NaNoWriMo 2015 - Day 30

Here we are at the end of National Novel Writing Month. For those brave and foolish adventurers like myself, it has been a month filled with words and story. Some of us have made it to the finish line, some of us haven't. And that's okay. Anyone who has more words now at the end of November than they did at the start is a winner in my my book. Those of us who hit 50,000 words are just overachievers.

And yes, I am indeed in that category.

I hit my target of 50k words in one month. And on my first NaNoWriMo as well.

So how's it been for me?

Pretty good overall. It's been fun. Stressful, but then that's my own fault for deciding to attempt NaNo whilst in the final stages of my PhD. It probably wasn't the best plan I've ever had but I did pass my viva and succeed at NaNo. So everything turned out fine in the end.

It wasn't all smooth sailing though. I fell off the blogging wagon just over half way though. This was partly because it was getting a little tedious blogging about writing a novel I don't want to share details of yet. Mostly it was because I flagged a little and it was a case of either blogging or working on NaNo. I chose NaNo.

Would I do it again?

Absolutely. In fact I have a few other writing challenges lined up for next year in what has been dubbed as OPERATION WORDS OR GLORY by my friend Susan. And the plan does include doing NaNo again next year. If I haven't burnt out completely by then, which is a possibility.

Here's the graph of how I did over the course of the month because I like graphs. I particularly like this on because it's pretty obvious where in the month my viva fell. My daily word counts are below as well, mostly for my own future reference.

So that's the end of NaNoWriMo. I did it.

My plan for the rest of the year is to finish off my current works in progress, which includes my novel. 50k words wasn't quite enough to wrap things up and I'm looking forward to seeing the end of the story. I also have a couple of things I put on hold for NaNo that I need to get back to.

Then in the new year (how the hell is it nearly 2016 anyway) I can start on something fresh.

Gotta keep writing.


 November Word Count

Day 1 3734 : Total 3734
Day 2 2044 : Total 5738
Day 3 1701 : Total 7439
Day 4 1690 : Total 9129
Day 5 1887 : Total 11016
Day 6 2034 : Total 13050
Day 7 3632 : Total 16682
Day 8 1065 : Total 17747
Day 9 1279 : Total 19026
Day 10 545 : Total 19571
Day 11 0     : Total 19571
Day 12 0     : Total 19571
Day 13 309  : Total 19880
Day 14 3170 : Total 23050
Day 15 2001 : Total 25061
Day 16 1663 : Total 26724
Day 17 1718 : Total 28442
Day 18 2188 : Total 30630
Day 19 1791 : Total 32421
Day 20 951   : Total 33372
Day 21 3676 : Total 37048
Day 22 2022 : Total 39070
Day 23 1125 : Total 40195
Day 24 264   : Total 40459
Day 25 2008 : Total 42476
Day 26 1739 : Total 44206
Day 27 856   : Total 45062
Day 28 1114 : Total 46176
Day 29 86     : Total 46262
Day 30 3816 : Total 50078

NaNoWriMo 2015 - Day 17

Today was probably my worst day for procrastinating on NaNo so far. Not because I wasn't writing, quite the opposite.

In fact I ended up writing something else instead of working on my novel.

I've read a lot of writing advice on not starting anything new while you're working on a story and it's good advice. I'm just terrible at following it. I'm always working with more than one story at a time and I've actually got three or four works in progress that I put on hold for NaNo. I figure every writer is different and that's just how I work. Ideas just come to me too quickly to ever have just one story on the go.

Today I wound up with a first line and a concept in my head and I knew I wouldn't be able to knuckle down on my novel until I'd gotten them out. SO I ended up writing a completely unrelated 1000 word flash fiction which introduced a superhero and her sidekick who I'm totally going to end up telling more stories about. So, oops.

But I did sit down and work on the novel and I'm still on track to finish on time which is good. I'm still hoping I'll get one or two really good days in so I can get ahead but we'll see what happens. I'm still on track and that means I'm winning.


