Memorial Day Weekend

Well, I finally hit the 120K mark this weekend! Finally, because things were getting just a bit sluggish, and my word count was starting to fall. I also finally finished the minimum for the month, and am about 1,000 words past it.

Went to see X3 this weekend. Looks like they left it open for another sequel. If you go, be sure to stay until the very very end (after the credits), because something interesting happens.

In Muse Grove, Challenge Week 6 is upon us, so I think I'll try again for 5,500 words, which is better than the 5,000 I went for last time. I'm currently at 2,600, with Monday still to go.

My goal for the week, and I'm crossing my fingers here, is to hit 125,000. I'm currently at 120,375.

May: Week #1

So, the first week of the month of May has arrived, and my birthday arrives shortly after. My mother's is actually tomorrow, so I arranged to have flowers sent to her. I wanted to send her a plant, but they wouldn't deliver it on her birthday. Oh well...next year maybe.

At work this week, I heard about all the drama that was going on at one of our hotels. I told the GM that her place should be a soap opera, or maybe just a reality tv show. Seriously, it would be a good idea, but I doubt any hotel would go for this, especially not a small chain. It could be bad for their reputation.

So, in this case, truth is stranger than fiction, but it also can make for a good piece of fiction. With the summer being all about travelling and light hearted fiction, I've decided that my tales will be my project for Julnowrimo, and I'll think of something else for Nanowrimo. So, now to work on an outline...it'll be a good project to occupy my lunch hour.

In any case, the first week of May went pretty well. I met my goals for Challenge #4, and made my count for April as well. Though looking at my count, I wonder how I will make Nanowrimo. Well, I'm sure I'll manage. The road map seems to help me stay on track, and I can always use the weekends to catch up. I could take some time off from work in November. Unfortunately, I really don't have any vacation time to spare.

So, April summed up:

1st day wasn't so good, but I still met the minimum for the month.
The Conspirators have won 2 challenges in a row
I can't eat lunch at my desk (which means I can't type out my novel)

So, my goals for the moment are simple:

Week #5 5,000 words (I'm going for a lower goal cause I'll probably be real busy that week)

May's goal: 21,235 is the minimum; I'm going to make mine 25,000

So far, I'm at 6,945 words, a little shy of 1,000 per day.

Words remaining: Minimum: 14,290; Personal Goal: 18,055

With that said, time for bed....

April's Curtain Call

As April draws to the close, I now pause to reflect upon how I did.

1) I finished the monthly goal, and surpassed last month's count. I'm hoping to break 29,000 before I submit my word count for the month. I'm fairly hopeful about it.

2) I'm currently at close to 39% completed for the year. Some of my fellow club members have upped their goal to 300K. I'm not sure I'm ready for that, but I would still be on target for 275K. Well, we'll see as things progress...

3) I'm the Team Leader for Week Four of the Muse Grove Challenge http://http://musegrove.suddenlaunch3.com/index.cgi#Teams
My goal for this one is 6,500. I have less than 5,000 words to write before Cinco de Mayo.

4) I've decided I'm going to either read or outline on my lunch breaks, because I can't use the computer at my desk (silly rules).

But May is the month of my birthday, and Memorial Day at the end of it, so I'm not sure how well I'll do next month, but I am currently slated to finish in early November. A pretty nice improvement , considering last month, it was the end of November.

I've also decided to do a prompt from Challenge Now for May. 5K words minimum. We'll see how that goes...

And of course, I still need an idea for July....

Post #3 for the Month

Looking back through my logs, I've noticed that this post will be the third time I've posted this month. Maybe I can stay on track with weekly updates on Sunday, but I sort of doubt it...

On the good side, I have now met my goal for the month and am forging ahead. My new goal is to hit 90k by the end of the day, but so far, it's going slow. After about 4 hours or so of writing, I'm now about 200 words away. So many distractions sometimes. My kid asking for Google searches and downloads of things, and lots of IMs on various gaming related topics.

