Best NaNoWriMo Title 2005

From someone listed as vorpal from Toronto, Canada:

A Month of Random Phlegm Coughed Up By My Brain, a Bastardization of Conventional Novel Writing, in G Minor

Hurrah! It's done! (50,026)

The first time I uploaded, trusting that Microsoft Word's word count was reasonably trustworthy, the count was short at only 49,993. Seven words!! In response, several more sentences came pouring out of me. Resulting in Word saying I have 50,061 words and NaNoWriMo's official counter saying 50,026. Either way I'm golden.

I have a 50,000 word novel.

It's 50,000 words of crap and drivel. But it's my crap and drivel. And I can do whatever I want to with it. And what I choose to do now is ignore it for a while, sleep and work and watch TV and stuff like that, without worrying about how many words I could be writing.

The last couple of days were very painful. Something about being so close to the end caused my worst behaviors to come creaping out and try and derail the whole thing through distractions and procrastinations. That's why I'm still up at almost 3:00 in the morning just finishing up my writing and my blog.

Anyway, Praise the Lord that's over. And thank Him for all I learned in the process. Good night.

Rounded 45K (45,017)

I thought I could get the whole thing knocked off tonight. But it didn't happen. It's after 11:00 and my mind is getting too foggy to finish off the last 5000 words. I'll have to jump on it tomorrow. It might take two days now, to get the rest but I'll do it. Yay!

End in sight? (43,633)

It feels like the end is in sight. But it also feels like my story doesn't have enough left in it to reach the word count for NaNoWriMo. But I'll right something and get there one way or another.

That was excruciating (40,520)

In a way, it's a good thing I had all day to put in a bunch of words. But they were sure hard. As close as I am to the end, it's either too close to really extend the story or not close enough to start wrapping things up. At least while I wasn't writing yesterday, I listed to WriMo Radio and got a bit of an idea on how to push my NaNoWriMo story in a more workable direction. It's still a limp noodle of a story. But I guess if there's no killing or fighting or cussing or sex, that's what you get the first time you try. Okay, I need to knock off another 5-10K words today. Get to it, Bill.

Time to stop (37,487)

Time to stop NaNoWriMo for the day. I'm tired. My story is at a juncture and I'm not sure where it will go. I'd rather attack it when I'm more refreshed. I can come back to this tomorrow, sometime, I hope. It will be a busy day. If not, then Monday I have all day to work on this and catch up.

Slow morning (35,556)

I thought I'd get more done this morning. But there were too many distrations. Heading to the movies with my son now. I'll get back to NaNoWriMo later.

A bit more (34,589)

I almost had a character derail the story. But I turned him back at the last minute. It would have made a messy, but perhaps interesting, diversion. If I need to add more at the end, I may have to let him go crazy again.

Three Thousand More (33,275)

Wow! 3 thousand more words 'just like that'. Of course I'm padding like crazy with extra description. But that actually seems to be what this storytelling stuff is all about. This section was fun because I finally got to write some 'action' and not dialog. I hope to get some more done today, but we'll see. Six thousand words in one sitting might be enough for now.

Yay! Thirty-K! (30,038)

Whew! I'm still feeling the pressure of falling behind. But I may have found the story groove again. It was hit and miss for a couple of days, coordinating with family members around for Thanksgiving. And I really needed to take yesterday completely off. I'm hoping it really helped and I'll be able to bang out a bunch of words over the long weekend (and still spend a few precious hours with my wife and kids, NaNoWriMo is not life).

Slipping a bit (27,240)

It took two and a half days to write another 2000 words because I was selling a car. What a hassle! Thankfully, I should be able to focus a bunch of time over the weekend on NaNoWriMo, in between visiting with children and bites of turkey.

Blazing! (25,109)

Yes, I'm the man. 2000 words in 2 hours! I think I need to stop just to let my fingers and brain cool off. I will get back at it again tomorrow and maybe get some good progress in the morning. Hopefully, my afternoon activities won't take up all of my attention.

Finally some more progress (23,114)

I wish I were already over 25K, but I've had a rough couple of days and couldn't really get into a rhythm until this afternoon. I just did over 2500 words in about 4 hours, so I beat my usual 500 word per hour NaNoWriMo rate. More to come.

