Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” under my arm and read and slept my way through the rest of the day.

So, in short, w00t! I am a winner! Yay, me! (Not something I get to say every day).

Nano-differences from year to year

Bit of a mouthful, that.

This is just a short and blah whatever-y post about something that struck me just now while reading over this year’s pile-o-crap (well, as much as there is of it…) in comparison to last year’s.

I knew there was a different feel to this one, and a reason why I don’t feel so enthused about it, and it boils down to this: this year everyone seems to be very thinky whereas last year they were all very talky. I have no idea where this thinky-ness came from, and I wish they’d all stop musing on things and actually talk to one another more. I’m tempted to scrap what I’ve done so far, but given that I’m almost halfway to the 50k that would not be very wise. I love writing dialogue, always have, and I know it’s the best way to draw characters in true “show vs tell” fashion. Dialogue made last years pile o’crap pacy and fun, and I’m starting to wonder whether I’m not hampered by knowing these characters a bit too well and being overly concerned with what they’re thinking instead of just letting them loose on the world, and the plot, like I did before.

So from here on out, nobody is going to have any sort of internal dialogue unless it is completely necessary for plot purposes, in the hope that I can recover what made me enjoy writing last year so much.

Oh, and I did find a task for Joy to send them all on (obviously, given the word-count surge), it involves stealing tech (hardware) from the city government since non-government types are not allowed any sort of computer equipment (oh noes! what about teh interwebz?!!one!1! they are all belong to the churchy types in charge, that is soooo the wrongness!) and this requires some smarts, some planning and  quite a bit of danger, which is all good). Even more on the plus side is the fact that Joy is a very sarky, very fun character to write (a sixty year old black marketeer and hacker who dresses like a child and rips off anyone she doesn’t like in the best possible ways).

So now that I’ve identified the problem (bloody thinky people, only one whom is actually “cerebral” and even he I dislike because he made me type that word all po-faced, and earnest-like…plus he’s on the wrong side) and have a possible solution, I hope I’ll get more fun out of the rest of this month’s writing.

Widgets are working again…

So there’s no need for me to keep posting numbers up here.

My wordcount widget is on the nanowrimo 2008 page (there’s a link above), it’s the thingy that looks like a calendar and shows whether or not I have written the required 1667 words on any given day.

As you can see, I’ve been writing in fits and starts, great days (the 5k+ of day one), bad days (creeping in at around 1k from sheer force of will), but I still have a nice cushion, which is good because I’ll get nothing done tonight – working late followed by working very early, and I do need my sleep.

Next update will be sometime on Friday evening/Saturday morning so I don’t get booted from any word wars. I hope to get a lot done over the weekend.

Long night ahead….

Well, I’m here, back in front of the pc and getting ready for a marathon night of nano-ing.

I have the TV on so I can see what’s happening with the US elections (was gratified to see that my TV still works, despite not having been switched on since the All-Ireland Hurling final a couple of months ago).

I have coffee, and chocolate, there is a blazing fire in the grate, and I’ve actually managed to write a bit already. I think sleeping for an extra hour this morning and skipping the a.m. writing session has given me both the energy and the impetus to see this all-nighter through.

Will post with updated word-count before I slink off to bed.

Urrrrr….

today’s wordcount is a pitiful 1518, running total 8366.

Maybe I shouldn’t write in the mornings as it seems to make me less inclined to do so in the evenings.

Still, I have the whole trying-to-write-while-watching-US-election-news marathon planned for tomorrow night, so I may pick up a bit there. Also, after work tomorrow I’m off until Thursday afternoon, which should mean I’ll get quite a bit done over the next few days.

Or so I tell myself….

Just too tired to write now. No doubt I’ll cheer up when I pass the magic 12k.

I’m treating myself to an extended read of David Simon’s “Homicide: A year on the Killing Streets” instead. Last year I didn’t read anything while nano-ing, this year I’m allowing myself the occasional binge.

I would say I’m sticking to reading non-fiction, but the new Alex Barclay is due out in a couple of days, so there’s that resolution out the window. So instead I’m not going to read any sci-fi – and thus will be saving the new Neal Stephenson to read over Christmas. No spoilers please!

And the slow-down begins….

Word count for today is 1,493. Ooops. Running total at the moment is 6,848. I do still have a buffer zone, but it’s shrinking.

Am too tired after work to so much as open google docs, so I’ll try and get some writing in tomorrow before work (cue setting the alarm for 5.30 am, to allow for a full 2 hours half-awake scribbling before I have to leave for work).

I’m still determined to stay up all night to watch the US Elections on Tuesday night, and will try to keep writing while watching. I’ve promised myself a day of blissful sleep on Weds. if I I hit a decent word-count for the session. Only trouble is, when I’m slacking like this on day two, I’m probably pinning too much on one night to catch myself up.

Oh well, we shall see. Plot is busily germinating in my brain and the nano boards are always full of ideas if I hit a wall anywhere.

Hope everyone else is merrily coasting along towards 50k!

Today’s number of words written is:

5355

Yup, over 5k on the first day. I am so shocked I’m going to have to have a lie down.

I didn’t even stock up on my one-every-5k-words chocolate treats. Will have to rectify that tomorrow.

I’m sure it’ll all go rapidly downhill from here.

For now, I’m off to get some sleep.

Night all!

And I’m off….

Word count now at 4127, with some more writing to go before I hit the hay. If I manage 5k on Day one it’ll be nothing short of a miracle. I do not have the foggiest idea where all of this stuff is coming from, but as long as my fingers keep having stuff to type I’m not about to complain.

Can’t update on the nano site as it is suffering the traditional Day 1 meltdown. I may not get to update my official count til before I head out to work tomorrow morning.

Not having a plot isn’t getting in the way much at this stage, but I know it’s going to hit home soon. It certainly did last year, when I built up a cushion of extra words enabling me to take a few (much-needed) days off nano-ing to see if my brain could come up with a good plot while I wasn’t forcing it to produce words, and sentences and such things (gawd, I sound like Tina Fey impersonating Sarah Palin…) every waking hour of the day.  I found a plot then, so mayhap if I do something similar this year the same thing’ll happen. I already have a vague idea, but I’m not too sure I like it. I may have no choice but to use it and see where it leads me.

This time last year I was still dithering over my main character’s name (it changed three times in the course of writing the thing, and I’m still not 100% sure about it). Also, one of my supposedly lesser characters took over at a certain point, as I liked writing her more (she’s a loudmouth, and a bit sarky, but she ended up being more interesting than the character I had pegged as the MC), and the plot just grew legs at some point (I remember angsting at a weekly nano-meeting about how I needed to make my characters go to the city but I didn’t have a reason to send them (beyond them being low on oatmeal….bit of a stretch that…) and then there was a whole mess of action that happened out of nowhere and bingo! A reason to travel. Words flowed like water after that).

So I’m off now to make some coffee, and a sandwich, and to light the fire and settle down to another few hours writing.