 November Word Count

Day 1 3734 : Total 3734
Day 2 2044 : Total 5738
Day 3 1701 : Total 7439
Day 4 1690 : Total 9129
Day 5 1887 : Total 11016
Day 6 2034 : Total 13050
Day 7 3632 : Total 16682
Day 8 1065 : Total 17747
Day 9 1279 : Total 19026
Day 10 545 : Total 19571
Day 11 0 : Total 19571
Day 12 0 : Total 19571
Day 13 309 : Total 19880
Day 14 3170: Total 23050
Day 15 2001 : Total 25061
Day 16 1663 : Total 26724
Day 17 1718 : Total 28442

NaNoWriMo 2015 - Day 16

Not really all that much to say today.

I made word count and  I'm on track to finish on the thirtieth. I'd quite like to get a few thousand words into a buffer but at the moment I'm pretty pleased with myself.

Also I've now hit 30000 words for the month (including this blog) meaning this month is already my most productive month this year!

Gone back and started a new chapter I realised I needed but I'm moving the story forward at the same time so I don't get too bogged down cycling back to fix things. Got some pretty epic shit to throw at my protagonist in the next few chapters. I'm looking forward to it.

Still enjoying writing this novel, I think I'm just feeling the after effects of the whole PhD thing. IT's taken a few turns where I didn't expect which is keeping things interesting. And I've just about sorted the plot for the sequel, which is pretty exciting.

Need to finish this one first though. Then on to the next.


 November Word Count

Day 1 3734 : Total 3734
Day 2 2044 : Total 5738
Day 3 1701 : Total 7439
Day 4 1690 : Total 9129
Day 5 1887 : Total 11016
Day 6 2034 : Total 13050
Day 7 3632 : Total 16682
Day 8 1065 : Total 17747
Day 9 1279 : Total 19026
Day 10 545 : Total 19571
Day 11 0 : Total 19571
Day 12 0 : Total 19571
Day 13 309 : Total 19880
Day 14 3170: Total 23050
Day 15 2001 : Total 25061
Day 16 1663 : Total 26724

NaNoWriMo 2015 - Day 15

Not much to say today.

Spent most of the day helping a friend turn a few barrels of apples into juice for later cider making. I was surprised by jut how much hard work it was. I was pretty exhausted when I got home from that and didn't really feel like writing. Made myself sit and do some anyway.

The plan was to write 3k words today, which didn't happen. I did manage 2k, which got me to 25000 words (half way!) and back on track. If I can manage 2000 words a day from here on out (which I was doing in the first week) then I should hit the target by the end of the month.

Managed to get past the scene that was giving me trouble and now we're about to hit a bunch of action. With a bit of luck that means the words will be coming thick and fast for a while.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.


 November Word Count

Day 1 3734 : Total 3734
Day 2 2044 : Total 5738
Day 3 1701 : Total 7439
Day 4 1690 : Total 9129
Day 5 1887 : Total 11016
Day 6 2034 : Total 13050
Day 7 3632 : Total 16682
Day 8 1065 : Total 17747
Day 9 1279 : Total 19026
Day 10 545 : Total 19571
Day 11 0 : Total 19571
Day 12 0 : Total 19571
Day 13 309 : Total 19880
Day 14 3170: Total 23050
Day 15 2001 : Total 25061

NaNoWriMo 2015 - Day 14

Today was the first real day of playing catch up. Done pretty well to be honest, despite a really slow start. I'm well and truly into the post-viva funk and have no motivation to do anything whatsoever. But this novel won't write itself so I need to crack on.

The progress graph I'm keeping looks really silly now I've started to gain on the word count again.  I've added it here just because it amused me. Also because graphs = science.

Graphs mean science. It's true. I have a PhD, I know these things.

Managed the 3k I wanted write today just just about put me back on track. Gonna go for another 3k tomorrow to get my buffer back. We'll see what happens after that.

