Phew! I made it!

Well, NaNoWriMo 2005 is over, and I won!

Even better, I improved over last year:

1) I hit the 50K 2 days before the deadline

2) I finished the novel ONE word short of my goal of 55K (as opposed to about 1K)

3) I validated the novel before Midnight Eastern time.

It wasn't without its tribulations. The Forum for a while insisted that November had ended at 9:00 Pacific, but they fixed it fairly quickly.

Day 27 was a Good Day

I managed to hit 48K this evening, which now puts me less than 2,000 words to my first goal. Now, making the second goal of 55,000, that seems a bit harder, but we shall see...

I'm also not that far from the end of the novel, so I may actually hit the 50K before I run out of novel this year.

Time to call it a night.

Survived Thanksgiving

Well, I managed to survive another Thanksgiving with my family, but just barely. At least this year, I had a laptop. I set a modest goal while traveling to write a minimum of 1,000 words a day. I carved out small pieces of time, with one long session at the end of the evening, and managed to write no less than 1,800 words a day.

It's funny how motivating the Spreadsheet really is. You can see your progress and think "oh, I just need to type a few more words to hit 1,800" or "Oh, only 15 words and I'll be at 45,000."

It's a little late to start using it this year, but I'll definitely be using it next year. I just hope my hard drive doesn't crash... I just spent a few hours reinstalling a bunch of things on my computer, but the 160 GB drive still has more than 90% free space. Wow!

So anyways, did I mention I gave up on trying for 60K? Well, I'm still going to make a run for 55,000, or at least do more than the 50,014 I did last year. I also decided to change the title of my novel to Blood and Asphalt, which sounds a bit better.

So with that said, I'm at 47K and trying to make 48 tonight....

Nano: The Third Week

Well, I actually attended my first Nano Write-In tonight. The Regional Liason was there, but she left early because she wasn't feeling well. While I was there, I set a goal of spending an hour and a half there, and managed to hit 31K while I was there. The Regional also was handing out presents. She gave me a choice of replica sandals, marbles, or balls. I chose balls because my MC has to have them to be able to deal with vampires all the time. Well, that and he is a guy (where I'm not). I find myself often typing She in relation to the main character, so I guess that means I'm not used to having a male MC)

I also had my computer's hard drive crash this week, but fortunately, the novel is on a portable drive and backed up on a laptop, so it wasn't lost....phew! Another thing I learned: OT and Nano don't mix very well. But by working late, I managed to get out of having to work this weekend, which would have sucked.

But now I can't compare last year's numbers to this year's. Doh.

So...back to novelling.....

Nano: The First Week

Well, I survived the first week of Nanowrimo with most of my sanity still intact. The laptop is definitely helping, as my word counts are up. Here are the current numbers:
2004 2005
11/1 1,136 1,136 1,747 1,747
11/2 2,301 1,165 3,504 1,757
11/3 3,482 1,181 4,806 1,302
11/4 4,714 1,232 6,508 1,702
11/5 6,085 1,371 8,879 2,371
11/6 8,126 2,041 11,634 2,755
11/7 10,137 2,011 13,459 1,825

I will admit, I have spent significantly MORE hours working on it, but heck, I was happy just to hit the 10K Minimum very very early Sunday evening. (And currently, the 10,000th word is accept.) On to 20K!

And for those of you wanting to see the novel in progress, please email me a request for it. I may actually try to get this one published, and if I publish it here, I'm giving away my first publication rights.....

Well, I won scariest costume at work today. Then again, I was the only one that really went for scary.

Not bad, considering I only paid about two dollars for the Victorian Vampire costume when I bought it used at a thrift store. I did have to fix a couple of split seams, though.

So, I did come up with a working title for my Nanonovel.

Red Asphalt Memories

*Shrug* I may change it later.

A Bit More Progress

Well, November 1 approaches, and I still don't have a title. Of course, I came up with last year's on Halloween.

I did have someone suggest a random title generator site, http://wordsmiths.net/Maygra/RTG.htm and gave that a whirl. Did find a few of interest:

Frozen Souls
Fallen Destiny
Eyes in the Shadow
The Tears of the Servant
Falling Shadow
Tales in the Voyages
Man in the Darkness
Memory in the Silk

But then again, perhaps Asphalt Memories would be a good working title.
After all, it is several interconnected stories. Or Man in the Darkness, but it doesn't fit quite so well.

So, I'm going to try to do ten Dares this year, but the crop isn't so promising, unfortunately. Too comic, when I'm going for serious. These are the eight I have so far:

-"Everything was good. Everything was going perfectly fine with no problems in sight. I was feeling fucked anyway."

A vampire doctor.

First, go to findcliches.com (or equivalent site) find a cliche and turn it on its head. I did that last year, with a minor charactor described as "having a face even a mother could hate."

Second, at that same site, there's lists of common-sense advice for Evil Overlords, Heros, Sidekicks and so on. Take an item from one of those lists and set things up so that the character has to do the opposite, or cliche'd action.

A walk-on gets hit by a speeding bus, gets up, dusts themselves off, and walks away. Bonus points if only the MC sees it.

--"The only thing they had there was snow. Lots of snow. Even snow on Halloween. And kindergarten until four o'clock. And busses with kids from all grades. It was scary.

