Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related NaNo 08 - Let's Get This Party Started!

So here's this year's thread for Word Counts, first lines, and etc.

And since it's now 10pm local time, the sugar high kids are crashing and so is DH and I'm delaying trying to get ONE MORE chapter of OTOH finished before midnight [yes, I have enough buffer to get through Nov], so I thought I'd post this...

From Jojo's thread last year...

My response momentarily...

Carol

Here's to no hospital stays, surgeries or kidney stones this year!

NaNo Name: CarolM
NaNo UserID # [from the end of your page in case the search function doesn't work again this year]: 200582
Years Doing NaNo: 2nd
This Year's Genre: Lois and Clark fiction
This Year's Idea: Well, I can't say since I'm still posting the first one and it's a sequel to On the Other Hand
Novel Title: Unanswered Prayers
Word Count Goal: 50,000

There we go .

Next?
Carol

/cries

Word counter doesn't seem to be working yet, but my Word file is 423 and only because I wanted to get started and get a word count tonight...

Anyone else?
Carol

Last chance to write/update for a while today - but am at 1324...

Anyone else?!?! James - I saw you had a word count...

Carol

ok, here's how my morning went.

At 2:17am I hear the sound of water running. Normally, this would mean that I was dreaming and just had to use the little author's room...however, when I was fully awake, I still heard the sound of water.

The water softner had supposedly cycled the night before, but sure enough it was running.

That little shot of adrenaline was just the beginning.

So, I was already up and I knew we had a load of clothes in the washer ready to be put in the dryer, so I decided to flip on the lights and put the clothes in, like the dutiful hubby that I am.

Now I am a little more awake.

I am resisting the urge to write. I am not that awake yet.

Then I really did need to use the little author's room. Did I mention that we installed enough wattage in that little room to light a normal great room?

I was fully awake, but it was only 2:34am in the morning! I quietly returned to bed.

2:45...2:50...2:55...BEEP3:00...3:17...

Ok, fine, I get up and type in my first 128 words of my NaNoWriMo. There, I did it. I can go back to bed...

3:42am...BEEP4:00..Etc...5:25am...zzzz

6:45am "Dad, when are you getting up to feed us breakfast???"

NaNo Name: Mr_d8a
NaNo UserID # : 200538
Years Doing NaNo: 2nd
This Year's Genre: LnC/SG-1 crossover fic
This Year's Idea: Clark has left Stargate after a terrible incident at Stargate Command. He's lost someone that he loves to the Go'auld. Can he find a new life and a way to forgive himself? What role will Lois Lane play in his new life.
Novel Title: New Beginnings.
Word Count Goal: 50,000

First Scene:(unedited obviously)
Clark stepped onto the street. The parking garage was only about ten no five city blocka away form where his destination. The Daily Planet. His side job at the Colorado Examiner and the stings pulled by his professor got him this interview, but he know ahead of time that thether wasn’t a legitimate opening at this time.

But he had to get away,. Get away formthe pain of his old surroundings the pain of lo losing one of the few people that that matteed the most to him.

He needed a clean breabreak. A new Beginning. And he could only find it two thirds fof a contentient away.

Metropolis was hi snew home and he would do anthying to keep it that way.

Word count: 3074

About 1500 while at the Obama rally [I was working concessions for my sister and in the money room so lots of down time].

Carol

For those of you who used my calculator last year:

http://www.noated.net/~jojo/nanowrimo_report_card_2008.xls

Right click and "save as"

It isn't MY calculator but I have redone the formulas for this year since it was made for 2005.

I filled in my totals for the first day so you guys could see what it should look like.

Hey, great report card. Much better than the one I created.

Thanks!

I woke up with a horrified shock at 8:29 am yesterday, threw on some clothes and raced to the college to teach my 9 am class. After class, which finished at noon, I met my daughter at the mall for our walk, and we put in 3 1/4 miles. By the time I picked up a few groceries and got home, it was 3 pm, and I hadn't logged one word.

Nor had I done the dishes, and my husband was going to be cooking, so cleaning up the kitchen took priority. When I finally sat down at the computer, it seemed like he was calling me every fifteen minutes to help him in the kitchen, which included cleaning up the mess from his trying to puree boiling hot soup in the blender. By the time dinner was over, I'd written all of 350 words.

Then I went to look at the notes I'd prepared and realized I'd written a scene for my prologue that I wasn't even planning to include in the book. Frustrated, I got on IRC for my normal Saturday night appointment and watched FTASV, told everyone goodbye, and got back to work.

Slow going, and I wasn't using any of my hurry-up writing techniques. But when I finished three hours later, I had 1010 words, which I couldn't enter on the website because I couldn't get it to open.

Ah, well, a slow start, but I plan to do much better from here on. Since this is NaNo, I shouldn't be cutting what I've written, which is what I did yesterday (took out that wrong scene), but it takes me a few days to get out of that "edit as you go" mental mode.

NaNo Name: sheilah
NaNo UserID #: 228856
Years Doing NaNo: 2007 and 2008
This Year's Genre: Speculative fic
This Year's Idea: Aided by Lindsey Walker, a female private investigator, orphaned Caleb Pries goes on a quest to find his people, presumably the source of his strange abilities, while trying to elude the government agents who think he is a threat to national security.
Novel Title: The Foundling
Word Count Goal: 90,000, but I'm only counting my new writing this year for NaNo, so what I keep of last year's attempt won't count.

I'm glad to see that y'all are writing with us again this year. The nano page has been spotty for me lately so I haven't seen word counts since midnight, but I did note that many of you had posted. I'm glad to see that you're writing as well, Sheila. I was hoping that you were when I checked my "buddies" page.

(Are Lara Moon, SmileyD, and Catherine Bruce writing this year?)