Story wise I've hit a bit of a block. There's a few scenes here and there that I realised were needed so I've gone back and put them in, but it does mean I've not really been moving the forward all that much. I think part of my reticence is because I've reached a major argument between my protagonist and her best friend (a character I really like) and the inevitable result is the friend's departure from the story. Which I'm not really looking froward to.

I just have to tell myself that with the best friend (and my protagonist's voice of reason) out of the way I'm free to throw a whole bunch more trouble at my character to see what happens. Just gotta get through this scene first.

And keep on writing.


November Word Count

Day 1 3734 : Total 3734
Day 2 2044 : Total 5738
Day 3 1701 : Total 7439
Day 4 1690 : Total 9129
Day 5 1887 : Total 11016
Day 6 2034 : Total 13050
Day 7 3632 : Total 16682
Day 8 1065 : Total 17747
Day 9 1279 : Total 19026
Day 10 545 : Total 19571
Day 11 0 : Total 19571
Day 12 0 : Total 19571
Day 13 309 : Total 19880
Day 14 3170: Total 23050

NaNoWriMo 2015 - Day 13

All has been quiet on the NaNoWriMo front for a few days owing the fact that yesterday was one of the most stressful days of my academic career. Yesterday afternoon I had to sit in a room for two and half hours and convince two people with PhDs that I deserved to get one too. And I did it! I'm a few bits of writing away from achieving the highest academic qualification you can study for.

I can do that. Writing things is no problem.

Which is why NaNo has taken a back seat this week. I managed 545 words on Tuesday and nothing Wednesday or Thursday. Got back to writing today but I'm planning to give myself a few days to come down from the post-viva high before I knuckle back down with the novel. And then job hunting and thesis corrections I guess.

Managed about 300 words today. Not great, but it's a start. And it's better than nothing. I just did a hell of a thing that I'm immensely proud of myself for so I'm going to cut myself a bit of slack on the writing front.

Sometimes life gets in the way of writing, and that's ok. The trick is to pick yourself up and get writing again afterwards. That's my goal for tomorrow.


November Word Count

Day 1 3734 : Total 3734
Day 2 2044 : Total 5738
Day 3 1701 : Total 7439
Day 4 1690 : Total 9129
Day 5 1887 : Total 11016
Day 6 2034 : Total 13050
Day 7 3632 : Total 16682
Day 8 1065 : Total 17747
Day 9 1279 : Total 19026
Day 10 545 : Total 19571
Day 11 0 : Total 19571
Day 12 0 : Total 19571
Day 13 309 : 19880

NaNoWriMo 2015 - Day 9

Today was hard.

Anxiety about the viva is ramping up and I had the flat to clean in preparation for my mum coming to visit tomorrow. I didn't have a lot of time to write and by the time I sat down to do some it was quite late.

Managed 1200 words but it was like pulling teeth the whole time and not just because it was a difficult scene. Still, I managed to break 19000 words tonight, putting me approximately 4000 words ahead of the target.

There will be better days. I knew this week would be hard and it would affect my word count. Getting any words down is a win and I'll happily take that.



November Word Count

Day 1 3734 : Total 3734
Day 2 2044 : Total 5738
Day 3 1701 : Total 7439
Day 4 1690 : Total 9129
Day 5 1887 : Total 11016
Day 6 2034 : Total 13050
Day 7 3632 : Total 16682
Day 8 1065 : Total 17747
Day 9 1279 : Total 19026

NaNoWriMo 2015 - Day 8

Day 8 of NaNoWriMo and the first day of week two. A chance to start afresh if the first seven days didn't go quite according to plan.

My first week exceeded my expectations. I had an intricate plan all set up using Pacemaker that was designed to give me an easier word count target in the run up to my viva and increase the difficulty afterwards. Yeah, that went out the window. Instead I've been aiming for 2000 words every day, and if I've not felt up to that the at least I've made the minimum of 1667. Except for yesterday when I shot for a double up target of 4k and only just missed.

The plan for today was to do another double up in an attempt to hit the 20k mark. Then I'd be able to shoot for 1000 words a day most of this next week in the knowledge that I'm fairly comfortably ahead. Alas, things don't always go according to plan.