Trying to keep up (20,428)

Yesterday I thought of a really cool direction to take the story. Thankfully, I talked myself out of it and will save it for another book. It would have completely derailed what I've written so far. I just need to buckle down and push through with what I've got. And after this morning's session of NaNoWriMo, I see that what I've got may not be so bad. I'm sure it will take some real work to edit this into something that is more compelling and actually makes sense. But I think I can make it work. It is my first attempt, after all. ttfn.

Just a few words (19,527)

I'm going to try to shift more writing to the mornings. So I added just a few words tonight to top off the NaNoWriMo count a little. G'night.

Early mornings work (18,732)

I guess I should try harder to get up in the mornings and write for NaNoWriMo. I'm usually pretty productive and I don't feel as tire as I do at night.

Word count climbing (18,214)

But the story is not cooperating. I spent over an hour creating a story map tonight, which means I didn't write about 1000 words during that time, which means I have fallen a bit more behind. But I needed to get my bearings in order to get anything more written for NaNoWriMo. I am hoping this will get me going on just writing for a while and getting caught up. Now to get some sleep.

Holding on (17,047)

I can't believe I let the rest of the weekend go by without adding anything to my NaNoWriMo book. I have to plead that I had other valid obligations (mostly). Now, I'll really have to work to get caught up. My word count gizmo says I need to add over 2,000 words a day now. That's about what I was able to do tonight. 500 words per hour seems to be about my pace. But maybe I'll speed up a little as the story starts finding its path a little more solidly. Onward!

Interesting developments and 15K! (15, 032)

I'm so glad to feel like I'm over another hump. 15K is a good place to reward myself with a bit of a break from NaNoWriMo focus, even though I'm still almost 5K words off the pace. But to add to my good news, I was able to bring in a couple more characters that can drive the darker side of the story without being too dismal and I added a plot development that will make the MCs life a bit more interesting. I'm real hopeful this keeps everything moving a bit more smoothly. More to come.

Filling in a bit (13,346)

Added a bit of padding to the existing chapters. In looking through 'Get Shorty', I noticed the prose was a bit denser and, as I suspected, more rich with narrative detail. I had gotten so wound up spewing dialog, that I had left out descriptions of things that needed to be described. Time to put NaNoWriMo and myself to bed.

Not bad (12,231)

Less than 1000 words added to my NaNoWriMo story. But that's much better than zero. And it's time to get to bed. I have to get up for work, etc. I'm looking forward to getting somewhere close to caught up this weekend. Maybe even a little ahead. It would be nice to get some cushion. The story is not exactly writing itself. But it seems to have enough mass that situations are starting to build on each other. I just hope I haven't built myself into a corner, now. I have no idea who stole the car, how we're going to find them and it and restore order to the universe. TTFN.

Big Night (11,295)

Between the two sessions I added almost 2400 words in one evening. Yay! Since I was already behind, and I'm not sure how much I'll get done tomorrow, this is encouraging. And I like the fact that the story is starting to flow a little, both word-count-wise and plot-wise. I'm still not promising anything more than a little amusement, but perhaps someone will enjoy the finished product besides me and Judy. TTFN.

New (not so) Bad Guys (10,117)

I decided I really didn't like my stereotype bad guys. Thankfully, my imagination came up with an alternative that will be much more fun to write, I think. I'm not going to reveal much here (buy the book and read it when it's published - ha!), but I don't think anyone will have to die, there is still a mystery to be solved, and I'll probably put my MC into some jams (maybe with some real bad guys).

I'd really like to get another 1000 words (or more) written tonight. But I need to take a short NaNoWriMo break.

Bad guys in sight (8929)

This morning I realized that what I was missing was the bad guy. Without him, there was no context for the crime. For the moment he's pretty much the stereotypical, slick, corporate type bad guy with millions (billions?) of dollars and plenty of minions. I'm not sure what kind if illicit activity he's involved in. But I know there's at least one dead body. It just hasn't shown up yet.

It took a couple of hours to squeeze out 1000 words. That's not keeping up with the NaNoWriMo pace. But I'm hoping that as the plot starts to gel a bit more, the scenes will write themselves (they have so far).

