And it's over...or just beginning

NaNoWriMo is done and I'm proud to say this is my first time finishing with 50k words! I did it! I made it! I am very thankful.

Final word count: 51,886

My original goal at the beginning was 100k. I knew it was ambitious. Even though I didn't reach my personal goal, I feel accomplished in a small way knowing that I did better than I did last year.

I think that will always be my true goal for NaNoWriMo: write more words than I did the previous year. (Of course, if I get a fluke year and write 200k, that goal will probably stop and I'll make it more realistic.)

Congratulations to everyone who participated in NaNoWriMo! And an extra applause for those who wrote 50k or more by the deadline.

I'd like to hear a short synopsis about your NaNoWriMo experience. A synopsis of how you get into your writing groove, what your favorite part about NaNoWriMo is, or even a synopsis of the novel you wrote during November.

Also, what did you do the day after NaNoWriMo?

I promptly started another story. I don't know why. It sounded like a fun thing to do.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Praise the Lord for His incredible blessings. This year I am most thankful for my fiance and the way the Lord has brought us together.

Breath of Fresh Air Award and The Victor

I decided to try my hand at photoshopping to make an award. So here it is. Hope you like the image.

Because I deeply appreciate blogs that revive me, make me think, challenge me and add to my life, I hereby present this "Breath of Fresh Air" award to.......

CKHB!

Thanks for your wonderful blog and for making the electronic air seem less stagnant.

And because I always like to breath more than one breath of fresh air, I would also like to give this award to....

Cindy Wilson!

Your Wednesdays Excerpt or Action posts have been a ton of fun and very refreshing. Not only does your blog make me smile whenever I read it, but the community you've attracted is unique and wonderful. Thank you!

HEADS UP:

There's a book giveaway of The Victor over at Whispered Roars. It looks pretty awesome.

Week 4 of NaNo

Hey! It's the last week!

This is exciting, relieving, and sad all at the same time.

I got pretty stuck on my story, so I decided to add in a few extra plot twists. For instance, now my MC is in the middle of a tunnel maze after having found a gigantic pit of skeletons and a test-tube containing the black plague that she has to get to the surface.

I know a lot of people rail against NaNoWriMo because it promotes reckless abandon. And the point is valid because assumedly we're all trying to write something that will eventually be publishable.

And it does seem comforting to say that life should be all about quality and not quantity.

But the truth is, writing with reckless abandonment and making up crazy plot twists is just plain too much fun to pass up. It might be drivel. It might have taken up a lot of my time. But I find myself even now thinking back to last year's NaNoWriMo and remembering scenes I wrote during that time. Those scenes have now grown in my head and make a little more sense. But I wouldn't have had them if I hadn't tried to write crazily.

If NaNoWriMo doesn't work for some people, that's cool. But if it does work for some of us, that should be cool as well. I have always ALWAYS brought something away from writing crazily that was useable later on, even if it was just learning about how I write.

Sheer volume of words doesn't equal quality. But it sure helps in getting to that quality stage.

So what am I going to do with this mountain of words after November? Well, I have a second story I want to start on so I will probably file them away for a month or two, work on the other story, then bring them out when I have a fresh perspective on them again.

Happy Writing everyone! And Happy Thanksgiving! May your turkeys be big and make you sleepy, and may you find some time to settle down and enjoy family. And to write.

NaNoWriMo stats:

Words total: 43,676

Words left: 6,324

Average Words Per Day: 1,985

At this rate I'll be done on: Nov. 25th

Percent complete: 87%

Week 3 of NaNo!

I think I missed week 2. Oh well.

Chris Baty is right: the second week of NaNoWriMo is the toughest!

I'm not exactly sure why this is. I do know that last week I was down in the dumps about my story, and today, Monday, I'm happy as can be and was able to write 5k+ words today. :D

NaNoWriMo Update:

Total words: 41,626

Average words per hour for November: 469.31 (whoah, that's low!)

Words left to reach 50k: 8,374

Average words per day: 2,602

At this rate I'll be done on: Nov. 19th

Percent complete: 83%

Am I obsessed with numbers and figures? No, not really. I just happened across a really cool Excel spread sheet publiushjm made for NaNoWriMo. Thanks publiushjm!

Writing Buddy

You know how flies only live a short period of time, and you can tell how long they have left to live by how fast they move?

There's a fly that's been bugging me for awhile now where I write. Today I noticed it's getting more daring and flying right onto my keyboard while I'm typing! It's also getting really slow in its reaction time.

I was tempted to catch and kill it, but I figure, it's going to die soon anyways. I guess I'm just overcome with compassion today. For now, it's my writing buddy. The fly on the wall that, even if my inner critic says my story is bad, will look on from above. I'm kind of glad it stuck around. Makes me think my story must be great if it chose to spend the last moments of its life reading it.

NaNoWriMo update:

I got a little stuck the last few days. Am just now wiggling my way out of it.

Word count: 33,211 as of this afternoon.

Ok, back to the, er,.....writing board.

(I guess that would be keyboard.)

Possible Kindle Winning!

Hey everyone.

Just wanted to let you know about a Kindle drawing over on Lisa and Laura's blog. You gotta hurry though. Contest ends Friday.

Thanks to everyone for your advice about my plot holes. I'm still not decided but I think I'm going to go with the princess. Either that or kidnapping the princess AND an attempted assassination on the cult leader.

Happy writing!

Plot Holes

I've run into a bit of a problem. I originally intended my main character to kidnap a princess. But as I started writing, it morphed into my main character trying to kill a cult leader instead. Both of these scenarios have plot holes. Kidnapping the princess I am more prepared to deal with, but it's a little cliche. (Okay, maybe a lot cliche.) Killing the cult leader has a lot more plot holes, but it's different and more exciting (at least the way I've written the two scenarios).

I need your help. Would you rather read about a princess being kidnapped for political reasons?

Or would you rather read about an attempted assassination on a cult leader?

(Note: No matter which scenario takes place, these two things happen: The princess turns out to be a murderous wench and the villain. The cult leader turns out to be an ally.)

Please vote in the comments. Thanks for your help!