NaNoWriMo Won!

I have made it! I have, just this lunchtime, completed my novel, just over 50,000 words of complete narrative. I, Lucy Ann Wade, have actually written a whole novel. It still hasn't sunk in yet, but I am so happy to have finally reached that goal. It has proven to myself that I can be disciplined and focused when I want to be. So tonight, I am going to go home and break open the Marks and Spencers quarter bottle of champagne that I bought last night and celebrate my achievement.

But, it is ever onwards, and I've been thinking a lot about Dorcas Grubb, my feisty eight year old heroine and her family of Time Keepers. I don't mean they are all watches and clocks, but that they are the keepers and martials of time, and just so happen to live in Highfields in one of those lovely houses, right next to the drug dens and the aslyum seekers. Anyway, I am still rolling her story around in my head, and plan to start writing it in early December. It's not quite ready yet.

And then there is Inter Vivos. Sigh. I am going to read what I have written so far over the next couple of days and then get going again, applying the skills that I have developed this year with NaNoWriMo and getting to the end of my first draft. I hope to have the first draft completed by the end of February at the latest. Hopefully the cold winter will inspire me when I write the last section of the book (though I very much doubt we will get the snow I would like).

Yay to me!

5,673 words to go!!!!

You read that right, folks. I have 5,673 words to go to 'win' NaNoWriMo this year! There are a couple of problems on the horizon however that may stop me from reaching that total; the biggest is The Sims 2 Bon Voyage game that I got for my birthday. Must just ration it away and make sure I complete my words before I play it. My house is a sty, I'm a little bit sleep deprived (though I have been 'catching up' by sleeping in most mornings and being late for work), but I do think that for some reason this year, NaNoWriMo has been quite easy. I will rephrase that so the Gods don't spite me for my premature confidence: the words that I have written so far were easy to come up with, and I found it easy to fit in the 1,667 words per day. The hardest part was actually making myself sit down in front of my pc and type them without getting distracted. But I made myself do it and I did, and now I'm almost to the end, and I almost have a short novel in my hands. I am going to celebrate on the 1st if I manage to get it all done. Fingers Crossed!

Time Travel and 35K

Well, folks, I am still NaNoWriMo-ing, and still on schedule. I've just passed the 35K mark, which is an achievement in itself, and the novel is actually getting easier to write. I can knock out 1500 words during my lunch break (so in about 30-40 minutes) so it's not bad going. Of course, I am resigned to the fact that my novel is turd - there doesn't actually seem to be any drama in it, and my main character spends most of the novel whining about her love life. Oh well, less than 15K to go!

I do at least now feel more like a real writer, in that I am writing something rather than talking about writing something. I don't think I'm going to audition for the next musical on Wednesday due to my increased commitment to writing, and I spent a lot of yesterday evening (as well as being in agony with sharp stomach pains) rolling an idea around in my brain and lazily day dreaming into existence the world and the characters. I'm feeling confident and self-assured. If it is possible to write a pretty poor novel in a month, then surely it's possible to write a masterpiece in a year, if I keep at this velocity?

Anyway, tonight Alex is going to explain the scientific principles of Time and time travel to me before I get bored or my head explodes, for my new story. If any one would like to give me their thoughts on the theory of time travel, etc. then please be my guest! I am doing initial research so that I can then disregard it all and write my own version (or maybe not, depending on how much I understand).

NaNoWriMo Week 3

Well, I reach my third week as a NaNoWriMo participate with 26000 words tucked firmly under my belt. I'm extremely pleased with myself for sticking with it and continuing writing even though at times I just wanted to give in. This new-found dedication has also made me more focused that this - producing works of literature - is what I want to do with my life. Sigh.
The story is on track, though I'm still not sure if it's any good or has potential, but I'm passed the stage of caring right now. Just have to keep on with it. I do like some of my characters, though my main character is extremely whiny; I'll have to do something about that if I ever redraft.

In other news, it's freezing cold today, and I don't have any winter clothes, nor can I afford any. Guess it's a good thing that layering is still in fashion. Just wish I owned one item of clothing that did not have a fault with it, be it a hole, a tear or a dodgy zip. Poor poor me!