Not stuck (7943)

I wasn't stuck after all. I just looked at what the next logical scene should be and wrote it. It didn't have a big WHAM in it. But a couple of little whams are setting things in motion. Something bigger is about to happen. I guess I'm a little scared to let it out of the box. Because I like the people that I've put into my story and now I don't want anything bad to happen to them.

But happen it must. Otherwise, no story.

Now what? (6910)

Uh oh! I feel my NaNoWriMo story bogging down. I guess something drastic needs to happen. I did have a big WHAM event planned, but I thought it needed to come later. I would still like to save it, so I better come up with something else.

What just happened is that our hero just got talked out of being the hero. Since he is a man of reason, this makes sense. In order for him to become a man of action, something is going to have to push him harder than what has happened so far. And maybe that is what this novel is about: discovering what it takes to make a reasonable man start behaving unreasonably.

Thank you Maurice (6086)

Added 950 words of a fun dialog with a character named Maurice (pronounced "Morris") after my grandfather. I only can hope that the writing will continue to be as fun as it has the last day or two. I decided that the last bit I wrote yesterday really was an entire (short) chapter that I'll have expand later. Today's dialog has become a chapter by itself. So I'm done with 4 chapters.

Ten Percent (5136)

It's hard to believe, but I've hit 10% of the 50K quota. I wouldn't say that I've got a best seller (or any kind of seller) on my hands here. But I don't think it's unsalvagable crap, either. I haven't quite finished chapter 3. But I've been writing all day and my brain has seized. Time to celebrate and take the rest of the evening off. I'm sure by tomorrow morning, my imagination will have had time to regenerate and I'll be able to get some more words down before I have to attend to my other commitments. 10%. Yay!

Steady as she goes (3453)

I didn't know exactly what would happen in Chapter 2, but I think I got it to work. Two different crimes have been committed. I'm still not sure if they're related, but they might be. I'm a little disappointed that there isn't more humor in my story, but I suppose that's to be expected. This fiction writing is a little new to me. If I decide to add humor later, I'm sure I can find a way. For now, I'm just happy to be chugging along.

By the end of day 5 (today), I'm supposed to be at 8,335 words. I'm not quite halfway there and the day is half over. But I think I will get pretty close. Then there's tomorrow and the rest of the month. Right now, the story telling isn't that hard. I can't lay claim to writing anything good. But it's a start. And it is kind of fun.

Chapter one 'done' (1669)

I thought I was done with chapter one earlier. May it please the court of NaNoWriMo that I did not allow my inner editor go back and edit (much). Upon reflection, I could tell that I was very shy of word count for a single chapter, so I went back and added a bunch of dialog. I think this helped the readability, using dialog and storytelling to replace some exposition. Plus it helped me introduce a couple of characters and round out some others. Not to mention that I added 700 words. This is a very interesting process. I'm having fun, now.

Yay! Underway! (976)

Now that I'm on about the fifth concept for this book thing, the characters are settling in and I've begun to make some headway with the prose. My word count finally represents actual words written in the novel. I think I'm about done with chapter 1. It begins...

The giant, orange barrel towered over the crowd, warm and friendly against the crisp, blue sky. Just a few white wisps of clouds drifted overhead as folks streamed into the already crowded parking lot. “I Get Around” blared from the loudspeakers as they ordered their ‘burgers and fries. The month of May often isn’t this kind to outdoor activities in the vicinity of Seattle. Today, nature was showing off.

Nobody made signs like that anymore. The sign for “XXX Root Beer” could not be missed. It did not fit in with the other, homogenized, zoning law abiding signs at the malls in the vicinity. It was a striking backdrop for a crowd of nostalgia freaks gathered to show off their vintage vehicles. Many of the cars were older than their owners. Some were older than the sign.

It ends...

The well-wisher wandered off. Tom’s mind started to wander, too. He started looking around for Debra Jean. Out of the corner of his eye, it appeared that the rotund man made a beeline to the street and squeezed himself into a shiny new yellow Corvette. As he cruised off, Tom briefly considered why he would be leaving without looking at any other cars at the show. But none of that was his concern. He didn’t stick his nose into anyone else’s business.