I had a party rescheduled, so I worked all morning and afternoon and hayrided and bonfired all evening. I only got in about 30 minutes writing while James drove and another hour writing while I was half brain dead asleep.

I got in 724 words yesterday and another 400 so far this afternoon. I know that's chump change, but I'm having a tough time getting in the mood this year. Last year was so tough emotionally that I'm still carrying around some stuff that I need to leave behind.

Many thanks to Carol and James for weighing in on which plot I should do. As you can see below, your opinion mattered to me.

NaNo Name: Elisabeth_queen_of_D8aland
NaNo UserID #: 206936
Years Doing NaNo: This is my 2nd
This Year's Genre: Lois and Clark/Lois and Clark crossover (Just like I did last year)
This Year's Idea: Mindy Church decides to get Lois and Clark out of the way while she takes over Intergang.
Novel Title: Indisposed
Word Count Goal: 50K

/jumps up and down clapping!

Yay Elisabeth!!!!

I'm trying to get a huge jump by Tuesday because we'll be out of town the end of the week and have at least 3 holiday things this month.

I contemplated jumping universes, but ended up staying in the OTOH universe and so far I'm glad I did. I know where OTOH ends, but I'm not entirely certain the path they take to get there and since this picks up - literally at the moment - minutes after after where I plan on OTOH ending, I can kind of see what happened. Of course, the silly OTOH characters could surprise me when I get back to it and screw it all up...

Carol

Thanks for the spreadsheet, Jojo. It's great to see what when my predicted dates and times are (although I'm pretty sure that the program doesn't want me to succeed because it tells me that I need to write 1674 words a day to still make it and then says that my goal for tomorrow is only 1617 words. The Benedict Arnold!)


Elisabeth
3103 words--still behind, but doable

YAY ELISABETH!

I've had a productive weekend which is good since I'm losing at least 6 days to other stuff...

Current word count: 7469

Carol

Glad to see others doing it!

NaNo Name: capefetish
NaNo UserID #: 200302
Years Doing NaNo: 1st
This Year's Genre: LnC fanfic
This Year's Idea: Clark starts coming into his powers after he starts working at the Planet.
Novel Title: untitled so far
Word Count Goal: 50,000

Yay Jessi! Added you as a buddy .

Turns out I have a bit more time to write tonight...

Anyone care to share the first line of their novel?

[besides James who already did ]

Mine: It had been an amazing night.

Carol

Up to 1737 words now, but I've got to get to bed. Too much time spent googling fic questions.

First line? Here's the prologue, set 32 years ago: Carl Fiske stopped and pushed the switch on the flashlight off and on again as he peered into the darkness ahead of them.

And here's chapter one, set in present day: Drifting in the dark . . . until a wave of nausea rolled over him and he came fully awake. Caleb Pries took deep breaths, trying to control his roiling stomach.

I added you, too, Carol!

First line? It's all still pretty rough, but for now it's:

For the first time in Clark Kent's life, his mother's cooking wasn't fixing his problems.

FRESH MEAT!!!!!

Errr... I meant to say, I'm glad you decided to join us, Jessie. I like your unique concept for a novel. Your first line was cute too.

No writing so far today, but it's still during school hours. I organized a write-in tonight so maybe I'll pump out some words.

First line? It was impossible to find good parking on the West End during working hours, so Lois parked directly behind the coroner’s vehicle.

By the way, in case we haven't mentioned before you visit your buddies by typing in http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/###### (with the number signs replaced by their six digit user number)


Elisabeth

Thanks for mentioning that Elisabeth .

The message from Chris Baty today said that the search function will be turned back on soon - since Nov. 1/2 are 400% busier than the rest of the time.

Parking behind the coroner's van? Interesting given what I know about the plot... .

Current word count: 9884
Chapters finished: 4

[ballpark word count for chapters - 2300-2800]
Hope to get another chapter done today. Part of it is that the... main plot of UP hasn't started yet and I'm not sure how much I need to write before it does. I know what *day* it starts - after what event - but how much of the in between time do I want to show, you know? Part of me HATES writing non-linearly but I also want to get to the meat of UP because there's some fun stuff there... Not that the stuff before it isn't fun but that stuff is really fun at times...

Back to it for a few minutes before lunch time...

Carol

Current word count: 15001
Chapters finished: 6

This is probably about it until Saturday. Tomorrow is work, preschool dropoff, walmart, post 48/49, preschool pickup, vote, dinner, pack, pack van, pack coolers and backpacks, sleep in time to be up and on the road by 6am Wed... Not seeing much time for writing in there... And laundry and finishing putting up clothes... /sigh/

15k was my goal by tomorrow since I'm probably losing 6-7 days total this month with the trip and holidays so that's a good thing. And I have no desire to do the 25K words in the last two days thing this year either...

Anyone else's update?
Carol

Wow, Carol, you go! I can't write that much in a day, period, so I have to go slow and steady. I've given myself permission not to make the 50,000 words this year, so I'm on board to get as far as I can in one month.

Last night, I finished at 1710 words, and I'm sitting at 1893 right now, with the first two scenes done. Now into the flashback to see if I can't reach maybe 3500 words before bed tonight.

BTW, am I the only one who can't log onto the NaNo site? I use the shortcut to go straight to my page, and when it loads, it's missing the links that let me edit my novel info, so I can put in my word count.

Sheila - I've had some problems with it - lots of refreshing. If you're logged in though, up at the top there's a word count box. The automatic word counter doohickey isn't up and running yet.

I've had a pretty easy weekend otherwise - and it's a universe I'm already immersed in and I've had a lot of it half-plotted in my head for a long time. To be honest 10%, maybe more, of it [though scattered throughout] is recapping OTOH since this is the sequel, so it's been pretty easy as far as trying to figure out my characters and motivations and all that kind of stuff...

