NaNoWriMo 2011

Logged in 50,582 words at the NaNo word count verifier earlier today (read more about NaNo here), which means--yep.  Oh, I am so inordinately proud of myself.  If you're up for some serious hubris, check this post.

Novel Title: Untitled (still... I suck at titles)

Theme: Fidelity & Loyalty vs. Integrity.  Which is more important?  Being faithful to the commitments you made? Or being true to yourself, to what you feel?

Word count goal: 50,000 by Nov. 30

How did it go?  Well, if you were a somewhat regular visitor to this page, you probably noticed I wasn't :)  But here's the graph from the NaNoWriMo site that shows my ups and downs.

Yes--I am the queen of procrastination.  I was doing so well at the middle of the month and then...  Slackerrrrr.  Until I really felt the pressure around Thanksgiving and shackled my little behind to the computer (well, to the chair) and got those words in.


What was the hardest thing?  Staying focused.  At some point, although the story is a great one (in my not-so-humble opinion) and I love the characters, I just--I dunno, just lost it.  I thought about writing, went nah.  Of course, as soon as I forced myself to write, as soon as I got back into their lives and passions and confusions, it just flowed.


The easiest thing?  Hands-down, turning off the internal editor.  It wasn't easy, but it was the least difficult thing.  And I learned a valuable lesson about that, too.  


That EIE might seem like a monstrous The-Wall-type schoolmaster, but in reality, just like in The Wall, "but in the town it was well-known, when they got home at night their fat and psychopathic wives would thrash them within inches of their lives."  


Yeah, that EIE is one nasty guy, but like any bully, he's also a coward and I'll never allow him to get the best of me again--not during a first draft.


CONGRATULATIONS to all those other NaNo winners out there--we had a great month, didn't we?  Keep it going!




The November flashback wall:


Nov. 14 -- word count: 30,081.  Hardest part: staying away from research. It's so tempting to saunter off into a tangent under the pretext that "it's for NaNo".  What I do now is I mark places that need research done (place name verification, as a lot of the novel takes place in Holland, or character names, or correct spellings), and I'll come back to it in December.  Easiest: I wouldn't say "easiest"...  Maybe just "easier".  It's getting easier to keep the EIE (evil internal editor) quiet.

Nov. 5 -- word count: 11,414.  Hardest part: staying away from editing Novel #1.  Easiest: pffff...  Can't think of any part that qualifies as easy.

Nov. 4 -- word count: 8,579.  Hardest part: staying away from the internet!  Coolest thing: people I'm buddying with and the sense of good-natured competition.  NaNo's awesome, and Wrimos rock!


Nov. 1 -- word count: 2,404.  Hardest part: keeping my inner editor quiet.  Easiest: setting the characters loose, watching them do stuff I didn't plan.  Coolest thing: the sense of community in G+ NaNo circles.  G+ people rock, man!