According to the daily quota, I'm at not quite 30% of where I ought to be at the end of today (3,334 words). And not quite 2% of the total. But it's only day 2 and there is a weekend coming up. If I can write about 500 words an hour (which I did, since I spent about an hour reworking the plot outline before diving in), then it will take 18 hours of writing to get back on track by Sunday night. Hmm. 4 hours Friday + 8 Saturday + 6 Sunday would do it. That's a bit optimistic.

On the other hand, after tomorrow (when I won't get much done, due to an appointment with Sir Paul), I'll be 4025 words behind, with 26 more days to make up the difference. That's only an extra 155 words a day. And maybe I'm actually writing at better than 500 words an hour.

Onward!

Ack! Why Won't It Sit Still?

My NaNoWriMo book wants to change again. It started out as a concept for a lonely man's journey back to life. Then it changed into a lonely couple's journey back to meaning from mid-life crisis. Now it wants to throw out all of that (and hours of plot outline) and become a comedy, a la Elmore Leonard or Dave Barry. The trouble with that (other than it may not fit my plot outline) is that I don't know if that would be easier or harder to write than the more serious book (although I was not really looking forward to being so angst-ridden for a month or more).

So, do I let it jerk me around like this? Or do I dig in my heals and insist that it stick to the plan? I'm hoping I can get started with the outline I have and maybe the writing will adapt to what works. I think part of the problem is that NaNoWriMo took care of my inner editor, but it didn't muzzle my inner marketing agent.

I'm up early this morning contemplating this and catching up on mail. I thought I would get in some writing, too. But it's time to get going to the paying job.

Plot Coursed (936)

I still haven't really dug into writing a substantial amount. But I have got a more complete cast of characters and I have about thirty chapters laid out. All that outlining is over 800 words that will be in the book in one form or another. So I'm taking a bit of liberty on the first day and adding it to the previous 88 to get 936 words for the day.

That's only about one-half of the daily 'quota' for getting to the 50K. But I believe having this skeleton on which to hang the real prose will make the rest go much more easily. It took quite a bit of work to move the characters across the continent and back in the course of five or six weeks and have something reasonably interesting happen to them. What will be exciting is to see what really happens as I start to write the real story.

Next time I do NaNoWriMo I will do the plot and character outline before the month begins. Or not.

But the next time I write for this year's NaNoWriMo I will have a substantial amount of genuine prose. And I hope it is a chapter's worth.

Casting Call

I decided to spend some of my lunch hour working on my characters. They're still underdeveloped (I haven't written their whole story yet, have I?). But the process also caused me to change the storyline. This also changes the crisis to be resolved, although the roots of the issue are essentially the same. It's just shared by two characters.

One thing that is interesting (to me) is that I seem to be continuously working on the story in my head in-between writing sessions. This goes on even while I am doing other work (yes, it's a bit distracting) and I was even doing it before I went to sleep last night (and during the night, I'm amazed I got a good night's sleep).

However, when I finally sit down to write, the ideas that have been plagueing me insist on being written down in a somewhat different form than how I had been thinking they would be. I'm not sure if this is good or bad. Am I missing something by not immediately capturing the thoughts that spin through my head during the day? Or is it better for the ideas to churn around for a while and develop more before being made concrete?

Anyway, the thoughts that I got down took up almost 300 words. But since they're not really part of the storytelling (yet), I suppose they don't really count.

A Small Start (88)

I actually did it. I got up this morning and wrote. First, I took a shower and ate breakfast. But after that I sat down at my computer and wrote a few words. And I mean a few.

Since I feel compelled to keep going to work and keeping my employer happy, I needed to get out the door and try to miss some of the traffic. I have put off writing a bigger chunk until later today. I might try to get in a little at noon. But I know I will get a couple of hours in tonight. It will be interesting to see if I do my best work in the morning or the evening.

This morning I only spent about 15 minutes on this book. In five minutes, I wrote 86 words. Microsoft Word reports 88 words, but two are the title, which I already had. The other ten minutes were spent clearing space for the book on my flash memory drive and saving the file there and in an appropriate folder on my hard drive.

It's a start. Not a big one. But it's a start.