Archives: 2009 NaNo

Had tons of fun at the Jix Virtual TGIO Party last night...stayed til 1 am! And I am soooooo not a night owl! Much fun was had by all! And I think I can say the same thing about the regional TGIO Party today. Stayed there 5.5 hours today. :) Lots and lots of fun. Lots of great people. This is going to be the best off season ever!

Gosh it's been ages since I popped over here! I was at my parents' house for nine days (well, seven of nine days), and they don't have Internet access. Well, they do, but it's sloooooow dial-up, so I totally don't count it. *g* For two days I was at my sister's house (I can't help it; it will ALWAYS be my sister's house in my mind) and had Internet access, but I also did a lot of running around, taking the kids to school, picking them up, shopping with my mom, AND had three work deadlines fall during that time, so blogging, even though I was at a house with Internet access, fell by the wayside.

So, I hit 50K on November 29. I looked at my past spreadsheets--the earliest I've hit it was my first year, on November 20, and that year I finished the novel, which clocked in around 64K words, by November 25. Last year I came close to my first year, hitting 50K on November 21. The latest I've hit 50K (until this year) is November 27. Usually, I seem to fall around the 24th or 25th.

I was panicking myself this year! I wasn't even going to write on the 29th this year, resigning myself to winning on the *gulp* last day. I had had a 101 degree fever for a couple of days, hadn't slept, felt rotten, stupidly drove from my parents' house to my house while feeling this way, and was exhausted and in no mood to write. Then, because I took a long nap during the day, I couldn't sleep that night. The Tylenol kicked in. And at 10 pm Sunday night, I decided I felt well enough to write, and I didn't want to miss that window, so I wrote the last 3K+ words I needed to say I finished *before* the last day. Whew! Then on the 30th, I wrote 2+K more to officially finish the novel. I don't really feel like I've won unless I finish the novel, not just hit 50K. After all, it is National NOVEL Writing Month, not National Write 50K Words Month.

This year was a weird year for me. I'd say that 80% of the days I wrote (which was every day except for one), I didn't start writing before 10 pm, many times not before 10:30 pm, and on two memorable occasions, not until 11:30 pm. The 20% of days I didn't start writing that late were because I attended write-ins. I probably wouldn't have written before 10 pm those days had it not been for the write-ins. I don't know why I was such a night-owl writer this year. I have found that every NaNo I do takes on a "personality" of its own, and I guess this year's personality was "Night Owl".

Tonight is the Jix Virtual TGIO Party and tomorrow is the regional TGIO Party. So sad to say good-bye to the craziness, but so ready for off-season activities--meetups in Pinconning and Bay City, editing the stories I've finally written after five or six years of planning, and so on.

Congrats to everyone who won NaNo, met their goals, or wrote even one more word than they would have without NaNo!

ARGH! I have too much editing and writing I need to do, which saps my will to write my novel, because even when I didn't have stuff to do I didn't want to write it, and now that I have other stuff to do, I really don't want to spend time on it. Why is it *always* feast or famine??!!!?!

I am so psyched! I had a glimmer of an idea about an all-day writeathon, and two awesome Wrimos in my region have helped me to no end in making it a reality. We've invited the entire state to come, and there are people in three other regions seriously thinking about it or definitely planning to attend. There are activities! Prizes! We have our own room, graciously donated by the coffeehouse/deli! I've ordered some snack trays for that midafternoon slump, and the food there is really good, so I am excited about those, plus the opportunity to eat lunch and dinner there (I can never choose what I want when I'm there, so now I only have to narrow it to two choices, lol!).

This is going to be so awesome! And, with hourly word count wars, I am guaranteed to leave the day with many thousands of words.

Yay!

Have I mentioned how psyched I am? *g*

I'm cranky and apathetic and don't feel like writing.

Blech.

Trixie just spoke to me! Barely, and not enough for me to entirely know what is going on with her, but it's something at least!

So, I only had three stories planned for Gethsemane (other than the Dan story, which I cannot work on because I technically started it during NaNo 2007 as a side plot that surprised me). I knew that these three stories would never carry 50K words, and on one level, I was worried, but on another I wasn't, because I figured that it would work itself out.