I only hit 1000 words today in the end.  I started late and found it difficult to make myself sit down and write. Days like this are part of the reason I like to front load challenges like this; it's much less overwhelming for me if I know I can have a bad day or even skip a day because I'm ahead.

Even so, today wasn't a total bust. I'm 1000 words further ahead than I was yesterday and  I realised I needed to go back and add another chapter in earlier on. Previously I had a big time skip between one event and what happened next but I realised I needed to deal with the immediate aftermath of the inciting incident better. Plus it means I get to hang out with one of my favourite characters some more.

Still having fun, still enjoying the story. Hopefully that means that other people will too. When I'm done.


November Word Count

Day 1 3734 : Total 3734
Day 2 2044 : Total 5738
Day 3 1701 : Total 7439
Day 4 1690 : Total 9129
Day 5 1887 : Total 11016
Day 6 2034 : Total 13050
Day 7 3632 : Total 16682
Day 8 1065 : Total 17747

#whimword - Kindness

It was kindness that did for him in the end.

Pity or derision he could have coped with, but it had been so long since he'd experienced genuine kindness he didn't known how to deal with it. A simple gesture was all it took to undo him completely.

In Metropolis no one pays any attention to the homeless. There are so many in the streets that you can't possibly help them all, so you learn not to see them. You find your gaze sliding past doorways full of huddled bodies because even if you acknowledge their existence there's nothing you can do. Everyone in this godforsaken city is a just a bad day away from joining them.

No one wants to help. No one can help and those that are supposed to turn a blind eye. That's just the way of things here.

He'd long since given up on the kindness of strangers but still he put his bowl out every day. Not so much because he hoped someone would take pity as much as he didn't know what else to do. Beggars begged, even if there was little or no chance it would come to anything.

The day was grey and wet; bad weather for begging even in a city where people have a heart. He sat huddled in his cardboard shelter, trying to conserve heat as best he could. His belly ached with hunger; it had been three days since his last meal.

Out of the gloom stepped a little girl, no more than six years old. By the way she was dressed she was the daughter of someone wealthy and important; he did his best to ignore her.

She moved towards him, slowly, deliberately, her head tilted to one side in curiosity. "Excuse me sir," she said, ever so politely. "Why are you sat out here in the rain?"

He laughed, hacking up several days' worth of mucus in the process. "I have nowhere else to go, little girl. No one wants me"

"Why not? Did you do something bad?"

"No, nothing like that. I'm old and too much effort to look after. Not worth keeping any more."

"I'm sure someone thinks you're worth something," she said with a naive certainty that warmed the old man's jaded heart.

"Maybe," he conceded, smiling, "but if they do they're far away from here."

"*I* think you're worth something. Here, I came out to spend my pocket money but I think you need this more than me."

She held out a fistful of cash. He took it uncertainly, sure there was a catch somewhere. She was called away by her nanny after that, leaving him with her fairly substantial allowance. He thanked his lucky stars.

That night he ate like a king and rented a comfortable bed in the finest inn he could find. It had been years since he'd known such luxury, his body didn't know how to cope.

He died in his sleep that night, happy and content.

NaNoWriMo 2015 - Day 7

First Saturday of NaNo. Double up day. Since my daily goal is to hit 2000 words my aim for today was to write 4k. And I almost did.

Currently on 3.6k for the day but with spending and  evening round a friend's house I'm not sure I'll manage to get the other 400 I need. I'll try to get them down when I get back but no promises. If I do, I'll update the total below. If I don't, 3600 words is a pretty good showing.

No matter what happens I've already exceeded last month's word count in a week. Pleased with my self and I'm dead chuffed with today.


November Word Count

Day 1 3734 : Total 3734
Day 2 2044 : Total 5738
Day 3 1701 : Total 7439
Day 4 1690 : Total 9129
Day 5 1887 : Total 11016
Day 6 2034 : Total 13050
Day 7 3632 : Total 16682

NaNoWriMo 2015 - Day 6

Another good day today. I swear at some point my daily word count will drop off but for now I'm enjoying writing this story and my viva isn't so close I feel I have to give up writing altogether.