And - again - I'm NOT doing the 25k words in two days [or whatever it was] like I did last year and I'm not planning on spending half the month in the hospital [which took care of Thanksgiving stuff for me last year since we were in on Thanksgiving - didn't lose the day to the holiday] or with DH's kidney stone and the rest of it worried about DS and DH .

I don't even begin to know how many of those words got deleted btw . It was the longest freaking wedding ceremony ever, I think. Every vow I could find - 4xs. Once for Perry, once for Jimmy. Once for Perry, once for Lucy. Etc.

I'm hoping to 'front load' because the end of the month is going to be crazy for me as is the end of this week...

Carol [who did more than enough last month to hit nano this month... and wishes she could do it for money...]

NaNo Name: symbolicangel
NaNo UserID # [from the end of your page in case the search function doesn't work again this year]: I'm not sure where to find this number
Years Doing NaNo: This is my first year, and it was a very last minute decision.
This Year's Genre: Romance/suspense
This Year's Idea: It's a blossoming idea...Aidan Payne was a successful journalist when his wife and baby boy were murdered. He barely made it out alive. Now he's left everything behind and is numbing the pain by developing a drinking problem. It's Halloween night--and the first birthday he's spent without his family--when a woman comes to his rescue and saves his life. That's the idea in a nutshell.
Novel Title: Not sure yet
Word Count Goal: 50,000

The first line alone is kind of lame, so how about the first paragraph? It's a work in progress...

The place was jam-packed. Halloween had brought in a record-setting amount of customers. At least that’s what it seemed to McKenzie Hill as she squeezed between two of her co-workers in the tight space behind the bar in order to serve the dark haired college-aged man wearing the Elmo costume his Coors Light.

As of right now, my word count is 4,440 according to MS word.

Happy writing everyone!

YAY! Someone else!

Symbolic - when you log into the Nano site and you're on your own page the web address will look something like this:

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/200582

My Nano ID # is 200582, yours will be something else. There's supposed to be a search function where you can search by name, but it's disabled early in the month. Or if you're logged in you could go to my page [above] or someone else's and add them as a buddy [should be an icon on the left side that says add as buddy] and then whoever you did that to will be able to see you and can figure it out .

And ooo - that sounds interesting!

Carol

Yeah, Symbolicangel! Welcome to our madcapped party. Your concept sounds great.

Last year James thought that he could only write slowly, but he found that he really could write fast if he embraced the fly by night spirit of nanowrimo. He took his glasses off so he wouldn't be tempted to go back and edit, or if he couldn't help himself he would set a timer so he would type as fast as he could for fifteen minutes and then limit himself to only five minutes of fixing typos. (Note the above example of his first paragraph and you will see that decision cost himself something.) He also found that he wrote faster in spurts. I'm sure that James could give you some other ideas.

I hit 5000 words last night. I can't remember the exact number, but I did post.

I have had to hit refresh repeatedly to get logged in and again refresh repeatedly to get to my page and refresh repeatedly to get my novel updated. The handy dandy word count updater started working last night. It saved me a lot of time since I was able to skip a step or two. Those overworked servers take a beating the first few days. It might be easier to log in before 6 AM than it would be in the evening and night hours.

One more sentence to explain the coroner's car. I hope its not a disappointment to you, Carol, but the plot hasn't been fully launched yet. With the fall of Intergang catching the city--make that much of the world--flatfooted, there was a vacuum of power that everyone from petty thug to crime lieutenant wanted to fill.

There are so many good ideas for teachers and students alike that I find myself gleaning from them. Here's a good idea for those who get stuck at the beginning of a writing session. Make it a practice to leave off in the middle of a sentence. Here is the example they gave: If I end my day with “Sarah didn’t want to wake her father but she had to because …” when the next day rolls around, I’m not faced with that what-do-I-do-next dread.

Let me shout out some encouragement. Go; Jesse, Jojo, Sheila! You can do it ladies! Go, James! Go TEAM!


Elisabeth
who has found herself washing her hands more often now that I'm writing about germs. Go figure.

From Chris Baty:
We like to celebrate NABUYND at least once a week in November. To take part in the festivities, don a crazy hat, then email your novel-in-progress to your favorite webmail account, save it to a flash drive, or make someone with a photographic memory read the whole thing. Then keep them out of direct sunlight until the next back-up.

My response? Clark, will you please come over and read my novel. By all means, feel free to immerse yourself in sunlight until the next back-up.


Elisabeth

Ah - I've emailed everything but Ch. 7 to my betas so I've got them in Gmail. Ch. 7 has a little over 2000 words in it - about 500 more to go before it gets sent off too.

Today's final count before going out of town and no writing for at least 3 days:

Word count: 17066
Chapters: 6.75

And Sonia's joining us . Come on, Sonia - jump on it!
Carol

I'm finally far enough in that I can post a novel excerpt. I have three scenes in a row that do a good job of outlining where the story is going. (Unfortunately I pasted them to the part that says "synopsis" instead of "excerpt." Oh, well. I'll fix that tomorrow.

Anybody else willing to give us a look-sy?


Elisabeth
who is hoping to get into a more dark tone later, but who loves writing humor so much that she can't stop writing it

I read your excerpt, Elisabeth. It sounds interesting--and amusing. I liked the way Clark handled the bomb without being in costume. Of course he was buffaloed by Mindy's blond ditz act, but I was glad to see that Lois had some lingering suspicions.

However, you either have a typo or I keep misreading the sentence: She wasn’t convinced either. “I just think we should rule out the possibility.”

Did you mean, "I just don't think we should rule out the possibility"?

After I read your excerpt this morning, I decided to post the first two scenes from mine. I see I'm way behind everyone on word count this time, so I'd better get offline and start typing.