"I dare you to have a char who continually calls your MC by the wrong name.Bonus points if the wrong name is Dave.Extra bonus points if the char continues calling your MC the wrong name even if everyone else gets it right.Mega bonus points if they have a conversation with your MC in which the MC explains patiently what his real name is... and they still use the wrong name.

*Include a bar named the Pit of Depravity.

I also adopted a vampire character, who is actually someone else's PC.

October 1st!

The die is now cast. I logged in with my Nanowrimo account and signed up for this year's contest.

Now, to consider this year's entry. I went and outlined the three, and for the most part they flowed pretty well (though I had to cheat on number three and pull up a copy of Romeo and & Juliet on the net)

However, someone suggested that I combine the three. I can't really merge the three (unless I set it in the future, even then, it could be a bit of a challenge.) However, combining the two is definitely doable, though the other story will be merely a much smaller portion of the other.

So for now, I'm going to go with the trucking firm. It's still in the genre, but at a very different slant. It will be more of a series of shorter stories, with a unifying thread, much like the Illustrated Man (I always did love Ray Bradbury)

Who knows, maybe I might try to get it published.....

Now for a title....

Not Long Now....

October 1st approaches, and at that time, I can sign up for my second attempt at Nanowrimo.

However, I'm still at a quandry as to what to cover. The Tremere one seems to flow well, and with the Romeo and Juliet plot template, the Fast Food one may come together as well. The Vampire trucking firm, it still has its merits. I think I will eliminate the Mage one out of hand, so now we're down to only three. But which of the three? I suppose attempting to outline them may prove revealing...

Process of Elimination

So an informal and unscientific poll (three people responding) got me the
following:
Roll a die (I do actually have a 4 sider somewhere) as they all sounded good
Love, War and Fast Food
Go with the Vampire, but make it non WOD Canon.

So, I've been playing the main character of Cards of Change for over a year in the PbEM (Play by Email) game Sodium Noir. While it may be coming to an end, I'm not sure if I want to take the Mara/Christine story any further. So I think I'll eliminate that one.

I also am not real keen on the commuting idea (though I have a few funny stories), and don't think it really is good novel material, so that's out.

Which leaves three.

The Vampire story is not without merit. I won with it last time, so why not? And if this is my choice, an extra 10K should be added to the goal.

The Jade story could be interesting. I never really explored it much.

I do like the idea of Love, War and Fast Food, and maybe my limited Shadowrun experience can come to play in this. Been a while since I've read any sci-fi, but as I recall, I have a Star Wars novel sitting in my bookshelf waiting for me. I actually thought of this while at a food court, watching a young couple having lunch together. One worked for Panda Express, and the other worked for a Japanese place. Or something like that, I don't exactly remember anymore.

Maybe I should ask the Nanoers...

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Decisions, decisions
So, the start of this year's Nanowrimo http://www.nanowrimo.org/
is a couple months away, and I'm still facing a bit of a quandry as to
what to write. But at least the creative spark is there. It could be
because the RP's starting to run dry. The ST of Sodium Noir's going quiet, the Blackrose game got derailed by illness and relocation, and while there's the game of last resort (Dark Shadows), it's just not that fun when the few players that stay on late aren't really very good rpers. Worse yet, the LARP I'm in is coming to an end. One bright note, I may have more players for my OWN Tabletop game.

So a few of the things I'm kicking around for my entry this year:

1) Bringing back the title character of Cards of Change (though where to
take it, I'm not sure)

2) Rework an old story of mine about my oldest character, Vampire character, a Tremere. This is legal, I'm told, and I could revamp it with shifting viewpoints. this time writing it from third person, or a shifting viewpoint (third and first) I can see that working, actually. Then I'd just need a title...

3) Stay in the World of Darkness genre and write up a background for my 2nd oldest Mage character. A dark tale involving death, love and magick and vampires. Problem there is where to really begin. Her backstoryhas always been rather vague. Should I start when she leaves home, or whenshe gets to San Fran? That's what makes it a challenge, I guess.

4) Shift away from it entirely and go in a different direction. Like "Love, War and Fast Food". It would be a tale of two people working for opposing fast food chains, set in the future so that it really could have a tragic turn. So, I've got time to decide.

4a) Get off the Vampire tangent and instead go for something...different.
Like a series of vignettes about my commute. (Thank god I carpool)
That's too depressing.

4b)Or maybe "Love, War and Fast Food." A Romeo and Juliet like tale of two fast food workers (with a sci-fi sort of twist so that it really could be a tragic tale.) Hmm...it's not without possibility either.

5) The one my husband suggested to me last year on one of our many road trips. A tale of a trucker that works transporting the undead across the country and the perils it can bring. I think I have the first part, but it's getting the rest...

In any case, we bought a laptop this year, so I plan to use it. Maybe I'll even attend a couple of meetings, because I can now type the work directly instead of writing them once and typing later. Should also come in real handy during Turkey time, when I had to write stuff by hand and transcribe it when I got home, causing me a lot of extra work that I could have spent writing.

Now, since I won last year, I could certainly consider the additional
challenge of adding another 10,000 words to the goal, or meeting halfway
and going 5,000. Well, I've got a couple months to decide...