Had a 600 word 25 minute session around lunchtime again as a reward for being productive then this evening I did a virtual write in with a bunch of other people in my area. It was interesting but I was more productive when I stepped away from the chat. Writing's a lonely activity at heart, but its' nice to have people to talk to when you take a quick break.

Managed to hit 2k today for the first time since the 2nd. The story's barrelling along nicely in a section I didn't quite anticipate having but fixes some of the contrivance issues I was worried about. Plus  I had a character walk unexpectedly into my story tonight and I'm quite fond of them already. It's nice when things like that happen.

Double down day tomorrow. Will see how close to 4k I can get before a fall over. I'll give it a go but I'm out tomorrow evening so I might not hit that target. And I might not get a chance to blog. We'll see.

All I can do is take each day as it comes and keep on writing.


November Word Count

Day 1 3734 : Total 3734
Day 2 2044 : Total 5738
Day 3 1701 : Total 7439
Day 4 1690 : Total 9129
Day 5 1887 : Total 11016
Day 6 2034 : Total 13050

NaNoWriMo 2015 - Day 5

Remember remember the fifth of November, gunpowder treason and plot. I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot.

Happy flashbang explodey things day to anyone in the UK. Happy Thursday to anyone else.

Pretty good day again today. Had a 600 word session around lunchtime as a reward for getting other stuff done and then a longer session after 10 pm. The story itself feels like it's storming a long and I'm still really enjoying writing it. Can't wait for it to be done so other people can read it.

I was pestering my brother last night about something related to the story because it lies within his field of expertise and I couldn't remember something I wanted. Ended up having a chat with him about the story and he seemed supportive and pretty excited about it, which was nice. He also had lots of ideas about the plot of the story itself. Which... I kind of get the urge to have input into someone else's story but I don't plan on taking any of the suggestions he made on board. At least not for this story.

It might seem a little rude but I really hate the idea of writing by committee. Which is partly the reason I've never done a workshop. If you revise your story and plot to try to please everyone you'll end up pleasing no one and you'll strip your voice out of the story to boot. So much writing advice talks about the importance of finding your voice and letting it shine through in the story, so why would I take it to a committee and let them polish my voice out?

I think the main reason I feel this way is because Dean Wesley Smith hates traditional workshops for stories and writing by committee. A lot of the advice I've really taken on board has come from Dean and it's my long term goal to end up with a career a bit like his. So that might be why I feel so strongly about this.

At the end of the day, it's your story. You write it the way you want to and worry about everything else later. Unless I ever purposely sit down to co-author something with someone I won't let any one else's ideas interfere with character or plot. Other people can help me clean up other things (spelling, typos, tense issues) after I'm done writing. They don't get a say in the story. Especially if they're not a writer themselves.

My story, my rules. I aim to have fun while writing and trying to please anyone but me during the writing process is a sure fire way to spoil my fun. So not gonna happen. But if talking to someone else about a story fires up some ideas for new stories then that's great. Because when I'm done with this one I plan to start straight on with the next story.


November Word Count

Day 1 3734 : Total 3734
Day 2 2044 : Total 5738
Day 3 1701 : Total 7439
Day 4 1690 : Total 9129
Day 5 1887 : Total 11016

NaNoWriMo 2015 - Day 4

You know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men?

That was me today. Got up slightly later than yesterday because it was the spouse's day off and I didn't want to disturb him. Had a bit of a dud day after that due to a nasty headache that derailed all my plans until about four o'clock. Got some viva prep done and settled in to write just before 9 pm.

Pleased with today's progress despite the fact this is my lowest word count yet. I'm still ahead, I've still got my buffer so I'm happy. My plan has gone right out the window for the moment because I'm writing more than I thought I'd be able to. I'll have to keep an eye out for burnout but so far I'm really enjoying my NaNo experience.