Thanks for the feedback, Sheila. I'll have to edit that part in December. It was my intension that Lois didn't believe it was true, but wanted to rule it out just so she could say that she had investigated everything.

I did something I promised myself I wouldn't do. I cut out a scene. (I know. I know. Word counts are important.) I combined it with a different scene and then updated the excerpt. I think it'll read better in December when I'm supposed to be editing.

By the way, I had already found your little excerpt. Intense! There's so much that isn't included there, that it's going to be awesome when questions start getting answered.


Elisabeth
9240 Words--under what Madame Calendar says I should be, but still doable with five weekends in November

I'm stuuuuuuuuck!


Elisabeth

Skip it and come back? Research is for Dec .

Er, editing is for Dec. Same thing...

Word count: 17069 [yes, three words in the last three days...]
Chapters: 6.75

I did get Learning to Love: Lucy's Story edited and sent to Labby so that's something... Hopefully tomorrow I can get some done...

Carol

Unfortunately I need to know what happens on what day so I can't skip it. But I did find enough on the CDC website to go on. I just lost one day's writing is all. I was a little slow anyway since James is sick and I feed off of his presence.


Elisabeth
who is happy with Carol for writing three words in three days--it means you didn't quit

I've not got a clue what they were. I think I added something right after I posted last time on Nano. The laptop barely got opened the whole time we were gone...

Rereading what I have of Ch. 7 now...

Am glad you found enough to work on. Hope James is feeling better.

Carol [who is still so far from the main plot of UP it's not even funny]

WOOHOO!

Word count: 17605
Chapters: 7

And the end of Ch. 7 made it to a milestone I was hoping for . That's good because I thought I'd get to it in 5 or 6 but...

Anyone else?

What's the last sentence you wrote?

Me: It was perfect.

[to go with my first line: It had been an amazing night. ]

Carol

My last line? “It sure does.”

To match up with Clark's statement:".... I think it’s all the hours. It gets to you after awhile.”

Elisabeth
who is finally back on track, having sworn to never visit the forums again--all the red lights in the windows are distracting, their siren song pulling her away from writing

Click here to find out if people die from having their throat cut

Click here to find out why it's safer for men to urinate in a seated position

Click here to find out the average high school population on New Jersey

Click here

Click here

Click here

I'm glad to see you guys slogging away. I've been caught with research, too. You can see from my excerpt that some kinds of research (for a passing statement or thought) gets shoved aside, but I've been having the kind you mentioned, Elisabeth--where you really have to know what the answer is to keep going.

I'm not getting many words written per day, but next Saturday is the last time I have to teach on Saturday this semester (which I've done the last 3 weeks) and I'll have about 9 days off for our fall/Thanksgiving break. If I can't catch up then, it's because I'm not willing to work. I want to get caught up to at least 1000 words/day rate, so I need to work harder. At least I cleared 5000 today.

Hey guys! Elizabeth was kind enough to go through the report card and fix it so that everything works now!

http://www.noated.net/~jojo/nanowrimo_report_card_2008_.xls

Changes made (I'm stealing James' description here):
She changed it so that the goal is for 50K (or whatever you pick) a month instead of 2K a day. She changed it so that people don't have to start on 11/1 or write daily to make the chart work. She made the graphs work and labeled everything. She fixed it so that the health number matches the goal for tomorrow. And she fixed the "At this rate you'll be done on" which I didn't even know was broken.

Everyone give Elizabeth a BIG thanks for her hard work.

Okay!

Auto summary time!

My fic in 10 words or less...

Clark
~~~~~

"Clark!" "Clark!"

~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~

Clark
~~~~~

Clark
~~~~~

"Clark?"

Clark
~~~~~

Clark
~~~~~

Clark
~~~~~

[btw - it doesn't count the ~~~~~ as words]

Anyone else?
Carol

ARRRGHHH!!!!!

I'm so horribly behind. I'm just shy of 10,000 words. I've had a terrible toothache since Friday morning (actually called in sick to work for the first time in a year.) I was doing okay by writing a 1000--1500 words a day, then Friday I only wrote 500, and Saturday and Sunday I didn't write at ALL! :-(

I wrote a little today before going in to work, and I got an inkling of an idea, so maybe I'll be able to get back to it now.

It's still doable, right?

I will not quit, I will not quit, I will not quit, I will not quit, I will not quit...

I wish my toothache would though!

Happy writing, all. I hope you're all doing better than me.

Symbolic - believe me - it is very doable.

Last year for me was *horrible*. Read last year's thread. Seriously. My 3mo son was in the hospital for 12 days, including surgery and on the 27? 28?th DH got a kidney stone and the water pipe broke. I think I had something like 25K words to go with 3 days left. Something like that. I don't recommend that, of course, and I was home basically all day both of those days without too much else to do, but if I could finish last year, it's possible for just about anybody to.

Keep plugging away. Use Jojo's calculator to help with new goals or whatever and even if you don't finish, be proud of what you've done.

Word count: 25247
Chapters: 10

Carol

I second that, Carol. Symbolic, I'm not even that far. I finally reached 6363 last night. I downloaded JoJo's calculator and put in my stats from the NaNo website, and now I know what I have to do to finish by the end of the month: 2300 wpd. Do-able, yes. Likely? Well, there's that long Thanksgiving break the last week.

No, I hope to use that vacation to get caught up more, but last night, I finally started pushing on my writing the way I have to do to finish this and totally surprised myself by writing 900 words in one hour. 2 1/2 hours a day of that, and I'd be finished.

Even as I write those words above, part of me says, "It isn't possible. I don't know what I'm going to write about." And yet...