Well, in the end, though the words came slowly, I did hit the 90K mark today. Had a fair amount to reply to on the boards, and I started working on the club's second April writing prompt. I finished the first, and you can find it here. http://250k.blogspot.com/2006/04/april-prompt-detective.html

Well, my intro for the Shadowrun game won, but the Moderator edited it a whole bunch, even changing the ending to be a bit less dark.

A Third of the Way!

So, today I hit the 1/3 mark! Not too bad, considering April is only a little more than halfway through. I've also got about 15,000 words done for this month, which means I'm less than 5K away from the month's goal.

In addition, I signed up for Julnowrimo, July's novel writing month. Might be a tough thing to accomplish, considering I have a wedding to attend the first part of the month. But we'll see.

On the PbEM Front:

Sodium is up and going, though the ST's posts are but a trickle. At least he's posting. A lot of the other players are too.

MP is terribly slow, but there is some activity now that FF is back.

Riverton is going in fits and spurts, same with PoD. But I sympathize with PoD's ST. It's not easy looking for work, and his quest may be over soon. (Crossing fingers for him)

Portland Shadows - Not looking too good. I did my part and got my character done though.

First Cabal - ST has been too busy to post, but is looking to start again.

Shadowrun - Both characters are in campaigns, plus a little side stuff. I also submitted the story by the deadline. Turns out only one other person did. Last time I checked the polls, the story was winning by a handy margin.

Writing Prompts: The club has two this month, I'm working on one. I'll post it here when it's done, because it will be long. Also trying to work hard on this week's Muse Grove challenge. Our team won handily last week, so it would be nice if we won again.

April Optimism?

Well, unfortunately, I wasn't able to complete my March Madness goal of 31,000 words. Gamestorm was just too much fun, so I wasn't able to get any writing done that weekend. I did, however, exceed the monthly goal, so it wasn't all bad.

So now comes April. The monthly goal is a little smaller at 20,550. At this writing, I'm closing in on the 30% completion mark as well as 7,000 words, so I'm a bit over 13,000 words from making the goal for the month.

Alas, though, the words are flowing a bit slowly. On the very bright side, Sodium Noir is back up and running again! Yay! As I've said before, the trouble with PBEM games is that they experience lulls from time to time, especially on the weekends.

So, my hope is to try to hit the 30% mark tonight. Guess I'll have to try to come up with something original.

And then there's still the quandry of Julowrimo and Nanowrimo. I need to come up with something. Maybe July would be a good time to do a Shadowrun piece and put it up on the Proboards website. I may know enough about the setting by then...I hope.

Weekend Slowdown

I always hate PbEM games on the weekends. People don't post, though you would think that they would have MORE time to post, not less.

In any case, this hasn't been the best of weeks for writing. While I only missed the 700 word goal once, I've missed the 1,000 word goal twice, and after about 4 hours of writing today, I am finally back on track for making the 31,000 word goal for March.

So, let's start with the setbacks: I went to a lunch to meet the GMs, and had to run a lunchtime errand on Friday, so I lost a couple of lunch breaks of writing. In addition, I had one PbEM game abruptly end (again), but there's always the UGR (Universal Game Room) A couple of the others are slowing down too. Doh!

The ST of Sodium hasn't posted again, but others are posting in hopes that maybe it will get going again. I sure hope so.

On the Successes:

I have taken on the club Writing Prompt and am making some good headway with it. It's keeping my word count afloat, really. I also suggested a bonus St. Patty's day prompt, and that has yet to be released, but I have an idea where I want to go with mine.

I also hit 50,000 words two days ago! This also puts me at the 20% completed mark. I think I'd like to hit the 25% mark before the end of next week, but we shall see how things go

I didn't have to work this weekend. Yay! But I will need to next week.

So, 11,000 words down, less than 20,000 to go. HOWEVER, Gamestorm (the local gaming Convention) is just around the corner at the end of the month. That means that weekend I probably won't be spending much time writing at all. Ah well, such is life sometimes. I will still have about a week to make up the lost days and several days previous to try to get a bit ahead...

March Madness

Well, the new challenge for NanoWriYe is March Madness. Write 1,000 words a day for the entire month of March!