New Spice Girls Song is a Pile of W**k Shocker!

Saw The Spice Girls new video last night. It amused me that all the girls' vocals had been layered to try to disguise the fact that they can't sing; well, everyone's except Sporty Spice, who sounded like she had swallowed a fog horn in comparison when she opened her mouth as she was the only one whose voice hadn't been digitally tampered with. Absolutely rubbish.

Twenty-K

Right, well, I've hit the grand old 20K mark for my NaNoWriMo novel (still untitled), and I'm starting to ease back in to the story, after spending a difficult two days documenting everything that my main character did just to keep momentum going ("Thea boiled the kettle. Thea got two cups from the cupboard. The cups had flowers on them. Thea found the tea bags in the jar next to the microwave" etc). I've now taken my characters on a night out and have had one of those 'zing' moments where something has popped into my head that will take the story in a different direction (and hopefully provide an additional 5,000 or so!). So I think I'm doing ok. Still a bit foggy, in terms of writing block, etc, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Hitting 20K is a bit of a landmark for me. Regular readers of this blog will know that the current novel I'm working on (Inter Vivos) currently stands at around 20,078 words, and that has taken me a year to write. I'm pleased with my progress this year, but also wish I had done better last year. Still, when November is over with, I'm hoping to take my new-found skills of discipline and dedication and apply them to IV.

I have to keep telling myself that all this hard work will pay off eventually, and hopefully I will have something to show for my efforts and can then go about trying to become the recognised writer I want to be. But I can't be a writer until I've actually written something (and completed it to the end), so it's back to the grindstone and the Word document for me!

Disaster

Well, I'm up to 13,059 words of my NaNoWriMo novel, and I think it's all just awful. Last night I wrote the worst 400 words of my entire life. Absolutely terrible prose. And the story is cliche and on the verge of boring me. But I can't give in, because I have to reach 50,000! I miss Inter Vivos. So I'm just going to moan about my new novel on here for a while. There are some good bits in it, and some good bits coming up that I've yet to write, but on the whole it's just bad. I have a whole immigration sub-plot that I'm looking forward to writing, so much so in fact that my actual main character is just moving from place to place to get me up to the part I'm excited to write. Perhaps I should have a coup and kill off my main character in favour of the supporting character? That's a thought worth thinking about.

Anyway, despite the appauling state of my NaNo novel, I've also been having lots of ideas about other things to write about (sure enough, if you're working on one idea, ten more will pop into your head). I've come up with a new character, called Dorcas, who I've yet to find a story for, but I think she may end up in a children's book. I have ideas for plays that include music and dancing, and I'm loving the 1940s and 50s right now, so may find some inspiration there. I especially like the 40s/50s pin-up posters (see above for an example), so may have to write that in somewhere.

Had a meeting with Sabrina last night to make a crack at the Arts Council Grants form for our Semper project. Basically, we're going to try to organise our own theatre festival in Leicester. I realised as we were filling in the form, that I've actually got quite a lot of experience! It's always good to remind my inner critics that I'm not completely hopeless!

An Interesting Article

To give me hope that writers do not get penalised for writing in more than one form.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article2745652.ece

NaNoWriMo: The Journey So Far

Well, at the time of typing this blog, my word count for NaNoWriMo is 7,412, which means I'm slightly ahead of my RDA of words for the weekend, but obviously behind on today's total (seeing as I haven't started writing for today yet). So far so good.
I've found that the hardest thing about doing NaNoWriMo this year is not the story - that's relatively simple at the minute (touch wood) - but actually making myself sit down at a computer for long enough to type something. I never fully realised how undisciplined I've become. On the first day, I would sit, write maybe fifty words, and then get up and get a drink, or have a snack, before coming back and writing another fifty words, and then doing a word count check and going to clean the bathroom, before coming back to write again maybe half an hour later. It was painful, and not because the story wouldn't come, but because I was too lazy and/or distracted to actually write it.
I'm getting better though. On Sunday I sat and typed in bed for about 30 minutes straight without getting up and doing something else. As the month goes on, perhaps a newly developed increased attention span will be added to my list of achievements, as well as a 50,000 word novel.