In the midst of that outpouring last night, I felt like I was really tapping into my muse or my subconcious or whatever you want to call it. I was writing almost blind in terms of knowing what was coming next, but the words were pouring out because I had finally shut up my editing self. I started off stiffly, and the writing really showed it--totally telling instead of showing. Instead of deleting what I had written, I hit enter and then went back and began to write it as if I were inside my hero, and boy did he have a lot to share.

So today I'll try again: set the timer for 10 minutes; take a two minute break to reread; repeat. JoJo, thanks for the calculator, and Elisabeth, thanks for whatever you did to make it work so well. Off to do chores and then to write.

It's amazing how much different you write when you finally release the need to write well and just write. The word count comes from writing with the five senses, as well as including thoughts and feelings.

Yes, it's doable.

Last year I started writing about a week into the process. Oh, I started on day one, but the story wasn't working. Every time I wrote I realized I was writing the same story I had just finished. The setting was different, but the emotional journey was identical. I struggled against that so much that I eventually quit, started over with a new story. My 5-yr-old daughter was talking at the table one time about what a great story idea she had. I told her it was a fantastic idea, but I couldn't write it because I was writing my novel. So one day I threw out my old, not working novel and picked up her story idea. I hit 50K on November 30.

You're only a week in. It's still very doable. Not only doable, with diligence it's probable. Why? Because you obviously care very deeply about it. Passionate people get things done.


Elisabeth
PS I don't have you on my buddies list. What's your UserID #?

Symbolic is 429976. The username search is working again .

Carol [who did write a bit this AM]

Oh, Carol. You beat me to it. I added you to my buddies list. Now, when you update your word counts we will all be able to see your improvements and can say, "Yeah, SymbolicAngel! Another couple hundred words."


Elisabeth
PS It's hard to be creative when you don't feel well. I'm praying you find relief soon.

I'm writing blind too. I have no idea where my story is going, and when I do force some words out, my characters are doing things that I didn't give them permission to do. I'm still trying to grasp this story.

Well, I better get back to it. I've procrastinated enough on here and on the nano site.

But WOW what an excerpt. I hope you'll be posting that on the original fic site sometime soon.

BTW, I happily got to 18,334 words earlier today, whooped it up and put the word count into the Excel spreadsheet... only to have it tell me that I was a little behind but if I wrote 1666 words tomorrow I could catch up. So, the corrected function for D8 should read


=IF{A10<=NOW{},IF{B44>0,IF{B44>C6,"You're done!",IF{B44>{SUM{C6/30}*{30-F44}},"You're on track to complete on time.","You're falling a little behind. But don't worry, just try to write "&INT{M44}&" words a day and you'll still make it."}},"Let's get writing!"},"NaNoWriMo begins in "&INT{A10-NOW{}}&" days. When it starts, this bar will give you a quick report on your progress so far."}


The only problem is that the boards won't let me put in parenthesis, so all of them were substituted with { or }. Sheesh!

I know it's horrendous. I modified what was there. The mistake was that I had to write 1667 words today in order for it to realize that I wasn't behind.

There's another problem with it that I can't wrap my brain around yet. If you skip a day writing, it can't figure out the basic math of how many words written today. Not very important, but it bugs me nonetheless.


Elisabeth
PS Symbolic, if you get stuck you can just write something like, "In his alcoholic stupor Aiden couldn't get the stupid song out of his brain. 'Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall. Ninety-nin bottles of beer.' "

Word count: 27608
Chapters: 11

Next chapter has me nervous as the whole rest of the plot hinges on it...

How's everyone else doing?

Does anyone know why only 11 buddies show up on the buddy list? It shows symbolic [for instance] as one of my buddies, but not on my list...

What's up with that?
Carol

I tried the new formula replacing all { with ( and } with ).

It didn't work. It said that I would only need to write 6 more words to catch up...

Wait a minute. Why did the boards let you put parenthesis in here, but it won't let me? LIFE ISN'T FAIR!!!!

I'll e-mail you the formula and we'll see if it works thataway. If there is an error still, lemme know.


Elisabeth
edit: 11 was the magic number last year. It wouldn't show 12 and beyond. My theory is that Chris Baty only has 10 friends, so he feels that 11 is generous. (Although I'm betting they're 10 very close friends.)

The parenthesis thingy is really annoying. Especially since there is no documentation.

What I figured out is, that you get in trouble when using asterisks and parentheses in the same post and close together. The asterisks are a bullet-item indicator and together with the parentheses the system gets thrown off course.

Michael

James just forgot that he personalized his. But there were two A10 s that were supposed to be A12. Oh, well.

If anyone wants me to send them the formula, let me know and I'll e-mail you the cell contents. BTW, it goes in cell D8, which is a pretty aqua blue color.

Elisabeth
PS Not a single word written so far today. I have to write a chapter test first. Uggh!

PPS Did I see 1500 words written yesterday Sheila. Way to be!!

Thanks, Elisabeth. I actually made 1638 words yesterday, and today I finally reached 1671, and you know what? The number in the daily word count column turned green instead of black! I know, you guys already knew that, but today was the first day I finally exceeded the Nano minimum, so it was the first time I saw it.

Tomorrow I'll break into 5 digits with the rest of you. I intend to keep up this 1667 word pace at a minimum until my vacation, and then I can start picking up an extra 1150 words a day to make up for what I should have been writing the first ten days.

BTW, does anyone else ever wonder, "Who are these secondary characters who just wandered onstage?" When I'm just shooting from the hip as far as the writing goes, all sorts of people show up to interact with my MCs.

Go Sheila!

And yes!

Though, to be fair, the biggest of those characters for me popped up in OTOH and the other big one in UP is directly connected to him.

Otherwise, the characters been fairly isolated, but it happened a lot in OTOH which has led to those same characters showing up in UP. So they're sort of random but not completely - except I only *know* they're going to show up in OTOH, they haven't been written yet...

/sigh/

But... GO SHEILA!!!