It did. In the last 20 minutes I have been inspired to write three (maybe four--haven;t decided if this needs to be a separate storie) more stories in the arc. This should nicely bring me to more than 50K words. AND, in a really awesome turn of fate, I know what happens to Di in Europe. I never knew before. I knew she went abroad, but I had NO CLUE what happened to her until now. (And it's not just a Dr. Pepper addiction I was unaware of until chat tonight.)

Now I know! Man, do those characters work in mysterious ways! It's going to be VERY controversial. Very. And it's not anything that I could ever imagine writing or wanting to write. Which is why I think I've been kept in the dark for so long. I had the brainstorm about Di going to Europe more than six years ago. I guess Di finally thought I was ready, six years later, to know what happened to her. And as much as it shocked me, and as much as it's controversial, I know it's right. The challenge will be for me to make it work with my mindset of the Bob-Whites (continually living in the 50s no matter in which decade I write them). I *think* I can do it and hopefully not turn off too many readers.

The scary thing? I quickly scanned Onyx Twilight to see if anything I wrote then contradicted what I had just come up with...and the groundwork is already there. It's already been laid. I wrote it years ago. And I didn't even realize it. Have I mentioned how freakin' mysteriously these characters work?

Dude. When I started my writing session, I was uninspired, not wanting to write, and now I am so excited...I feel like I've never been so alive (heh--those were words that just played in the song in iTunes so I had to write them since it fit perfectly with my mood--more symmetry)...I know where everything is going. And these six (maybe seven) stories are the last six Mart/Di stories in Gethsemane. Their story--at least this portion--is done when these are written, which is a relief, because this storyline first had its initial niggling seven or so years ago. And it's coming to a close now that I am (finally) ready for it to.

Dude. These characters just rock. If you completely put your trust in them, they will take you where they (and you by default) need to go. What an amazing feeling!

Now maybe Jim and Trixie will tell me what the *$@&% is up with them since they apparently have NO stories they want to tell in Gethsemane *or* Onyx Twilight. I mean, they won't even tell me their wedding story for godsake!!!!!!!

When it's 11:25, you haven't written a word, and you're determined to write something even when the mood is NOT there, listen to the songs that inspired the story arc to begin with.

Off to write!

1. Be gone all day.

2. Start using a new computer for the first time.

3. Start using a new operating system for the first time.

4. Start using a new version of Word for the first time.

5. Forget to transfer all old stories you'll need as reference onto your new computer.

6. Try to get used to a new keyboard.

I'm really being facetious. Yeah, all of that slowed me down (especially the new keyboard), but I will NEVER choose writing a novel over spending time with L, C, A, A, and E, let alone at such an awesome place as Uncle John's Cider Mill. And Windows 7 is actually kinda cool. Word 2007 isn't so bad. And it's not that big of a deal to turn on the old computer and access the old stories (even if it does take nearly a half-hour to boot up). And I really can't complain, because I had all yesterday to get used to this computer and turn it on and do what I needed to do to get ready, and instead I just stared at it. I love my old laptop, and I'm attached to it, and I don't like change. I think all of those factors kept me from playing with my new toy yesterday. Finally last evening after staring at for about 8 hours, I turned it on and went through the start-up wizards that all new computers have, but not 10 minutes after I did that, Susan sent the last part of our Halloween story, and that was infinitely more important so the new laptop got forgotten.

Anyway, all in all, I am happy with what I finally got done (after spending almost two hours procrastinating by answering stuff at the NaNo forums and in NaNo PMs, buying software that I can no longer get from my company but need to do the Jix newsletter, figuring out how my computer's Bluetooth works, and wasting a half-hour only to realize that my scanner is not compatible with my new computer--which is BAD because I scan my timesheet in every month to get paid and without a scanner I am screwed--and buying a new scanner [and on an even further side note, I've now spent more on software and hardware I need than I did on my computer, which is a GOOD computer--WTF?]) once I set my mind to it. I started writing at 10:30 pm and kicked out more than 2500 words by midnight, so it could have been a lot worse. (They're CRAPPY words, but it could have been a lot worse.)

Tomorrow, I will be closer to having what I need on this computer and being more used to it. Plus, I'll be home all day.

Viva la NaNo! *g*

Hope everyone had a productive first day!!!!!!

I am sooooo not ready, even if my blog is. I have a story idea (fanfic--gonna knock out the next few stories in Gethsemane), but no energy or motivation. I need to get pumped up sometime in the next 25 days or so!