Story wise I'm just starting to get the interesting bits. And my main character is just about to go off in a direction I didn't quite expect her to go in which is nice. Might give me a few problems when it comes to introducing a secondary character later but I'll worry about that when I get to it. If I keep writing they might just stroll up and introduce themselves when the time is right.

Viva is a week tomorrow so I anticipate some word count drop off in the run up to that. It all depends on how well I do with my prep. I'll try again tomorrow to use writing as a reward for prep. Hopefully I'll have better luck than today.


November Word Count

Day 1 3734 : Total 3734
Day 2 2044 : Total 5738
Day 3 1701 : Total 7439
Day 4 1690 : Total 9129

NaNoWriMo 2015 - Day 3

Got a pretty good start today. I was up earlier than I am usually because I had a meeting today, so I got 600 words done before 9 am. Long break from writing after that because I was running around doing stuff and then I had a glorious nap in the afternoon.

Sat down to do some writing after 10 pm then got distracted by a new racing game I downloaded. Managed to get myself back on track and do some writing.

Onto chapter three now, and my protagonist is taking the deep breath before she plunges into the main plot of the novel. Still having great fun writing this. I keep making myself feel emotions and during one particular scene I made myself feel a bit nauseous. Which is all good really.

Hit 1701 words for the day and stopped there because I am a huge Star Trek nerd. Also because I'd hit a paragraph break.

Plan for tomorrow is to reward myself with half an hour of writing for every 45 minutes of viva prep I do. I'm making flashcards! We'll see how that goes.


November Word Count

Day 1 3734 : Total 3734
Day 2 2044 : Total 5738
Day 3 1701 : Total 7439

NaNoWriMo 2015 - Day 2

Got off to a pretty bad start today. Accidentally fell back asleep this morning and lost a few hours, missing an appointment I had in the process. Not the best start to a week or NaNo, but things like this are the reason I like to get as much done early on as possible; having a bit of a buffer to account for life getting in the way makes me feel a whole lot better.

I know I'm going to have some bad days this month, and a few days where I expect to write 0 words on account of the viva, so getting a lot done when I'm able to makes sense.

Despite the bad start I managed to get some writing time in while heading out for my rescheduled appointment. I had maybe an hour on public transport and in waiting rooms so I tapped away on my Kindle. Found myself thinking about a scene much further along in the novel so I wrote it down and got it out of my head. If I hadn't done that I think I'd have struggled to hit my target of 2k words today. And now I have somewhere in the region of 600 words to throw in a future chapter when the time comes.

Had a decent session this even and hit my target though I ran out of energy so couldn't push too hard. That's fine. I'm ahead at the moment. Still having fun writing , though I've just hit the first really difficult scene to get down. Stopping it halfway through tonight which will hopefully get me moving quicker tomorrow.

Onwards and upwards.


November Word Count

Day 1 3734 : Total 3734
Day 2 2044 : Total 5738

NaNoWriMo 2015 - Day 1

Nice start to the challenge today. It's a Sunday, I've had nothing particularity pressing to do and I spent most of the day at the in-laws. Nothing to do really except write, which is what I've spent the day doing. It's been a lot of fun actually, and so far pretty easy.

I don't know how much it's going to help that I've written this novel before. My novel this month is a complete rewrite of a story I initially wrote between July and December 2007. While I will always be extremely proud of the fact I finished a novel (something, I am told, a lot of budding writers never actually manage) I've never been all that pleased with the result.

And given how much my writing has improved in the last eight years I suspected it would be very obvious which bits I wrote eight years ago and which bits were done now. Add to that the fact both the story and characters have spent the last eight years inside my head, evolving and growing, I decided to completely scrap the previous version and start fresh.

So far it's going great, at least from my perspective. Better than I planned in fact, at least word count wise. I've introduced my main character and a few people close to her and I've started throwing crap at her to deal with already. I'm having an absolute blast and for me that is one of the most important things. That and writing consistently every day.

We'll see how the rest of the month shapes up but right now I'm feeling optimistic.


November Word Count

Day 1 3734 : Total 3734