/sniffles as she removes this year's non writers from her buddy list so that the writers will fit on her list of 11.../

Carol

Yes! The muse is back. I pulled enough teeth to get the writing flowing again. I'm still behind, but I reached my own personal goal of 2,500 words tonight.

Yay! Good luck to everyone. Don't give up.

The next section is going to be difficult to write. There is a lot of heart rending emotion and I tend to feel it all while I write.

James

I'd be Chris Baty's friend.

I've actually found a lot of shinny things this year and not worked on my Nano much at all. I'm going to try to get myself worked up and on it in the next day or so!

Jojo, who is at around 3,000 words

Actually, both last year (which I'm planning to post someday) and this year, I've had a lot of other characters. On the one hand, I felt as if my story would be very two-dimensional without having an ensemble cast, even if it meant making up my own characters or filling in characters that were two-dimensional in the show. For me, it made it a better story.

On the other hand, I'm always concerned. Lois and Clark wasn't an ensemble show, and a lot of readers don't like it when they aren't given the spotlight throughout the story.

I felt the same way when I had to cull my buddy list. Last year I had more than 11 friends who were writing. I had to pick and choose between buddies. For one thing, I deleted James since I already knew how he was doing. This year I thought it was sad that all of my buddies fit, including some who left this fandom over the last year (or at least, I haven't seen them).

Christina, 2500 words is awesome. I've only managed that twice this year, once on a Sunday and once during a write-in.

JoJo, try to get at least ten to twenty minutes of writing in every day, even if you don't get 1667 words. That way you won't lose momentum. You'll remember who everyone is and where you put them. Yesterday I only got 251 words in, but I didn't miss a day. I'm just as proud of those 251 words as I am some of my big days because it shows my commitment.


Elisabeth
who has to confront someone in RL and isn't looking forward to it

Last line for the day.

Dr. MacKenzie said that he should not feel guilty.

James, who is 6,000+ behind

Just a general note to anyone who is stuck. Just add Tim Mitchell in as a character in your story. He's the secret weapon to get to 50K.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3025826

Edit: How's the toothache, Christina? I can understand why you didn't get anything written while you were in pain. Tonight when I was draining a pan of meat, I missed the handle and touched the metal that holds the handle in place instead. I burned the pad of my f/r/t/g/b/v finger. It doesn't even have a blister, yet I'm down for the count, with pain intense enough to bring on nausea and chills. It's the first night in three days when I have the time to write, and now I'm stuck.

Another hint for those who are stuck--add an author's note or a dedication page. Add a short verse to the beginning of each chapter, or a description such as, "Chapter Three, Wherein the werewolves overtake the citizens of the quaint town of Fondulac, and Jeremiah disappears".


Elisabeth

That's hilarious! Definitely add Tim Mitchell into your NaNo. (click the link to get the full story). It's not just for Calgary, it's for the world!

I surrendered to my muse who decided I was to finish off three stories that were in hiatus. (Yeah, I've already got about 25,000 words so far, but they're everywhere but the story I'm supposed to be working on. I promised my DS that my NaNoWriMo piece would not be fanfiction. But my main character is the worst Mary Sue I've written since I was a teen - and she's just as boring!! AARGH!!)

I netted 416 words by adding Tim. I made sure I included a special thank you to him, as well as to all of Calgary, on the special dedication page just to make my word padding complete.

Of course, the whole scene will be trashed in rewrites. Bobby never meets anybody outside of the back seat of someone's car.

Just to be wierd, while I would never mistake one for the other there is a bit of resemblance between James and Tim. They differ on their weight, but other than that they could be in the same lineup. "Officer, I am certain it was Number Three."

Make sure you check out the Book of Tim:
http://chatnano.net/Tim/index.html

-and-

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3129254

Are you writing with us Iolan? The more the merrier.


My Tim sighting:
Clark smiled at her, taking her by the elbow and guiding her to a table in the back corner. Sadly she noted that Bobby was nowhere to be seen.

As if reading her mind, Clark whispered to her, “Relax. You know Bobby. He takes perverse pleasure in sneaking up and scaring the wits out of us. He’ll come when he’s ready.”

She chuckled softly, the tension broken if only momentarily. “And how exactly does he do that, anyway? I thought you had ears like a bat. Normally nothing gets past you.”

He leaned in, never taking his eyes off of her. She was mesmerized, both by his closeness and by the conspiratorial gleam in his eyes. “For one thing, whenever we’re together, I tend to tune out the rest of the world.”

“Good morning.” Lois and Clark jumped apart as a voice over his shoulder greeting them. “My name is Tim, and I’ll be your waiter today.”

She glanced up as a brown-haired man with a well-trimmed goatee deftly dispersed water glasses around the table. The menus tucked under his arm were distributed around the table. Finally he pulled out four sets of tableware wrapped in napkins from the front pocket of his apron and placed them in the center of the table

“What can I get you folks to drink today?”

“Thanks, um…” Clark glanced at the waiter’s nametag which prominently displayed ‘Tim Mitchell’. “Thanks, Tim. We’re waiting for someone, so we’ll probably order when he gets here.”

“Sure,” Tim agreed. “I’ll come back when your fourth member is here. If you need anything before then, just give me a holler.”

He turned to leave, but his exit was interrupted.

“Actually, I’m in a bit of a hurry,” Bobby said. “You guys can wait if you want to, but do you mind if I order my drinks now?”

Lois’ eyebrows shot up as she realized that Bobby Bigmouth was now sitting across from her at the table. “How did you-?”

“Trade secret.” He turned back to the waiter, who had paused with his pen poised. “I’ll have a tomato juice and a black coffee.”

I mentioned a Tim in this one... But it's the Tim from OTOH.