So far for the first week, I only missed the mark one day. I may make the goal of 31,000 yet.

So, I think I've pretty much got the Shadowrun entry done, I just want to add some hyperlinks to the text to point people in the right direction.

I'm also Employee of the Month for March! Doesn't really make up for a really tough February though.

Crossing my fingers that Sodium is going to be back up and running sooner. Others are posting in anticipation of it though, including me.

So, about 7,000 words down, 24,000 to go....

Done for February!

Well, two days before the end of February, and I managed to not only meet but also exceed my goal for the month! Not only that, but I'm now ahead...but only slightly for the year.

On the PbEM front:

1) Sodium may return soon, and it's been agreed that the timeline is being moved up to Saturday, with Friday being a 'free post day' where we can post whatever we like. So far, I've posted the last part of my main character's Thursdaynight and am working on Friday. There is still much to be resolved for the second character, and the NPCs, I have the post mostly written, just waiting on the ST.

2) Mage Phoenix is getting back on track a bit. I was able to post today after I figured out a way out of the corner I'd painted myself in.

3) Puzzles of Darkness, I had a chat with the ST, and got a nice post in that put me over the top for the month. A newscene is planned, but yet to be written.

4) Riverton, a bit of a slow down, but things are picking up a bit now that the ST is posting again.
5) Shadowrun, I had to have a planning session for my first character, because she's currently been framed for murder. Doh. I also made a second character though, and so far so good.

6) First Cabal, The character's been approved, and the mission is starting to get going. She's going to be part of the paranormal investigation crew.

7) Hidden Cove, SLOW and discouraging. Sigh.

The Write a Story came to a screeching halt. I started a new Writing Prompt today.
Really should start thinking toward this year's Nano...or should I do JulNoWriMo too?
Also, the Shadowrun Boards have a story contest going. I'm going to give it a go...

Nanowriye: Catching Up

Well, five days into February, and things are looking up a little. I managed to write over 1,100 words today, which has bumped my average word count up enough to put me into finishing in late January, 2007 instead of mid February 2007.

So, the writing goal for the month is 19,208, and I've already written 4,253, so I've got about 15,000 words to go, and there's still a lot of days in February to do it...

On the PbEM front:

1) Sodium may return in March, but we can write posts in preparation for it, as soon as it's decided how far the timeline's moving up.

2) Mage Phoenix is slowing down a little, but posts are still being written (over 100 last month)

3) Puzzles of Darkness has lots of great plans for my character, but I can't post until other things are resolved

4) Riverton, I'm waiting for a reply from the ST. Such is life in PbEMs

5) Shadowrun, I had one 'run' end abruptly and got started on another. We're just able to start IC posts now.

6) First Cabal, I think the ST is finally happy with my character, so I should be able to start posting soon.

7) Hidden Cove, I had to ditch my first character and start a new one. Haven't heard back from the STs because they've been out sick.

So for now, I'll do the Write a Story and Writing Prompts. I suppose I should start thinking towards this year's Nano...

NaNoWriYe: Month 1

Well, in 2006, I decided I was going to try my hand at National Novel Writing Year.

I joined the 250K club, which means I have to write 250,000 words in a year. Since PbEM posts count towards it (you are writing a story), I didn't think it would be too hard.

I was wrong. PbEM games have a habit of slowing down sometimes, especially on the weekends when people aren't around. I decided to sign up for a couple more, and have worked on characters for them, but haven't gotten the go ahead from the STs yet. Maybe I'll give up on one of them. The STs are a bit TOO controlling for my taste.

I also had more than a few days where I didn't make the goal. Ah well, things happen. Of course, I also spent the first half of the month frantically editing my Nano Novel so I could have it done in time to make the Lulu publishing deadline.

So then I started frequenting the boards and participating in the Writing Prompts and Write a Story threads. My word count started to increase a bit, so while I didn't make the goal for the month, I did manage to pull it up a bit, so I finished close to 19,000.

February's a short month, so the goal for the month is 19,208. I wasn't really all that far from it, so maybe, just maybe, I can make it.

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...