Word count: 40,000
Chapters: 16

Well, 15 needs about 500 words to make it more average length, but I liked the ending where it was and it snuck up on me and I'm not sure where to add those 500 in. I've got a couple ideas...

Of course, the vast majority of 16 is OTOH in 2700 words or less and so may all get deleted later. Bits and pieces of OTOH have been referenced to this point but this was telling someone who knew nothing about it the whole story.

I didn't mean to stop at 40K even today, but I needed like 21 words to get there so I went back and added some more in without really counting and it came to exactly that.

Last thing I wrote:
She stopped and looked at us. "I think I've got it."

Now... bedtime...
Carol

My word-adding idea for the day--include a character that babbles. Regardless of the genre, it always rapidly adds to my word count.

I was thinking outside of the box and decided it was Jimmy's turn: By the way, want to be jealous or possibly inspired?
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/46748

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/70421

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/74155


Elisabeth
who was hoping for 25K by bedtime tonight, but it isn't looking like it's plausible

Congratulations on passing 50K, Carol.


Elisabeth

Thank you .

Finished a few minutes ago - story isn't anywhere near done though...

I *cannot* believe I finished this easily - it's kind of nice after last year. The email from my local nano coordinator had at least two people done already in my area.

Last line:
"What? You'll incinerate me?" I asked with a small smile tugging at my lips before I left.

How's everyone else doing?!
Carol

We have had at least one local finish a few days ago. She said that after she passed the 50K mark it occured to her that she still wasn't sure what the plot of her novel was going to be about. She's writing adult fiction.

I have the potential to make this the best day of nanoing that I've had this year, but my brain is fried.

Last line(s) if I decide to quit for the night: Elisabeth

YAY! For hitting your 25K mark Elisabeth!

Carol

20025 words

Last line worked on.

____________
No sooner had she walked into the room than the ring platform in the room lit up. She hoped she lived long enough to regret not calling a medical emergency first.
______________

So I used 'room' twice in the same sentence...that's what December and January are for.

Go James!

And you can never have too many rooms... Just ask Sam... .

Carol

The honeymoon is over. I no longer like writing my story, and I'm really surfing the forums more than writing. I'm still immersed in it enough though that I can't keep my days of the week straight. It should be Saturday because it is in Metropolis, even though it's Tuesday here.

Carol, are you done with your story, or did you switch back to On the Other Hand when you hit 50K?

Last line: He was painfully hungry.


Elisabeth

I'm sticking with it for the moment. The evil plot line that hit me yesterday adds several chapters. Thought I had 6-10 chapters left so was going to finish it. Will have to see just how evil this plot line ends up being...

If it ends up being long and evil, I'll stop and go back to OTOH.

If it ends up being short and evil, I'll finish this.

If I'm writing it and it ends up going on and on [like both LtL and OTOH have done], I'll probably stop and go back to OTOH.

However, I absolutely cannot see it being anywhere near as long as them. Not without a lynching party being sent to my area . And I have no desire for that either.

I have plenty of buffer on OTOH for a while so that's not an issue just yet... Would *really* like to get both done this year, but will have to see...

BTW - Kaylle's original fic this year is great! She's over 22K now...

Carol

It's probably way too late to join NaNo, but where in the world do you get an ID? It's at the end of my page? What page? Where?

Classicalla -

Go to Nanowrimo.org and up on the top right is a sign up link.

When you sign up, your personal page has a number on the end of it.

Now, you can search for users by name, but the first week or two of Nov. you can't so we use those numbers to help us find each other. For instance, right now, you could search for CarolM and find me .

As for too late... Can't hurt to try! The VAST majority of my writing last year came in under 11 days [though those days were spread out over the month], but only you know what you're capable of. You'd have to write about 5K words a day to make it. But you could always set your own personal goal for this year - say 25K or something - and go for the whole shebang next year .

Carol

You're allowed to sign up late, Classicalla. You may or may not be able to write 50,000 words this year but you can set your own personal goal. 20-25K is probably a very do-able story. For me personally, I need to write about 45-50 hours to achieve 50,000 words, which would average 4-1/2 to 5 hours daily to accomplish 50K by month end. That number is probably different for you since I'm sure you write at a different pace than I do.

Elisabeth
who has finally reached the end of the work day and is a ready to get a few words in

YAY!!!!

Elisabeth and Symbolic both hit the 30K mark!!!!

WOOHOO!!!!!



Updates anyone?

Carol

I may not be on track for the 50,000, but I am 3128 words ahead of where I finished last year!!

I've had a strict no reading policy this month, but since I'm getting back on track with my word count, I finally broke down and read Elisabeth and Sheila's excerpts.

They were great--some really fantastic writing. Am I the only one who thinks that everyone else's writing is better than my own?

We are our own worst critic.

Keep those word counts going up guys! The end is drawing near.

Nope. I can be a tough critic too. By the way, I only posted the one little excerpt and didn't include the slop.

My writing speed has picked up considerable. I'm hoping to write 5K today to get myself back ontrack. Last week was like pulling teeth, but today I'm writing the jerk section. I enjoy writing about idiots, so this out to go better.


Elisabeth

Actually, Elisabeth, I did finish a fic in the "Smallville" universe that worked out to be 1471 KB. I'm not an incredibly fast writer and it took me about six months. I finished it in October.

Then I learned about NaNoWriMo! Alas, just at that time I was a little burned out. Burned out enough that I said, "Meh, did it already this year," and put NaNoWriMo on the back burner.

I hope I still get credit for the previous fic! (But I didn't include Tim Mitchell, *sob*.)

Congrats to you and to others who actually are working and actually are making progress and who will actually complete NaNoWriMo!

I'm still glad that you're hanging out with us, even if you aren't on the dance floor at the moment.

I've got my first 2600 words written for today and am hoping for another 2500, even if it's improbable.

My last line so far: She reached out for Clark, but he wasn’t there. She was alone with the monkey.


Elisabeth

ROTFL!

Knowing what I know about your plot, I'm having visions of a particular movie...

Carol

26441 words

Last line.

Martha asked the Major, “How convenient.. What role will Clark play in this fabrication?"

28144 words.

Last line,

The little Asgard had modified the hologram to make himself appear human, but on the small side. It was his desire to experience a modern earthen funeral.

James

I'm at 38,818. I was going strong for awhile but then got lost because I don't know SOP.

My 100 word auto-summary:

Clark winced. “Clark’s on diuretics?” Perry interrupted. Perry nodded. Clark chuckled. Lois sighed. Lois asked. “If you say so.” What if we infect Clark Kent too? Clark nodded. Clark shrugged. Earth to Clark.”

Same old Lois. “Lois?”

Clark slept fitfully. “Jimmy?”

Clark shrugged. Lois smiled. It’s Lois. Clark smiled at her. Face it, Clark. Clark asked.

Lois rolled her eyes. “Where’s Clark?”

Lois sighed. Clark shrugged. Perry nodded. Mindy Church? “Lois, Lois, Lois! Perry called her. “Hey, Clark.”

Clark nodded. It was Clark. You, Lois.”

“Jimmy?” “Yeah, Perry?” “Clark?”

Clark nodded. Where was Clark? “Hi, Perry. x-Lois
Clark


Elisabeth
PS While I will neither confirm nor deny the references to movie plots in my story, I'm dying to know what movie you're thinking of. I know quite a few that include monkeys.

Woo hoo!

I reached the 40,000 mark. I'm amazed at myself. I'll fly through work tomorrow on a literary high!

Last few paragraphs for tonight:

“Where the hell have you been? We were worried sick when we found the door left open and all the lights on.”

Aidan sauntered into the room. “What are you doing here, Dad?” he asked, not bothering to answer his father’s question.

His younger brother entered the room just then. “I don’t think he has a life. The only number I found was one for a woman named McKenzie. I called, but there was no answer. I have no clue where we should start. Maybe we should…” Logan’s eyes widened as he found his brother standing in the middle of the living room.

“Or maybe it’s a moot point now,” he finished before approaching his brother and giving him a bear hug. “You had us worried, big brother. How have you been?”

Happy writing, everyone!

Congratulations!

I'm making it a point to not fall further behind, but I haven't been able to gain ground since Sunday. I'm almost a full day behind. It's still do-able.


Elisabeth
color me purple with envy, Carol

It's very do-able, Elisabeth. I was something close to 8 thousand words behind not too long ago--I'm having trouble remembering exactly when and how many words. The days this month are all blurred together. It's been chaos!

But I somehow got caught up. It's been a very fun, although bumpy ride.

Anyway, just wanted to offer some encouragement.

BTW, is anyone else looking forward to November ending? I miss having a life!

YAY! To Elisabeth and Symbolic for crossing the 40K mark!!!



I want to say I had 25K left with 3-4 days left last year. I'm almost positive it was 12Kish on the last day [will have to look that up in last year's thread]. Of course, I did next to nothing the last couple of days but write. DH laid in bed and cried from his kidney stone and DS - a week post-surgery - laid with him because he needed someone to cuddle him and DH could do that in his pained state.

Less than 10K is about 2K a day [2500 if you take Thanksgiving out].

It's definitely doable!

You guys can do it!!

Carol [who ordered a new TV last night and realizes that has nothing to do with anything but is excited about it]

33320 words

It's amazing what you can do with a 3.5 hour drive...

Last scene written

Current Section : Lois rescued by Kal el, again

Kal El landed at EPRAD Mission control. He eimmediately went to the Main controller. “you need to delay the launch, you have a stowaway on board.”

The Controler looked pained. “We’ve already started the engines. If we shut done the launch now we will miss our window opportunity during the refuel.”

“If you think you have enough fuel for the additional one hundred and three pounds, then we’ll deal with the situation one the shuttle docks.”

“We should be good for the additional weight. One of the original colonist got sick and wasn’t replace in time.” The controller looked up and his face went ashen. He immediately hit a rather large red button and klaxons started going off.

“THE MISSION IS ABORTED! THE MISSION IS ABORTED!”

Kal El turned to the man. He simply pointed.

On the screens above them, Lois Lane was pointing at the bomb.

The novel I wrote isn't anything like the novel I wanted to write. At the time I outlined it, I knew I didn't normally write suspenseful stories but I thought I might stretch myself. Instead I've written something that isn't suspenseful at all; in fact, there are large sections that are rather humorous. I hope others enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them. I especially like the whining jerk and the asides.

What about y'all? Did your stories turn out to be what you expected them to be?

Not my last line: “So what you’re saying is that you didn’t need me to do anything.”

He shrugged. “Apparently not.”

She sputtered indignantly, “You’re just going to make up my mind for me?”

He yawned. “Apparently so.”


Elisabeth
43798 words--which is past 100 pages

PS Yesterday both of my girls made their goals. All they need to do is compose their book covers.

My story is far from finished, even though I am almost to 50,000 words. And I've found that my story has a mind of its own. I've got scenes scattered all over the place, and now I'm going to have to play connect the dots. It should be fun--er, I mean frustrating.

I'm starting to think that getting to 50k is going to be the easy part, putting together what I've written into a novel, and then trying to get it published, is going to be the hard part.

But the bumpy ride of November has been fun, and I'm glad that I had all of you guys to share it with.

35543 words

I'm still behind, but not out of the running. I doubt I'll finish my story much before Sunday night but I will get to 50K.

Last line written (not the last line of the story): She wondered if he would prefer her hair down, but then again it made no sense to undo her braids in the heat of Missouri’s July weather.

Elisabeth
46479